LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB+WAVE) — Before Mark Clayton became one of Dan Marino’s favorite targets, before he caught 84 touchdown passes in the NFL and before he became one half of the Miami Dolphins’ famous “Marks Brothers,” he was a wide receiver at the University of Louisville waiting for somebody to throw him the football.
The Cardinals didn’t do a whole lot of that when Clayton arrived from Indianapolis in 1979. Louisville was a run-oriented program, and Clayton saw limited opportunities during his first two seasons.
But when the football finally started coming his way, he made the most of it.
Clayton finished his Louisville career with 96 receptions for 2,004 yards and 10 touchdowns, averaging a remarkable 20.9 yards per catch. He became the first Cardinal to surpass 2,000 career receiving yards and earned Associated Press All-America recognition as a senior in 1982.
On Saturday, Louisville will recognize Clayton during its home game against Stanford, making him the 32nd former Cardinal to have his jersey honored. The program also has retired the numbers of Johnny Unitas and Lamar Jackson.
It’s an honor that brings one of Louisville’s greatest receivers back into the spotlight more than four decades after he last played for the Cardinals.
And what a career he had after leaving.
Selected in the eighth round of the 1983 NFL Draft by Miami, Clayton joined a Dolphins team that had already used its first-round pick that year on a quarterback named Marino.
As Clayton recalled in a 2003 interview with The Courier-Journal’s Brian Bennett, the two had crossed paths before.
“When we played Pittsburgh, I remember watching him throw the ball during warm-ups and thinking it would be great to get an opportunity to play with him,” Clayton said. “Then we started together my second year (at Miami), and we kind of clicked pretty fast.”
That might qualify as an understatement.
In 1984, his second NFL season, Clayton caught 73 passes for 1,389 yards and a league-leading 18 touchdowns, setting an NFL single-season record for touchdown receptions that stood until Jerry Rice broke it three years later.
He was part of a Miami offense that helped revolutionize NFL passing attacks, teaming with fellow receiver Mark Duper to give Marino two of the league’s most dangerous deep threats.
The two receivers became known as the “Marks Brothers,” and Clayton became one of the most productive touchdown receivers of his era.
He earned five Pro Bowl selections, twice led the NFL in touchdown receptions and helped Miami reach five postseasons, including Super Bowl XIX following the 1984 season.
In that Super Bowl, Clayton caught six passes for 92 yards in a loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
He spent 10 seasons with the Dolphins before finishing his career with the Green Bay Packers in 1993. In 11 NFL seasons, he caught 582 passes for 8,974 yards and 84 touchdowns.
Clayton also occupies a small place in NFL trivia history: He is one of only three players to catch regular-season touchdown passes from both Marino and Brett Favre.
But his football story began long before either quarterback entered the picture.
At Louisville, Clayton developed into a dangerous deep threat during his final two seasons. As a senior in 1982, he caught 53 passes for 1,112 yards and six touchdowns. His average of nearly 21 yards per reception helped establish a school single-season record.
He also recorded four career games with more than 150 receiving yards, a total that remains tied for the most in Louisville history.
Clayton and Duper were inducted into the Miami Dolphins’ Honor Roll together in December 2003. Clayton later entered the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2014.
And in one of the more memorable moments of Marino’s 2005 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Clayton emerged from the crowd to catch one more pass from his old quarterback, who threw it from the stage.
It was a reminder of a partnership that produced some of the most spectacular offensive football of the 1980s.
Saturday, Louisville will celebrate where Clayton’s part of that story began.
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