Here’s how I described David Lattin in my book, “Basketball’s Biggest Upset,” which was published in 1991:
“If Bobby Joe Hill was the steering wheel of the 1966 basketball champions, David Lattin was the axle. He was not only big and strong at 6 feet 7 and 240 pounds but he could run and he could jump. He dominated the area under the boards with such muscle and finesse that his smaller but quick teammates could revolve around him like bees around a hive. Sports information director Eddie Mullens nicknamed him ‘Big Daddy D.’ There was no doubt he was the big man of the team.”
BUT WHY, you ask, am I bringing this up? It’s because the big man of Texas Western College’s 1966 NCAA champs may finally be inducted into the UTEP Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Hall is a relatively new entity on the El Paso sports scene. UTEP athletic director Bob Stull wisely started it in 2002.
Coach Don Haskins was inducted the first year, and fittingly so, while Bobby Joe Hill was inducted the third year. Lattin, however, hadn’t even been nominated until this year. He has made this year’s top 10 on the nominations list and may make the top five on the final ballot which will be determined any day now.
WE CAN HOPE. Who can forget Lattin’s thundering dunk early in the finals of the NCAA tournament that sent a message to the heavily favored Kentucky Wildcats that the Miners were not going to be intimidated? Or that he led the Miners in scoring during the playoffs with a 19-plus average?
Even Bobby Joe was in awe of him. As Hill was quoted in the book, “I’ve never seen anyone who could dunk a ball with such force. He could virtually tear down the rim. He was a good ballhandler and dribbler, too.”
Despite Lattin’s terrifying presence on the court he was a clean living man who didn’t smoke or drink and sang in his church choir while growing up. He would call his mother, Elsie, often when away from home and she was the first person he called after the championship game.
He left us great memories – and a national championship.
OTHER TOP 10 nominees, all worthy candidates, in alphabetical order:
Troy Bassham (a 4-time All-American in rifle shooting), Gary Brewster (outstanding basketball player in the 1970s), Ed Bunn (who led the nation in punting in 1992), Andy Everest (one of UTEP’s greatest linemen from 1947-51), Greg Joy (former high jump national champion), James Munyala (3-time national steeplechase champion), Brian Natkin (former All-American tight end), Gerald Rogers (first UTEP basketball player to receive All-American recognition in 1951) and Kim Turner (former national 100-meter hurdles champion).
Stay tuned. Daniel James Veale, UTEP Assistant Director for Athletic Development, will be announcing the final five soon.
TRIVIA QUESTION: Can you name the top five career Major League homerun hitters in order before the steroids era? Answer at end.
ARE LOCAL golf courses happy or what? The grass was beginning to grow, the greens were getting better, trees were blossoming. Then came last week’s rains and they couldn’t have happened at a better time.
I’m especially impressed with Dos Lagos Golf Club, the little friendly course in the upper valley. The course all but completely lost its greens during the ice day of several months back. I played the back nine last week. You should see the greens now. They’re plush and smooth and a putter’s dream.
Maybe miracles do happen. Or maybe it’s just that Dos Lagos has a great greenskeeper crew in Beto Morales, Luis Enriquez, Sam Moreno and Juan Rodriguez.
ANSWER to trivia question: Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew.