As a coach, he gave us two Border Conference basketball championships then, as athletic director, he gave us:
Don Haskins, who became a national Hall of Fame basketball coach.
Bobby Dobbs, who turned out the finest football teams in the school’s history.
Wayne Vandenburg, who turned the track program into a national powerhouse.
Charlie Brown, with whom McCarty broke the school’s athletic race barrier and helped the Miners win a conference crown.
A decade the likes of which El Paso had never seen before and may never see again.
During the 1960s the Miners won a national basketball championship, Sun Bowl games over major schools (Mississippi and TCU) and a national cross country crown.
I CAN’T EXPRESS how much respect, admiration and love I, and those who knew him, have for the man. One would never have guessed by looking at McCarty when he arrived at UTEP that he would turn the school, and El Paso, into a torrent of success. He was sort of pudgy, soft spoken and gentle in his ways.
But oh, what a genius he was at spotting talent. He didn’t just hire Don Haskins. He figuratively hogtied him and brought him to UTEP.
McCarty was an admirer of Hank Iba, who coached Haskins at Oklahoma State. So he knew Haskins had the basics to become a good coach.
BUT WHAT finally convinced McCarty that Haskins would be a good coach was when he saw Haskins play against the Miners at the El Paso Coliseum. Haskins was playing for the Artesia AAU team and McCarty loved Haskins’ fire and determination. Although Haskins was only 24 at the time, McCarty offered him a job with the Miners as a graduate assistant after the game.
Haskins turned him down but McCarty had planted the seed of coaching in Haskin’s head. Haskins later became a high school coach but McCarty kept after him and when Harold Davis resigned as coach in 1960, McCarty offered him the UTEP head job. Haskins took the offer that time.
GEORGE MCCARTY passed away on Nov. 30 at the age of 96. He had an amazing career as a coach and an even better one as an athletic director. And he did it with a gentle touch and much class.
He’ll live in our memories forever.
UTEP OBSERVED a moment of silence in observance of McCarty’s death before the start of last Sunday’s game between the Miners and New Mexico State. Then, at halftime, another of UTEP’s legends, Nolan Richardson, was honored. The Miners announced they were retiring his number. The crowd gave Richardson a standing ovation.
Richardson was not only a great athlete but went on to become one of the country’s greatest basketball coaches and is also enshrined in the national basketball Hall of Fame.
He’s the only coach to have won Junior College, NCAA and NIT championships.
I’VE BEEN ASKED what Richardson meant when at the end of his acceptance speech Sunday he said I was the one who started him on his career.
We go back a long way.
I was a young sports writer when Richardson broke into the sports spotlight in 1950. Those were different times. Racism and segregation were rampant. I had become the first Hispanic sports writer at the El Paso Herald-Post and got a taste of what Richardson and other blacks were going through.
Nevertheless, I gave Richardson his first writeup when he hit a homerun as a Little Leaguer, later wrote about his athletic feats at Bowie High School and even picked him an All-District player in three sports.
I got some flak for that, but I guess Nolan Richardson never forgot.