Mike Dobbs, son of former UTEP football coach Bobby Dobbs, was cleaning out his desk and going through some old boxes at his home in California recently when he found some things that belonged to his late father.
One was his father’s playbook that guided the Miners to some of their greatest victories in the 1960s. Oh, how some coaches would love to get their hands on that.
He also found letters his father wrote when he turned down an offer to coach Army and decided to stay at what was then Texas Western College.
Mike writes, “What struck me so deeply about reading these (3) letters, all dated April 21, 1966, was dad’s profound loyalty to Texas Western College, his sense of moral obligation to TWC and the City of El Paso and his need to have a clear conscious by not leaving Texas Western College.”
MIKE ADDS that he also got chills reading a letter his father wrote to Vince Lombardi explaining his decision to stay with the Miners.
His father wrote, “ … we were in the middle of spring practice, and all my coaches wanted to go with me. The program here (at Texas Western) could have been hurt severely, and for this reason I could not leave with a clear conscious. In any event, I made the decision the way I thought was right. I feel that my decision will be vindicated, and I will never look back or second guess.”
Bobby Dobbs turned the Miners’ losing program completely around in 1965, going 8-3 and beating TCU in the Sun Bowl. He was 6-4 in 1966 then went 7-2-1 in 1967 with a win over Mississippi in the Sun Bowl. He retired as coach of the Miners in 1972 and never coached again. He passed away in 1986.
The letters that his son found add to the wonderful legacy Bobby Dobbs left at UTEP.
TRIVIA QUESTION: Can you name two players who have hit three homeruns in a World Series game? Answer at end.
SANTA TERESA Country Club members keep wondering what’s to become of their golf course and other facilities. Will the club be sold? Will things get worse or better?
I ran into owner/operator Greg Collins at lunch the other day. He seemed genuinely upbeat. “Things are getting better, things are getting better,” he repeated with a smile but without elaborating.
Members are keeping their fingers crossed that some day the club will be restored to the jewel of a facility it once was.
DAVID LATTIN, to no one’s surprise, has been inducted into the UTEP Athletic Hall of Fame along with four other Miner stars. Big and strong, he was the axle of the 1966 Miners team that won the NCAA basketball championship.
I was also especially glad to see Andy Everest among the inductees. He was one of the first football stars I covered after joining the El Paso Herald-Post as a rookie sports writer.
Everest sort of took a back seat to the Miners’ outstanding backs, Fred Wendt and Pug Gabrel, of that highly successful1947-51 era. But like Lattin in basketball, he was the big man of the football team. He played center on offense and opened those big holes for the runners to go through. And he was a fearsome linebacker on defense.
Other inductees this year are Gary Brewster (basketball), James Munyala (track) and Kim Turner (track).
All five will be inducted as the 11th class of the UTEP Athletics Hall of Fame on Friday, Oct. 5, 2012, at UTEP. For more information contact the Miner Athletic Club at (915) 747-8759 or mac@utep.edu.
ANSWER TO trivia question: Babe Ruth did it twice (in 1926 and 1928) and Reggie Jackson did it once in 1977.