Jack Maguire was born in Denison, Texas and attended both the University of Texas a Denton and the University of Texas at Austin, where he received the Society of Professional Journalists Award as the "Outstanding Graduate in Journalism" for his writing in the Daily Texan. Maguire was the Executive Director of the University of Texas Institute of Texas Culture from 1976-1986. He has written two textbooks on Texan history and developed a Texas Trivia Game that is used in the classroom. Maguire has written over 1600 columns, more than 500 articles, and nine books. His column, Talk of Texas, is the longest running in the history of Texas.