El Paso Sports Columns by Ray Sanchez

by Ray Sanchez 06.22.14
It may have come as a surprise to some folks when they read in my trivia question last week that someone from El Paso actually won a Wimbledon men’s singles championship. After all, Dick Savitt lived in El Paso only a few years and played big time tennis only a few years.
But boy, was he something! Here’s a little background:

DICK SAVITT was born in New Jersey and took up tennis at the age of 14. Despite never having had a tennis lesson he made the finals of the National Boys Tennis Tournament.
His family moved to El Paso and he was enrolled at El Paso High School. He took up basketball there and fell in love with it. Tall (he eventually reached 6 feet 3) he was so good he made the All-State basketball team as a forward.
He continued playing tennis, however, and won the Texas University Interscholastic League boys singles championship in 1945.

WORLD WAR 11 was winding down in 1945 but he was still called into service after graduation and joined the Navy. After his service, Cornell University offered him a basketball scholarship. A knee injury curtailed his basketball playing but not his tennis. He posted a 57-2 tennis record in college and won numerous tournaments, including a NCAA title.
Tennis was not a professional sport at the time but he gained national attention in 1950 when he reached the semi-finals of the U.S. Tennis Championships at Forest Hills.
Then, almost unbelievably, he won both the Wimbledon and Australian men’s singles titles in 1951. He was ranked No. 1 in the World and became the first Jewish athlete to grace the cover of Time Magazine. Not only that, it helped open country clubs and other segregated places for Jewish players.

HIS TENNIS career abruptly came to an end in 1952. Although he had posted an outstanding record he was snubbed by the U.S. Davis Cup team. It’s been speculated his religion might have had something to do with it. Disappointed, he continued playing tennis but never played the big time again.
Savitt seldom, if ever, returned to El Paso after his high school days and has received little attention in El Paso through the years, no doubt because he never made El Paso his home. He’s never even been inducted into the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame.
But things are about to change. Michael Montes, president of the El Paso High School Alumni Association, has announced that Savitt, 89 years old and living in New York, has been nominated for the school’s 2014 Outstanding Ex award.
I bet he’ll be a shoo-in. And he’ll finally get some of the local recognition he deserves.

TRIVIA QUESTION: Who was the first designated hitter to hit a Major League homerun? Answer at end.

SPEAKING OF SNUBS, Charles Hill, one of El Paso’s most knowledgeable sports fans, has some thoughts on why Nolan Richardson has been rejected for induction by the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. He writes:

“I don’t know why he hasn’t been inducted but these may be a few of the reasons:
a) Nolan made a lot of enemies with Texas sports writers and other potential voters when he was coach at Arkansas and the Razorbacks were in the old Southwest Conference. He was called “the mugger in the polka dot tie.”
b) Racism. I know that there are black athletes in this Hall but I remember that Jerry Jones had to convince Emmit Smith to accept his induction because Smith thought there was a lot of racism in this group.
c) All of Nolan’s great achievements came outside the state of Texas. Maybe the Hall is only recognizing individuals that have excelled in Texas.
“All this said, Nolan belongs in the (Texas) Hall”

ANSWER to trivia question: Tony Oliva of the Minnesota Twins in 1973.

by Ray Sanchez 06.15.14
Jack Wilkinson was one heck of a football player. I know. I was lucky to see him play for the UTEP Miners way back when UTEP was still known as Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy. Before joining the Miners, he was a member of some of the greatest teams in the history of Texas high school football at Odessa High School. He graduated from there in 1943 and entered the Navy during World War II.
After the war, he was recruited by Miners coach Jack Curtice in 1947.
A tall, strapping, good looking young man, Wilkinson helped the Miners to records of 5-3-1 in 1947, 8-2-1 in 1948, 8-2-1 in 1949 and 7-3 in 1950 during his four years with the Miners.
He also helped the Miners to two Sun Bowl appearances.
Those were the days when players played both offense and defense and Wilkinson was a standout as an end on offense and a lineman on defense. The Miners lost to West Virginia 23-12 in the 1949 Sun Bowl but Wilkinson caught a crucial touchdown pass late in the game to upset Georgetown 33-20 in 1950. The latter was the first Sun Bowl I ever attended as a sports writer and I can’t express what a thrill it was.

