Harvey Martin
| No. 79 | |||||||
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| Position: | Defensive end | ||||||
| Personal information | |||||||
| Date of birth: | November 16, 1950 | ||||||
| Place of birth: | Dallas, Texas | ||||||
| Date of death: | December 24, 2001 (aged 51) | ||||||
| Place of death: | Grapevine, Texas | ||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) | ||||||
| Weight: | 262 lb (119 kg) | ||||||
| Career information | |||||||
| High school: | Dallas (TX) South Oak Cliff | ||||||
| College: | East Texas State | ||||||
| NFL Draft: | 1973 / Round: 3 / Pick: 53 | ||||||
| Career history | |||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||
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| Player stats at PFR | |||||||
| Sacks: | 10.0 |
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| Interceptions: | 2 |
| Player stats at NFL.com | |
Harvey Banks Martin (November 16, 1950 – December 24, 2001) was an American football defensive end in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys from 1973 until 1983. He starred at South Oak Cliff High School and East Texas State University, before becoming an All-Pro with the Dallas Cowboys.
In Martin's junior year (1967) in high school, he transferred to South Oak Cliff High School, which had become the first integrated high school in Dallas. That year, he overheard his father tell his mother that he was ashamed that his son did not play like his friends' children, so Martin decided to suit up for a football team for the first time in his life. The team went 9-1, though Martin was a backup offensive tackle and only played whenever they had a sizable lead.
He would change that in his senior year, when in the spring game he got a chance to fill in on defense and eventually convinced the coaches to move him to defensive tackle. By the third game of his senior season, he was a starter and became the best lineman on a 12-1 team that won the Dallas City championship and went on to the State quarterfinals. Still he was so thin and so late-blooming, that the only college that offered him a scholarship was East Texas State in Commerce (now named Texas A&M University–Commerce).
Outside of Dwight White being his roommate, his first two college seasons playing as a defensive end were undistinguished. But he evolved into the best defensive end in school history. During his senior year (1972), en route to leading the school to a national title, he was named to the NAIA All-American, All-Texas, and All-LSC teams.
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