My childhood hero is dead. Ken Heineman passed away last Tuesday in Arkansas at the age of 94. I mourn deeply.
Ken Heineman wasn’t only my hero. He was everybody’s hero in El Paso. He wasn’t just a football star. He was Superman in shoulder pads. He could run, he could pass, he could play defense.
He made El Paso High School the terror of the district. And he led a group of local high school players to victory in the very first Sun Bowl in 1935, accounting for every single point in a 25-21 victory over Ranger High School Bulldogs. He passed for a 65-yard touchdown, ran seven yards for a touchdown, passed for a 30-yard touchdown, returned an interception 70 yards for a touchdown and kicked an extra point.
HE WAS THE talk of the town. No, the rage of the town. Kids all over town wanted to be like him. I know I did.
I was around 10 years old in those days and I and other kids in the neighborhood near El Paso High School would get together and play touch football in the street. There was very little traffic then.
Everyone wanted to be “Ken Heineman” and play quarterback. My dad, who was working for Southern Pacific and earning the fantastic sum of $50 a week in the middle of the country’s worst depression, had bought me a football. You guessed it. Since I owned the only football on the block I got to pretend I was Ken Heineman a lot of the time.
What a thrill.
NO, I NEVER became a football star myself. I broke an arm in practice as a sophomore in high school and my parents made me give up what they called “that silly game.” But Heineman remained my first and foremost sports hero and I followed his career at what was then Texas College of Mines.
And yes, he continued to shine with the Miners. Freshmen were ineligible to play in those days, so his first season with the Miners was in 1937. The single wing formation was in style then and it fit Heineman’s talents to a T because of his running and passing ability. He helped the Miners a 7-2-1 record. He scored on the ground (once from 60 yards), passed for several touchdowns and returned on interception for an 83-yard score. He also did the punting.
THE NEXT year, the Miners went 6-3 and did something they had never done before: They beat University of Arizona. Heineman cinched the victory by returning an interception for a touchdown in a 26-14 victory.
Heineman is all over the UTEP record books. Although most games in the early years were low scoring, Heineman still ranks in the top 10 in several categories. And he not only became the first Miner to be named All-American but was named All-American three times — in 1937, 1938 and 1939.
He was also the first Miner to be drafted by the National Football League, chosen by the Cleveland Rams in the second round in 1940
In 1943, Heineman, then playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, led the league in kickoff returns.
BUT STATISTCS tell only part of the story. Ken Heineman had a charisma that only a few athletes possess. He’s part of the reason I became a sports writer.
You can imagine the thrill I received when the Sun Bowl picked me to go to Arkansas and escort him to El Paso in 2003 to be inducted as a “Legend of the Sun Bowl.” He was in a wheelchair by then but still as feisty as ever. The trip was tough on him. He groused about the airplane seats, the long flight, the accommodations. I loved it.
He was my No. 1 sports hero. He still is.