IT’S HARD to imagine such success as the Miners had in that span of four years in the light of recent football performances by the Miners.
But it happened.
Wilkinson left El Paso after graduating from UTEP but returned as head football coach at Bowie High School. Later, he moved to Coronado High School where, as an assistant coach, he helped turn out some of the best high school football teams in the history of the city. He also coached golf at Coronado and was successful in that endeavor, too.
In short, he became one of El Paso’s greatest athletic assets.
And a friend. As a sports writer I ran into him often. He was always accessible, easy to talk to and so friendly one couldn’t help liking him. In later years, he started to write his memoirs and I got to read some of them. How I wish I could have helped him turn out a book.
Jack Wilkinson passed away quietly on June 2 at the age of 89. What wonderful memories he leaves behind.

TRIVIA QUESTION: Dick Savitt, who attended El Paso High School in the 1940s, won the Wimbledon singles championship in 1951. He won another “major” title that year. Can you name it? Answer at end.

I WONDER what board members of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame are thinking now. They have turned down El Paso’s Nolan Richardson for induction time and again and now Richardson is going to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in August.
His rejection by the Texas Hall is so weird that it’s almost comical. Richardson is the only Texas born coach to win a NCAA basketball championship and is the only coach to win a national junior college title and the NIT in addition to the NCAA. Yet, he keeps getting passed over by the Texas Hall in favor of folks with much less impressive credentials.
Why won’t the Texas Sports Hall of Fame induct him? Is it lack of sports knowledge? Is it the fact El Paso is so far removed from the rest of Texas they don’t know we exist? It can’t be racial. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame has inducted other African-Americans.
Excuse me while I scratch my head.

ANSWER to trivia question: Dick Savitt also won the Australian Open in 1951.

by Ray Sanchez 06.08.14
Getting an award with the name of Don Haskins on it is a super honor. Having it presented to you by Nolan Richardson – well, that finishes sending you into orbit.
It happened to three lucky people at the awards banquet of the 27th annual Nolan Richardson Charity Golf Tournament last week.
Haskins and Richardson, as anyone who ever read a sports page knows, are El Paso’s greatest basketball coaches. Both won NCAA championships and both have received basketball’s highest honor. Don was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. Nolan will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in August.
So you can imagine what a thrill it was walking up to shake Richardson’s hand and receiving a plaque from him.

RICHARDSON has always been quick to give credit for his success to those who helped him on his way to the top and those who are helping him still. At this year’s banquet, he read off a long list of sponsors for his tournament and the folks who make it possible. They have helped him raise millions of dollars for charity and scholarships and for the Yvonne Richardson Foundation, which also helps many charities, organizations and individuals. Yvonne is his late daughter, who died of leukemia at the age of 15.
Richardson gives out three special awards at the banquet each year.
This year’s recipients were Mary Haskins, who got the Woman of the Year award, Hector Chavez Sr., who received the Humanitarian Man of the Year honor, and your friendly sports columnist, who got the Coach Don Haskins Bear Award for “exemplary virtues (and service) to his fellow man, community and family.”

RICHARDSON noted that coach Haskins said the following about his wife when he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame:
“I owe so much to my wife Mary. She’s always been so supportive, never complained. In fact, she was the one who encouraged me to go into coaching. She put it to me, ‘What else can you really do?’”
Mary was happy to come to El Paso after her husband coached in such little communities as Hedley, Benjamin and Dumas. She worked for Sun Travel for 30 years, raised four boys, continues to support UTEP and is a member of several committees.

