From Howard Payne, Ken Gray is arguably the best NFL player to ever come out of that small institution.  Gray played predominantly at Offensive Guard and was with the Chicago/St. Louis Cardinals for 12 of his 13 seasons, where he was a 6^th Round Pick in 1958.  Gray was a six-time Pro Bowl Selection and was twice chosen to be a First Team All-Pro.

E.J. Holub was an All-American at Texas Tech, where he was such a great player that the Red Raiders would later retire his number.  Drafted 6^th Overall by the Dallas Texans in 1961, Holub played at Linebacker, and in the first five of his six years, he was an AFL All-Star and was named a First Team All-Pro in both 1962 and 1963.  In those two seasons, he finished sixth and third respectively, in Approximate Value, a testament to his skill.

Used as both a Linebacker and a Guard, Bill Forester arguably was at his best on the defensive side of the gridiron.  A 3^rd Round Pick from SMU in 1953, Forester played his entire career with the Green Bay Packers, where he went from the outhouse to the penthouse.  Green Bay was in a down period in the '50s but would slowly work their way towards respectability, and Forester was a large part of that.  He would really come into his own in 1959, where he would earn his first of four straight Pro Bowls, the latter three seeing him snatch First Team All-Pros.  By this time, Forester was mostly used at Linebacker gobbling up rushers and acting as a veteran presence.  He would help the Pack win the NFL Championship in 1961 and 1962.

Like many in the early '60s, Fred Arbanas was drafted by both the NFL and the AFL, but usually, those who chose the AFL were drafted higher by the new organization.  This wasn't the case with Arbanas, who was a 7^th Round Selection by the Dallas Texans, where the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2^nd Round.