by Ray Sanchez 05.18.14
I mean, how else can you describe what’s going on there? Okay, so in the movie, “Field of Dreams,” it was said “build it and they will come.”
But in droves? With attendance records broken as soon as they’re set? With young and old, healthy or handicapped, some with walkers and others in wheel chairs, trudging up to the entrance?
What is this? The second coming?
I DON’T MEAN to blaspheme, but really. I’ve never seen anything like this in El Paso before.
I thought at first I was dreaming but I took my lovely better half, Helen, to an El Paso Chihuahuas game at Southwest University Park last Sunday and she assured me it was all really happening. She even described the scene to me.
She said the park was as beautiful as I had written, that the seats were full of happy people obviously enjoying themselves, that there were red-shirted courteous employees everywhere ready to help people to their seats or whatever, that there were many food and drink stands throughout the stadium, that I was truly there eating peanuts and drinking a Pepsi and, finally, that I was really seeing the Chihuahuas beat Albuquerque11-0.
I woke up the next morning and still wondered if I had dreamt it all but before I could say anything Helen showed me the tickets and the Chihuahuas cap we had bought there.
I believe.
TRIVIA QUESTION: When did basketball first become an Olympics event? Answer at end.
AS I’VE SAID before, one of the good things about writing a book is that you get to hear from old friends. Jose L. Torres, who is now manager of communications and media relations for the Dallas Airport System, emailed: “What a great book (“The Good, the Bad and the Funny of El Paso Sports History”) you wrote. The end was a fitting tribute to coach (Don) Haskins. I just finished the book and I must tell you that those stories and the names of some folks brought lots of memories. I’m so glad you have chronicled the sports story of El Paso. I really enjoyed the photo with the Ysleta team giving you a shower. Those were the fun days in El Paso. … I still remember how we used to enjoy the gorditas in the media room during UTEP basketball games. You were working for The Herald Post and I was working for KAMA Radio.”
CUTE STORY. Jesus Jose Gallegos, who almost single-handedly started building Dos Lagos Golf Course more than 50 years ago and has been living in a mobile home there ever since, became a full-fledged United States citizen recently. His son, Pepe Gallegos, who operates the course along with Mike Olson, says his father is so happy to be an American he now goes around speaking nothing but English.
WHEN COACH George McCarty decided to recruit basketball player Charley Brown as the first black athlete at UTEP (then Texas Western College) in the 1950s, he couldn’t have chosen a better young man. Those years were hard times for blacks. Segregation was in full force and I’m sure Brown suffered many indignities. He accepted his role with the Miners in such a quiet, dignified manner that he earned the respect, and admiration, of many of us. And what a player! He played for the Miners from 1956-57 through 1958-59, led the Miners to two Border Conference championships, was voted All-Border Conference all three years and was named most valuable player one season. Charley Brown passed away last Sunday at the age of 83. We’ll miss you, Charley. You showed us what a man should really be.
ANSWER to trivia question: 1936.