HECTOR CHAVEZ Sr., a former Bowie High student and former owner of Hector’s Pancake College, has been one of UTEP’s greatest contributors and continues to lend a helping hand to various organizations.
Needless to say, Chavez has been one of Richardson’s biggest fans and backers throughout his career.

AS FOR MY Bear award, what can I say? I consider myself lucky to have followed and written and recorded Richardson’s amazing rise to fame from the time he was a little tyke.
I’ll never forget the first time I saw him in 1950. He was nine years old and I had just started working as a sports writer at the El Paso Herald-Post. One of my first assignments was to cover Little League Baseball. Segregation was still very much alive then but Little League had been opened to everyone.
Richardson, being black, stood out because of his color. When he stepped up to the plate, I thought, “What a cute little kid.”
He stood out even more when he hit a long, long homerun over the fence at Houston Park. I wrote about it in The Herald-Post the next day. It was the first of many stories I was to write about that “cute little kid” as he went on to become a star athlete at Bowie High School and Texas Western College and one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time.
I consider myself lucky to have had that privilege.

by Ray Sanchez 06.01.14
Rigo Aguilar was such a good hitter as a freshman at Hanks High School it was spooky. He hit well over .400 in average and smacked nine homeruns.
The word got around District 2-4A and pitchers quit pitching to him the next season. He was walked so often he must have thought he was out for a stroll in the park. His average dropped to under .300.
But he caught on and batted a sizzling .500 his junior year. Then, in his senior year. he wound up with a mind-boggling .620 average for all games, including pre-district, district and post season games. His average in district play was .489.
No surprise, then, that now he’s headed for El Paso Community College with a well-earned scholarship.

RIGO IS ONE of several outstanding El Paso athletes who signed a letter of intent to college this spring. His father, who also sports the first name of Rigo, is naturally proud of his son.
The elder Rigo was a football player but he saw the potential for baseball in his son early on and encouraged him to follow his dream. “He’s not only a good hitter, he’s smart (he was named All-Academic),” the elder Rigo says. “He’s learned the game and knows where to be and where to go on every play.”
Which comes in handy for a shortstop, one of the most important positions in baseball.
Young Rigo has been in demand during the non-high school season. He’s played on various teams here and in Mexico.
His future looks bright.

TRIVIA QUESTION: What year was the National Basketball Association founded? Answer at end.

NICE GESTURE. Friends of Paul Barry, one of El Paso’s living sports legends, will be honored by his friends at a get-together Friday, June 5, at the home of Richi and Frank Brandt.
Barry was an outstanding athlete in several sports in high school and Tulsa University. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in 1949 and was named All-Pro in 1950. After serving in Korea he was traded by the Rams to the Washington Redskins. He wound up playing running back for the Chicago Cardinals in 1956 and 1957.
After retiring, Barry, who will be 88 in August, made El Paso his permanent home and was inducted into the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame in 1971.

BILL DAHLBERG, one of my golfing buddies, is a long knocker. I know. I’ve seen him get on par five greens in two. However, I’d never seen him get an eagle until recently. He sank a 15-footer for a 3 on the par five No. 13 hole at Dos Lagos Golf Course. To me, eagles are harder to get than holes-in-one because par threes are usually easier to get close to the hole from a shorter distance. I’ve had five aces but only three eagles during my many years of playing. Great shot, Bill.
WAYNE THORTON of the El Paso Parks and Recreation Department, who I like to describe as a Man of All Sports, helped re-start the El Paso Fast Pitch Softball Hall of Fame last year. The Hall got off to a good start in 1964 but had been dormant much of the time after the first several years. The latest inductees: Kiki Hernandez, Joe (Lefty) Rodriguez, Bobby Rodriguez (Lefty’s brother), Pete Solis Jr., Carlos Valenzuela Sr. and Tommy Zubiate. Outstanding players all. Inductees in the coaches’ category were Mike Kennedy and Jose (Pepe) Morales and in the posthumous category it was Ernesto Carreon and Felix Mendoza.
THORNTON says he didn’t know much about softball until he got involved with the Hall but he learned. He has contributed so much to so many sports I shake my head in wonder. He even coached the women’s basketball team at UTEP when it was in its infancy in the 1970s. A Man of Many Sports, indeed.
ANSWER to trivia question: 1946.

