Ten days after resigning with the Eagles, Thayer accepted an offer from the Los Angeles Dons, in the rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC), to be their manager.[2] He served as the Dons manager for three seasons, until the team folded in 1950.
Thayer started the Ellenville Press, a weekly newspaper, in 1950. He was owner and publisher of the paper until 1959. He was named general manager of the WGHQ radio station in 1959, and became its president in 1962. He assumed presidency of the Herald Review Radio, Inc., which owned four other radio stations, three years later.[3]
Thayer died on January 28, 1980, in the Kingston, New York, Hospital. He was 72 years old at the time of his death.[4]