Two of my favorite sports personalities in El Paso are moving on. But oh, what pleasant memories they’ve left behind. And what a boost they’ve been for the sport of golf in our city.
They’re Margie Henderson and Danny Swain.
Margie has been promoting, running and helping golf tournaments so long as I can remember, raising no telling how much money for worthy causes along the way. Two of her most notable tournaments were annual fundraisers for the UTEP golf team.
“This is my last year for UTEP golf,” she says “I’m retiring after 21 years and after going through five coaches, hundreds of UTEP players and thousands of boosters.”
We will miss what she does for UTEP dearly, but she says she probably will still be involved in other sports endeavors.
THEN THERE’S Danny Swain, director of golf at Coronado Country Club. He has announced he will retire. A former member of the 1962 NCAA National Small Division College championship team at Lamar University, he has been head pro and now director of golf at Coronado Country Club for the last 43 years. His contribution to golf has been outstanding in many areas and as a teacher he has helped countless players, including many from UTEP.
When he was inducted into the El Paso Golf Hall of Fame in 1996 he was praised not only as a fine golfer (he has shot as low at 64 at Coronado Country Club) but as “a soft spoken person, a great asset to golf and a gentleman …”
Amen to that.
TRIVIA QUESTION: Can you name the man who was a coach in the National Football League for 40 seasons? Answer at end.
COMMENTS KEEP coming in about the Chihuahuas, the El Paso Triple A mascot. One lady took me to task for writing that I liked the nickname. “The look on that mascot’s face is an insult to all people from the state of Chihuahua,” she said. Boy, talk about making it personal.
ANOTHER READER who doesn’t like the nickname and makes at least a reasonable argument against it is attorney Eric Darnell. He writes:
“If you want to hear my two cents, the Chihuahua name will never work, even though the owners will make it work, good or bad, for just the reasons you stated. Everyone shortens the name and all teams, or most teams, are referred to by a shortened version of their name, for headlines, etc, especially when they have a longer name or a name with multiple syllables like the Chihuahuas,”
He mentioned The Pack for Green Bay Packers, the ‘Skins or the Washington Redskins, the ‘Boys for the Dallas Cowboys and so on.
Then he went on, “You get my point … plus Chihuahuas is a name for an animal that is used by 60-plus year old widows to replace their deceased husbands. We will also be known as a team that barks and runs before we get eaten by a real dog. Any name is better than the El Paso Chi-Chis … unless of course, Hooters or Twin Peaks becomes a name sponsor.”
ONE PERSON who differs is Charles Hill, longtime El Paso sports fan and UTEP sports statistician. He wrote, “I like the new nickname for the baseball team also.”
Then he went on to mention the UTEP Miners. “UTEP football seems to be getting worse. The basketball team looked pretty good in the scrimmage although it’s hard to judge by playing each other. Matt Willms looked impressive as did John Bohanon. Get your crystal ball out!”
Hey, that’s right. I’d better get the obnoxious orb out of its drawer, although the way it was so wrong about the Miners’ football season I’m surprised anyone would want to hear its picks for basketball anymore.
ANSWER to trivia question: George Halas.