by Ray Sanchez 05.25.14
Golf is a horrible sport.
You can be hitting the ball far and straight, chipping close to the hole, making every putt then suddenly, poof! For no rhyme or reason, you start slicing or hooking, chunking every chip and missing every three-foot putt. And no matter if you’re an amateur or a professional
I know. I took up the sport when I was in my 20s and am still battling that little pill more than 50 years later.
I’ve cursed golf. I’ve sworn I was going to give it up. I’ve told myself I was wasting my time.
And I’m still playing it.
No wonder golf is a four letter word.

ON THE OTHER hand, golf is a wonderful sport.
You can see many seniors out on any course on any given day swinging away. They got to be seniors because they play golf. Golf may be frustrating, but the walking and the fresh air and the swinging is nothing but beneficial to your health.
And the amount of money the sport has raised with tournaments for charitable causes throughout the years is immeasurable.
I bring all this up because the 27th annual Nolan Richardson Charity Golf Tournament and the Yvonne Richardson Memorial Foundation is coming up.
The meet, which will be held next weekend (Saturday, May 31, and Sunday, June 1) at Underwood Golf Course, has provided untold funds for various charities as well as many scholarships.

RICHARDSON was in town last week, flew back to his home in Arkansas for a few days, and is back in El Paso to direct his tournament.
He has brought numerous national sports celebrities to play in the meet through the years but he says this year it’ll be more of a local event with local golfers.
He hasn’t lost his love of the sport. He still plays it regularly. In fact, the reason he flew back to Arkansas last week was to play in a tournament there.
How good is he? Well, he’s 72 now but when he was younger he got so good at golf some people were ready to sponsor him on the PGA Tour.

I KNOW how good he was. I played with him more than 40 years ago and boy, could he hit the ball. I was pretty good myself and could hit my drive around 240 yards. Those were the days before modern equipment increased distances. Ben Hogan, for instance, averaged only 240 yards off the tee and he is one of the greatest golfers of all time.
Of course, the courses weren’t as long then as they are now.
Anyway, Richardson was so strong when he was young he would out-drive me by some 30 to 40 yards, even with the old equipment.

NOLAN NEVER got really interested in golf as a career, though. He turned to coaching, and boy, was that the right move.
He won a NCAA championship and reached the finals two other times while coaching University of Arkansas and he’ll be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Aug. 8 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
But he’s still swinging away on the golf course, and he can still break 80. “In the course of 10 rounds, I’ll probably shoot in the 70s half the time,” he says.
He does have one special goal. “I’m trying to shoot my age now,” he says.
That’s even par 72 at most courses, folks.

MAYBE NOLAN can do it in his own tournament next week. And maybe plenty of El Pasoans will be there to see it.
I’m planning to participate, how about you? It’ll be a great way to honor his Naismith award and have some fun.
You can contact Underwood Golf Course for more information.
Keep your head down and follow through.

by Ray Sanchez 05.18.14
If I were to write a book about El Paso’s new baseball stadium I would title it “The Miracle at Southwest University Park.”
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.

by Ray Sanchez 05.11.14
Nolan Richardson hasn’t changed a bit. He’s the same down to earth fellow he’s always been.
I learned that again when I called to congratulate him on his induction into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.
“I’m proud and happy for the honor,” he said, “but I owe it all to you in El Paso who helped and backed me in my career. I’ll always be grateful for that.”
Richardson arrived in El Paso this weekend to make preparations for the 27th annual Yvonne Richardson Memorial Foundation and Nolan Richardson Charity Golf Tournament which raises money for charities in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas and numerous scholarships at the University of Texas at El Paso.
The tournament hosts celebrities and media personalities from around the country including NCAA, NBA and NFL coaches and officials.

