by Ray Sanchez© 10.02.16
Have you ever wondered what former athlete/coach Nolan Richardson has meant to
Bowie High School and El Paso? You should have attended last Saturday’s ceremony naming the Bowie High School gym in his honor.
I mean, besides bringing untold positive attention to his alma mater and our city, he has dug deep into his pockets through his foundation to provide hard cash to help young people. How much hard cash? More than $2.5 million. That’s what one of the speakers at last Saturday’s event, Susan Oliva, executive director for the Children’s Advocacy Center and one of the beneficiaries of Richardson’s generosity, estimated. That sum includes scholarships for Bowie students and donations to various other young people’s groups.
WHAT’S MORE, his foundation, named for his late daughter, Yvonne, will continue donating each year to the school and El Paso’s youth.
No wonder then, that Richardson, who after being an outstanding athlete went on to become one of basketball’s greatest college coaches, was so well received by the many well-wishers last Saturday.
Richardson has been inducted into 13 different Halls of Fame, including the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, but he seemed to enjoy the naming of the Bowie gym for him just as much. “After all,” he reiterated, “Bowie is where I got my start.”
NOLAN AND I go back a long, long way. In fact, we started our respective careers the same year, he as an athlete and I as a sportswriter. That was in 1950, the same year Little League opened in El Paso. I gave him his very first writeup in 1950 when he was only nine years old. I happened to cover Little League baseball the night he hit a homerun and wrote about it.
Little did I know that little kid would grow up to be an El Paso, and national, treasure.
TRIVIA QUESTION: What was the real name of Rocky Marciano? Answer at end of column.
UP NEXT: The UTEP Athletic Hall of Fame induction banquet on Oct. 7 and El Paso High School’s homecoming football game where the school hopes to set a world record for homecoming reunions on Oct. 8.
Gerina Piller, the former UTEP star who performed so well at this year’s Olympics, will be inducted into the UTEP Hall of Fame dinner Friday. I can hardly wait to shake her hand. And to honor other inductees. They’re Orsten Artis of the 1966 national championship team, Harrington Jackson of the 1970-72 track team, Brian Natkin of the UTEP football team from 1997-2000 and the Miners’ winningest football coach of all-time, Mack Saxon.
AS FOR EL PASO High School’s attempt to set a world record for reunions, good luck. The school is confident the Tigers will make the 3300 target but they were still a bit short at this writing.
The homecoming game will be against Austin High School, the Tigers’ biggest rival through the years.
By the way, a gathering of exes from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s classes will be held on Oct. 7 at Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino, the same night as the UTEP Athletic Hall of Fame dinner. Wish I could split myself in two.
AND WHAT I remember most about Arnold Palmer, who passed away at the age of 87 last week, is his charisma. He had a strange swing that worked for him but he was all man. It’s said he was so tough that while other players pulled a blade of grass from the ground to throw up in the air to check which way the wind was blowing he would pluck a piece of hair from his chest to do that. And I’ll never forget the piece of advice he once gave and which I’ve followed to this day. He said, “If you’re just barely off the green, putt the ball. Your worst putt is better than your best chip.”
I mourn.
TRIVIA ANSWER: Rocco Francis Marchegiano.