Homer Jones, one of the best receivers the New York Giants have ever had and one of the fastest in professional football history, passed away Wednesday in Pittsburg, Texas. He turned 82.

His daughter Lacarroll Jones Nickleberry said the cause of his death, in a hospital, was lung cancer.

Largely because of a troublesome knee, Jones’ career was short: seven seasons, including his last, mostly as a kick returner, with the Cleveland Browns. But between 1965 and 1969, when he played with Giant teams that were mediocre or worse, he was one of the most feared passcatchers in the National Football League.

Jones wasn’t always confident, but he was a big-play specialist, more than half of whose 36 career touchdowns were 50 yards or more, including 10 from at least 70 yards. His 98-yard reception of a bomb from quarterback Earl Morrall in 1966 was the longest for a Giant until Victor Cruz scored on a 99-yarder in 2011.

For his career, Jones averaged 22.3 yards per catch, which, more than 50 years later, is still the highest in history for receivers who caught at least 200 passes.

At six feet tall and weighing 225 pounds, he was big enough to break tackles and was amazingly fast.

A world-class sprinter who once ran 100 meters in 9.3 seconds, Jones was a contemporary of Bob Hayes, the Olympic champion known as “the world’s fastest man,” who played for the Dallas Cowboys. A popular debate within the league was which of the two was faster; many thought that in football blocks it was the bigger and stronger Jones.

At one point, a race between the two men was scheduled for the 1968 Pro Bowl, with a reported $20,000 for the winner. But it was called off when the Giants’ owner Wellington Mara, fearful of injuring his prized receiver and spoiling the occasion, paid Jones not to participate.

Hayes and Jones propelled the NFL toward a major change in strategy as the passing game became more important and offenses prioritized heavily armed quarterbacks and speeding catchers. Defenses, without cornerbacks and safeties that could run with the likes of Hayes and Jones, shifted more toward zone coverage and away from man-to-man.

But single-handedly, Jones has influenced the future of football in a way more recognizable to the casual fan.

He had told himself that when he caught his first touchdown pass, he would express his joy, in the trendy fashion of the day, by tossing the football into the stands. His opportunity came against the Philadelphia Eagles at Yankee Stadium on October 17, 1965, when he scored on an 89-yard pass play. The problem was that the league had banned that drill and threatened to fine any player who violated the injunction.

So instead, after crossing the goal line, Jones slammed the football hard onto the turf, widely seen as the original “spike” in the end zone, a term Jones himself coined, ushering in an era, now 68 years ago, of increasingly elaborate celebrations in the end zone.

Homer Carroll Jones was born on February 18, 1941, in Pittsburg, a small town east of Dallas, to a steelworker, Horse Jones, and a schoolteacher, Beulah (Aldridge) Jones. In his youth he was more interested in music than sports. He played saxophone in the high school marching band for two years before trying his hand at football as a senior.

At Texas Southern University, he played in track and field as well as football, playing linebacker, running back, and flanker. He injured a knee in one of his last games, hurting his draft prospects, but he was still drafted in 1963 by the Houston Oilers of the American Football League in the fifth round and by the Giants in the 20th round. (The AFL and NFL merged before the 1970 season; the draft is now limited to seven rounds.)

Jones picked the Oilers, who cut him in training camp because of his knee; the Giants then brought him to New York, arranged for his knee to be surgically repaired, and waited over a full season for Jones to regain his health and strength. He appeared in three games for the Giants in late 1964; the following season he was a starting receiver, and although he only caught 29 passes, he averaged a remarkable 27.3 yards per catch.

The Giants went 7-7 in 1965 and Jones never played for a winning Giants team. In 1966, he scored eight touchdowns, and for the first of three consecutive seasons, he gained over 1,000 yards as a receiver, but the Giants were a miserable 1-12-1. That winter, New York acquired star quarterback and future Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton in a trade with the Minnesota Vikings, and Tarkenton immediately recognized that Jones, with his size, speed, strength and huge hands, was a unique weapon.

“He’s like a man on a motorcycle waving a butterfly net high in the air,” Tarkenton said at the time.

Throwing Tarkenton, Jones had his two best seasons in 1967 and 1968. His 13 touchdowns in 1967 led all NFL receivers; he added seven more in 1968; and he made the Pro Bowl, the league’s annual all-star game, both seasons. It would be nearly 40 years before another Giant wide receiver earned a selection for the game.

A deterioration in Jones’ knee ended his Giants career after the 1969 season; he was traded to the Browns for a running back, Ron Johnson, who became a stalwart Giant in the early 1970s.

After his playing career, Jones returned to Pittsburg and worked for a steel company for 20 years.

He was married three times. In addition to Mrs. Nickleberry, his survivors include two other daughters, Erica Sanders and Marcie Bell; a son, Charles Dumas; a sister, Patricia Bolton; and several grandchildren.

Of course, he is also survived by the spike, which he seemed to regret. In a 2012 interview, he said he had viewed end zone demonstrations over the years with disapproval, and would have thought twice if he had known what the result of his act would be.

“It caused so many things — lewd things and confusing things,” he said. “I wish I hadn’t started it.”

Alex Traub reporting contributed.