HE WILL REMAIN in El Paso the rest of this month. We should welcome him home with open arms, maybe even present him with the key to the city to honor his prestigious award. How about introducing him at a Chihuahuas baseball game? The fans would go bananas.
And why not enter and participate or contribute to his causes? His charities include the Ronald McDonald House, Make-A-Wish Foundation, The Child Crisis Center, The Candlelighters of El Paso, The Opportunity Center for the Homeless along with numerous scholarships honoring his late daughter, Don Haskins and others and include a Bobby Joe Hill Endowment Fund.
An awards banquet and dance will be held on May 30. The golf tournament will be held May 31 and June 1. Both events will be held at Fort Bliss Underwood Golf Complex.
I’m waiting with bated breath to see him and give him a great big congratulatory hug.

TRIVIA QUESTION: What is the distance between a batter and a pitcher in an adult baseball game? Answer at end.

ERIC DARNELL, El Paso’s contribution to last fall’s outstanding Fordham University football team, is sporting some nice jewelry today. He received his ring for having been part of the winningest team in Fordham University football history last season. Fordham missed winning the national championship by only two games.

RUDY RAMOS, a golf star at Austin High School in the 1950s, was on the phone. It was like a voice out of the past. He had given up golf for some time but decided to take it up again recently. Darn if he didn’t go out and shoot himself a hole-in-one on the No. 2, 160-yard hole at Lone Star Golf Club. He did it with a 5-wood. And he’s 77 years old! Witnessing the ace were son Steve Ramos, Manny Bautista and Nicky Garcia. I’m not surprised. I played several rounds with Rudy in the ‘50s and saw his exceptional talent up close.

THERE’S STILL a lot of speculation as to how long we’ll keep Keitha Adams as coach of the UTEP women’s basketball team after such a successful season. I heard her say with my own ears at the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame ceremonies, “I’ll be back next season.” Hmmm. And after that? Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

GOOD NEWS. You can now get my book, “The Good, the Bad and the Funny of El Paso Sports History,” at local Barnes and Noble Book Stores. It’s been flying off the shelves so if you don’t find it in stock you can order it from Barnes and Noble and have it delivered to you. Or you can order it from Amazon.com, Mesa Publishing Corporation at 584-0626, PDX Printing or the UTEP Book Store.

ANSWER to trivia question: 60 feet, six inches.

by Ray Sanchez 05.04.14

What a week in sports!

Last Monday, the El Paso Chihuahuas opened their home season in their grand new baseball stadium.

Last Wednesday, the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame held its 2014 induction banquet.

On Thursday, the Downtown Lions held their annual Dinner with the Miners awards banquet.

On Saturday, the Kentucky Derby was simulcast at Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino.

On Sunday, I collapsed. (Just kidding.)

THE SCENE at Southwest University Park last Monday night can be described, among other things, as unforgettable. There wasn’t an empty seat and even the weatherman cooperated. The winds that howled through the day turned into a soft breeze that caressed the fans.

As for the game, can you believe a 13-inning pitching duel that included some super-duper defensive plays? It was such a great performance the spectators didn’t care too much that the Fresno Grizzlies beat our hometown Chihuahuas 2-1. They cheered both teams at the end.

SPECTATORS even seemed to enjoy the pre-game introductions, which went on for some 45 minutes.

Chihuahua’s officials didn’t seem to miss introducing any of the dignitaries from both sides of the border. Mayor Oscar Leeser, who seems on his way to becoming one of the most popular El Paso mayors ever, was there, of course. UTEP President Dr. Diana Natalicio got one of the biggest cheers.

Former El Paso Diablos owner Jim Paul, who put El Paso on the baseball map, was warmly greeted. A special touch was having Andy Morales, a member of the 1949 state baseball champion Bowie High Bears, throw out the first pitch.

