His nomination came as a surprise to many in attendance at the final nominations meeting of the board of directors who thought he had been inducted long before this. And well he should have been. Lesley is the only high school coach in El Paso to win a state title in basketball in the past 66 years. All in all, he had a phenomenal won-lost record of 623 victories and only 197 losses during his 27 years at Eastwood.
BEFORE THIS WEEK, 14 other El Pasoans had been nominated for induction, so that makes a total of 27 nominees this year. That includes 10 athletes, seven coaches, three media/contributors, three officials and four posthumous nominees.
Of those 27, three will be selected this year in the athletes category, two in the coaches category and one each in the media/contributors, officials and posthumous categories.
Besides Lesley, following are the 13 candidates in order in which they were nominated last Monday:
Harry Groessel, regarded by many as El Paso’s greatest drag racer.
Natasha Lacy, one of UTEP’s most outstanding woman basketball players.
Gabe Nava, former Austin High School and University of New Mexico basketball star.
Pablo Darancou, a cyclist who won numerous races in both the United States and Mexico.
Joe Overton, a former Auburn University baseball and football star who played for the El Paso Sun Kings.
Gloria Estrada, a former Fabens High School basketball standout who starred on the first women’s basketball team at UTEP in 1974 and later became a successful high school basketball and volleyball coach.
Marc Bombard, a former Eastwood High School star pitcher who went on to an exceptional career as a minor league manager, winning various championships.
Paul Pearson, a highly successful runner at UTEP who over a 40-year career competed in state, regional, national and international events.
Gory Guerrero, one of El Paso’s most popular professional wrestlers who won one world title and two national championship belts.
Rita Aguilar, a five-time City women’s amateur golf champion who has contributed so much to the sport on and off the course. She’s been a player, a coach, an official and is a former president of the El Paso Golf Hall of Fame.
Ruben Dominguez Jr., a long distance runner who won the state title in cross country in 1973 and then won the state title in the mile event in 1974 while at Bel Air High School. He then had a stellar career at UTEP.
James Munyala, one of UTEP’s greatest cross country stars who won numerous NCAA titles for the Miners and competed in many world events, including the Olympics.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS listed above are just capsules. You’ll learn more about those inducted when they’re chosen at the next meeting of the board of directors on March 18.
The induction banquet will be held May 1 in the Tomas Rivera Room at UTEP.
By the way, this is the 58th year for the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame.
This year’s board of directors is headed by president Bruce Reichman, vice-president Barnard Polk, secretary Dennis Devine, treasurer Gary Crossland and immediate past president Flip Lyle. Manny Ontiveros is manager of nominations.
Kudos to them for a job well done.