Kevin Lovell has been a great asset to the El Paso sports scene 
since he became general manager of KVIA-TV, not only because his station covers sports events with uncanny efficiency but because he goes far beyond the call of duty and gets involved in the community.
He’s served as president of the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame, acted as master of the ceremonies for that Hall’s induction banquet and this year almost single-handedly made sure that Nolan Richardson was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.
When Lovell found that Richardson had been elected to many other Halls of Fame, including the national Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame, but that the Texas Sports Hall of Fame had not given him that honor, he started contacting people throughout Texas. He wrote letters, made phone calls, urged, pleaded and finally got Richardson inducted this year.
BUT DID YOU know that besides all that Lovell is, and has been, a marathon runner? And a good one? Really.
How good? Well, good enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
Now 60, Lovell started running years ago and competed in his first marathon at the age of 50. He even made it to the Boston Marathon. He stayed in shape through the years but did not run a competitive marathon until he decided to turn back the hands of time and try to qualify for the Boston Marathon after he recently turned 60.
After training the past six months he ran in the Mountains2Beach Marathon from Ojai to Ventura in California last month. It’s a fast downhill race at sea level but it’s still 26.2 miles. He finished third in the 60-64 year old age male category with a time of 3 hours and 33 minutes. That equaled his Boston Marathon time from ten years earlier and was 21 minutes under the Boston Marathon qualifying time of 3:55 for a 60-year-old man.
LOVELL SAYS, “I was very pleased to learn that I also exceeded by less than one minute the New York City Marathon qualifying standard which is much tougher – 3:34 for a 60 year old man. Boston is set up to have only runners who qualify. New York City is a race where almost all of the entrants are selected in a lottery. NYC does allow for some runners to make it via the qualifying route but they make the time tougher than Boston because they want the vast majority of the NYC runners to be everyday people and not just the fastest runners. Since I have to run Boston, I plan to run New York in November of 2016 when I will be eligible. I won’t be running for time, however. I will be running for fun. Running a full marathon for time as fast as you can is very stressful and demanding. I love the challenge but don’t want to run that kind of race again.”
TRIVIA QUESTION: Can you name the pitcher who won the Cy Young Award while pitching for two different Major League teams in the same season? Answer at end of column.
SPEAKING OF Nolan Richardson, it’s amazing how much the man is revered. He held his 28th annual Nolan Richardson Charity Golf Tournament and Awards Dinner/Auction benefitting El Paso charities and scholarships last Saturday and people turned out in droves with open pockets. I got a chance to talk to him and he revealed a touching story about his daughter, Yvonne, who died of leukemia at age 15. Nolan had decided to turn down the offer to coach University of Arkansas because of his daughter’s illness. But, he said, she pleaded with him not to. He went on to win the NCAA basketball championships there. He had a tear in his eye as he recalled the moment.
ANSWER TO trivia question: Rick Sutcliffe, who was 4-5 for the Cleveland Indians then went to the Chicago Cubs where he was 16-1 to earn the award in 1984.