And some of the biggest ovations went to members of the construction crew who made it all happen.

AS FOR THE El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame banquet Wednesday, it inducted eight more of our outstanding athletes.

There was coach Keitha Adams, the grand lady of UTEP women’s basketball, accepting her award and saying how proud she was of the honor and her players.

And Gene Semko, one of the best football officials in the country, recalling how he went from a local high school official to working BCS games.

PGA Tour winner J.P. Hayes saying he stayed in El Paso to live because he loved El Pasoans, his family – and the food.

Sports promoter Bob Azar telling us about some of his best sporting events – and the one that got away between police on both sides of the border that would have gotten the cities closer together.

Marathon running star Larisa Ito Pitchkolan telling how her kids motivated her to keep running.

Women’s basketball star Gloria Estrada saying how proud she was of being a pioneer in the sport at UTEP in the 1970s, and how proud she was of the Miners’ women’s basketball team this year.

UTEP Fan Club president Larry Rodriguez saying how much he enjoys helping get Miners fans to events and adding he has many folks who help him.

And Irma Price, sister of late Austin High/New Mexico University basketball star Gabe Nava, saying how proud she was of her brother and how shocked she and her family were when they learned of his death at the age of 29.

THE DINNER with the Miners and the Kentucky Derby came too late to make my deadline for this week’s El Paso Inc.

The Dinner with the Miners is a great way to honor UTEP’s top athletes and, as usual, there were some outstanding ones this year.

As for the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, well, you can bet it was one of the biggest simulcast events at Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino again. Sunland goes all out to make Kentucky Derby Day a pleasurable event each year, including holding a buffet lunch for its Turf Club members.

Yes, it was a memorable week in El Paso sports.

by Ray Sanchez 04.27.14
I’ve been trying to come up with a word to describe El Paso’s new downtown baseball stadium. I thought of the words “beautiful” and “gorgeous” and even “awesome” but I finally decided on “breathtaking.”
That’s because it literally took my breath away when I saw it for the first time during a personally guided tour last week.
And I think it will do the same to you when you attend Monday’s first home game between the El Paso Chihuahuas and the Fresno Grizzlies.

THE FACILITY’S name is Southwest University Stadium but by any name it’s an architectural marvel. To think that such a magnificent structure could be built in such a small amount of space is all but incredible. I posed that to my tour guide, Peter Svarzbein of Multimedia Artist-Visual Solutions who has been hired to do a documentary on film and a book about the stadium.
He pointed out that the solution to the space problem was just simply to go more vertical than most stadiums. It’s hardly noticeable but the geniuses at CF Jordan/Hunt Construction Group did it. The seats are a bit higher than say, at Cohen Stadium or other stadiums, so you’ll have a less obstructed view of the action wherever you sit.

AND WHAT a view. Not only is it a kaleidoscope of color but with the city and the mountains right in front of you you’ll think you’re in heaven – especially if you’re a baseball fan.
The field itself is a beauty what with the grass part so green and so immaculate it almost glimmers.
And there are special touches to the structure that will make you smile. For instance, part of the wall in left field was painted blue to signify our Rio Grande River. And some of the steel arches inside are like the ones at Union Depot which sits nearby. And there’s the grassy area in left centerfield where fans can sit and have fun and picnic while they watch the teams play.
They’re little things but they all add up to a heartwarming touch.

I TALKED to some members of the construction crew. They seemed proud of what they were doing. “Look at what we’ve done,” project safety manager Ben Ordonez said. “After tearing down things we had a lot of concrete and other stuff we had to haul out of here. Then we had to start from scratch and start building the stadium — and we did all that in less than a year.”
He added that at one time or another 3000 construction workers were employed and that many days 500 or more workers were on hand at one time.

