© by Ray Sanchez 07.17.16
Do you remember Albert Almanza? Probably not, unless you’re an old timer. But he’s back in the news.
With the Summer Olympics coming up he was the subject of an article by former El Pasoan Rick Cantu in the Austin American-Statesman newspaper recently. Kevin Durant, who recently joined the Golden State Warriors, will become the second University of Texas basketball player to play in the Olympics twice. But, as Cantu pointed out, Albert Almanza was the first. Almanza played for Mexico in both the Olympics in Rome in 1960 and in the Olympics in Tokyo in 1964. He was the captain of both teams.
ALMANZA BURST onto the El Paso sports scene in the 1950s like a lightning bolt. He was 6 feet 6 and could move. Boy, could he move. He played for Jefferson High School and led the Foxes to victory the first few games of the season.
Fans were dreaming of an undefeated season.
It all came crashing down in one fell swoop. It turned out Almanza was overage and Jefferson had to forfeit all its games. It was a sad ending to his high school basketball career — but not his future career. Here’s what I wrote some years ago:
“ALBERT ALMANZA was so good that (after he was declared ineligible) he started playing for amateur teams in El Paso like Union Furniture Co. and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Those players were older but Almanza still stood out. In fact, he stood out so much UTEP (then Texas Western College) came calling with a scholarship offer …
“However, the late Nemo Herrera, coach at Bowie High School in those days, had recommended Almanza to University of Texas at Austin. Almanza decided to go there. It was a wise decision. He became one of the Longhorns’ stars, playing from 1956 through 1961. He lettered three years and helped the Longhorns to a Southwest Conference championship in 1960. (He continued to grow and reached 6 feet 8 inches by the time he played for Texas).
“Almanza eventually made Austin his home, entered the insurance business there and has been heavily involved in youth and civic endeavors …”
THERE WERE no serious repercussions for his being disqualified because of age at Jefferson High School. In fact, he was hired later as a teacher there. Following is part of what Cantu wrote:
“Almanza planned to skip the 1964 Olympics. He had no time to commit to basketball because he had become a school teacher at Jefferson High School in El Paso. Plus he was raising his first child, Boone, now an Austin attorney. Mexico, though, would not take El Chorrito’s (Almanza’s Mexican nickname) no for an answer.”
Cantu wrote that the governor of the state of Chihuahua then, Praxedes Giner Duran, contacted the governor of Texas at the time (John Connally). Almanza adds. “He then notified the superintendent of schools (in El Paso). The superintendent then talked to our principal, who called me into his office. I thought I had gotten into some trouble.”
Almanza, so the story goes, recalled that his principal demanded he go to the Olympics. He would continue to get paid by the school during his stay in Tokyo.
SEVERAL PEOPLE sent me articles of Cantu’s story. Thanks to those who did.
I got to know Albert Almanza, now 80 years old, quite well. Since I had family in Austin (my son, his wife and their children) I bought a three bedroom, two bath mobile home there in the 1980s so I could visit them often.
Almanza had taken up golf and he and I used to get together and play when I was in town. He was always genial and friendly. Maybe his golf needed a little help, but oh, what a basketball player.
And what a career.