In a recent column I wrote that I marveled at how many folks give of their time and effort to help sports and other endeavors in El Paso.
We have lost one of the best in that category. Elman Chapa passed away earlier this month.
It seemed like Elman was born to serve. He was an award-winning drum major and student body president at his beloved Bowie High School, served his country in the Navy during World War II, was the first Hispanic elected to the El Paso Independent School Board where he served for 12 years, was a member and then chairman of the West Texas Council of Governments Executive Committee, was a member of the Executive Committee of the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) and president of the Bowie Alumni Association for many years.
SPORTSWISE, his passion was golf and he became president of the Ascarate Golf Course Association, ran the annual City Golf Championship Tournament, served as president of the El Paso Golf Hall of Fame and was later inducted to the Hall himself.
I knew him and his wife, Lupe, well. He said that his mother once told him, “Nothing worth anything comes easy. If you don’t work for it, you don’t deserve it.” He put that advice to good use.
A devoted husband, father and grandfather, he moved to Dallas a few years ago when his wife needed a heart transplant. She passed away in 2011. It was a hard blow. He became despondent and passed away after a bout with Alzheimer’s at the age of 87 in Dallas on May 13.
Thank you, Elman. You left El Paso better for having been among us.
TRIVIA QUESTION: A player once scored a record 40 points in a National Football League game. Can you name him? Answer at end of column.
IT’S GOOD to see the El Paso Softball Hall of Fame revived. The sport has such a great history.
The Hall had been in limbo since 2005 but last May 15 there was the man for all occasions, Wayne Thornton of the El Paso Parks and Recreation Department, emceeing the induction of 11 new members at Vista Hills Country Club.
Softball has been popular since the early days of El Paso but it really hit its peak in the 1950s and 1960s. It seems like everybody was playing the sport then. There were teams and leagues and the competition was so fierce players were imported from out of town. Think pitcher Paul Lopez.
THE JEWEL of the softball boom was the Major Softball League. It played its games at Memorial Park and I not only attended the games and wrote about them but served as official scorekeeper.
And what a thrill it was when one of our teams, sponsored by late real estate mogul Jack Dautrich, went and won the World Softball Tournament in Canada in 1961 and 1962.
Bobby Nunez, a member of those world champs, was among the inductees into the El Paso Softball Hall of Fame this year.
Other inductees were Bobby Morales, Larry McFarlin, Joe Munoz, Frank Del Toro, Alfredo Gomez, Rick Perez and, posthumously, Isaac Torres, Junie Gamboa, Ricardo Cardenas and Rodolfo Garcia.
Del Toro, you may have noticed, was outstanding in baseball as well as softball and was inducted into the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame as well this year. How sweet is that?
ANSWER to trivia question: Ernie Nevers. He scored six touchdowns and four extra points.