THE TOTAL cost of the stadium will be around $72 million, most of it to be paid by you and me, the taxpayers. The rest will be picked up by MountainStar Sports Group.
Getting to the point we are now was a long and sometimes painful process. There was much opposition to the project. Why build it downtown where you have to tear down existing buildings? After all, some said, El Paso had a perfectly fine Cohen Stadium already.
It was also pointed out that parking will be a big problem.
And then there was the cost.

ALL TRUE and valid points but MountainStar Sports Group and other backers held their ground. They pointed out the stadium will benefit all El Pasoans, will revitalize surrounding businesses and will provide a facility that will be family friendly.
That is true, too.
Pete Svarzbein says that once the umpire calls out “Play ball!” the problems will begin to fade away and fans will appreciate what we have now.
Also true. After all, having a Triple A baseball team and such a grand new stadium is something of which all El Pasoans can be proud.

by Ray Sanchez 04.20.14

Are you still aglow over the 2013-2014 UTEP basketball seasons? I am. I mean, these guys and gals were just plain fun to watch. They scrapped, they fought, they far exceeded expectations, they drove El Pasoans into a frenzy.

Okay, so the UTEP men’s basketball team didn’t go so far as the women. But hey, they sure were exciting, too. When the men were on top of their game they made pin-point passes, broke away for layups, made flying dunks that left spectators gasping. They even beat Tennessee, a team that made it to the NCAA Sweet 16.

Small wonder they drew more than 11,000 spectators to some of their home games.

AS FOR THE women, my goodness. They were simply out of this world.

I grew up in an era when women were expected to be “dainty.” These 2013-2014 female Miners ran and rebounded like a bunch of pretty wildcats, giving as much as taking with bumps and pushes and elbows just like the men.

Oh, yes, and making layups, fancy passes and sinking three pointers just like the men.

In fact, I would dare say the Miner women were just as good shooters as the UTEP men, if not better.

THE WOMEN were so good, in fact, they reached the finals of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament and although out-matched in size and quickness they made the greatest second half comeback in the history of the program and lost to Rutgers by a mere two points, 56-54.

In the process, they set attendance records, selling out the 12,000 seat Don Haskins Center not once, but twice.

Many of us never thought we’d see the day that would happen.

BUT HOW about next season? Well, who better to ask than my crystal ball? I know, I know. My crystal ball is obnoxious but it correctly predicted last December that UTEP would have a winning season and has been right much more often than not.

I was surprised when I took it out of its drawer. “That was some kind of basketball season, wasn’t it?” it beamed.

I was so shocked by its positive attitude I couldn’t speak so it went on, “Now you want to know about next season, right?”

I was still agape and all I could do was nod.

WITH A SHRUG it continued, “I don’t see why next season can’t be as good or better for both UTEP teams. Let’s take the men first.

“Their tall men this season couldn’t jump more than an inch off the ground and too often got out-rebounded by smaller players. The team also gave up too many layups, made too many bad passes and toward the end of the season they showed their lack of depth and pooped out.

“But their two top players, Julian Washburn and incredibly talented freshman Vince Hunter, will be back and they’re absolutely topnotch. Coach Tim Floyd will have to come up with more depth and a better point guard but he’s a great recruiter and I bet he will.”

THE CRYSTAL Ball took a breath and went on. “As for the women, they lose two of their top big players, Kayla Thornton and Kristine Vitola. They were 6 feet 1 and 6 feet 4 respectively and they’ll be missed. But the team will have at least five players six feet or over returning, including 6 feet 6 Marta Oledzka, and we know that coach Keitha Adams is a magician when it comes to developing players.

“On top of that, they’ll have their top rebounder, 5’10” Chrishuana Parker, back as well as some super guards, including Jenzel Nash, a human dynamo.

“Heck, I’m so excited about next year’s prospects I can hardly wait for the 2014-2015 season to begin.”

I WAS SO astonished by the crystal ball’s upbeat tone I hated for it to stop talking. Still, I feared that positive attitude wouldn’t last so I quickly thanked it, picked it up and put it back in its drawer.