23 Jul

Book About Football Star Sal Olivas In Works

Posted by EL PASO SPORTS in El Paso Sports.

07.21.13 by Ray Sanchez
salolivasnowJoe Shepard, Cathedral High’s biggest booster and author of the book “Shakin’ Down Irish Thunder” which came out last year, is in the process of doing another book, this one about Sal Olivas.
You remember Sal. You do if you read this column. He’s one of the greatest El Paso-born quarterbacks ever to come out of this city. He played at, naturally, Cathedral High School. But he didn’t go on to play for UTEP. He played for the Miners’ biggest rival, New Mexico State. Warren Woodsen, the coach at New Mexico State, called him “the hardest long ball thrower I’ve ever coached.”

IN KEEPING with my policy of remembering our past sports stars and to refresh your memory, here’s a reprint of what I wrote some years ago about Olivas:
“During his career with the Aggies, Olivas threw for 17 touchdown passes as a junior, 19 touchdown passes as a senior, tied a national collegiate record by completing his first 14 passes against New Mexico University, twice threw for five touchdown passes in a game, led the nation in total offense his senior year, was chosen All-American by at least one source and was selected to play in the annual Blue-Gray game.
“He was a National Honor Society student at Cathedral High School where he beat out several state supported public school players to be named All-City quarterback.

“HIS BRAINS came in handy for Woodson, who often loved to use different formations in his offense, which Olivas handled with remarkable deftness.
“Charley Johnson led the New Mexico State Aggies to two Sun Bowl games and made it with the St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL. Olivas broke Johnson’s school passing records during his stint with New Mexico State from 1965 to 1967.”
Sal Olivas, 67, today is Internet and inventory manager at Casa Nissan in El Paso.
Shepard, who among other things, puts out a newsletter for the Irish, asked me if he could use some of my writings for his new book. Go for it, Joe.

TRIVIA QUESTION: How many horses have won the Kentucky Derby twice? Answer at end.

SPEAKING OF the Irish, UTEP president Dr. Diana Natalicio had to postpone her visit to the school’s alumni monthly breakfast on July 13. She has rescheduled for Saturday, Aug. 3.

TOM CIABURRI, the renowned sportscaster known in sports circles as Joe Fan, wrote after reading our column on Yogi Berra: “Just thought I’d let you know. Yogi Berra has a national best selling book that sold over 300,000 copies called, ‘The Yogi Book – I Really Didn’t Say Everything I Said’ by Workman Publishing. It has 120 pages of Yogi-isms in it. I used that book to explain Yogi-isms when I taught freshman English at Cathedral High back in 1994-2003.”

MEMBERS OF the El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame are still in mourning over the passing of Frank Wilkin, a member of the Hall’s Board of Directors. Board president Larry Hernandez and other members provided a floral tribute at his funeral.

AND IF YOU’RE a football fan you’ll be happy to read the following news item:
“ The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) highlighted today that 12 new college football teams will take the field for the first time this season, including a record number of nine schools entering the NCAA in 2013.
“No other sport contributes more to the vibrancy of a college campus than football, and the trend of adding programs continues full force,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “University and college presidents clearly see the value of having programs on their campuses, and we applaud them for understanding the role football can play in the educational experience of all their students.”

ANSWER TO trivia question: Gotcha. The answer is none. The race is only for three year olds.

19 Jul

When Bill Squires was El Paso’s Football Idol

Posted by EL PASO SPORTS in El Paso Sports. Tagged: .

youngsquires07.15.13 by Ray Sanchez
When I entered El Paso High School as a 14-year-old freshman in the fall of 1941 everywhere I went throughout the school I kept hearing the name Bill Squires. He seemed to be every young girl’s dreamboat and every young boy’s idol.
And for good reason. The year before, as a junior, he had quarterbacked the Tigers to their greatest football season ever, winning not only the district championship but also the bi-district playoff.
His coach, Jewell Wallace, called him “the finest high school passer I’ve ever seen.” And Wallace, a former coach at TCU, had seen plenty of good ones, including legendary Sammy Baugh.

SQUIRES AND the Tigers tied Big Spring 27-27 in the 1940 bi-district game but advanced on penetrations. Then, in the quarterfinals, they lost, 27-0, to eventual state champion Amarillo in an ice storm in Amarillo. It was so cold players had to wear gloves. Despite the handicap, Squires completed 27 of 42 passes.
Perhaps his best game that season was against a very tough Pampa Harvesters team. In that one, Squires connected on 22 of 29 passes.

THE TIGERS didn’t win the district title during Squires’ senior year in 1941 but he continued to set passing records, throwing up to 40 passes in one game and completing most of them.
He was named to the All-District football team again and continued to get raves throughout Texas.
His passing overshadowed the fact he could also run like the wind. He was the district champion in the 100 yards dash and was a member of the 440 relay team that made the state meet.

AMONG HIS awards, he was named the Most Valuable Player in the district and received honorable mention on the Texas All-State High School team in 1940 and as a senior he was chosen to play in the Oil Bowl Game between Texas and Oklahoma.
He is still the only quarterback to have led El Paso High School past the bi-district playoffs
Yes, colleges came calling. He accepted a full scholarship to SMU but whatever bright football future was ahead for him was ended by a serious knee injury.

BUT WHY, you ask, am I telling you all this? Because, as readers of this column know, I like to keep reminding you about some of our old time sports stars.
Squires, 88, is not in the best of health at this writing. He is on oxygen all the time. But he is mentally okay and is usually in his office in the mornings.
He had quite a career away from sports, too. As his wife, Kathleen Squires, says, “he continued to be an involved, committed and hard-working citizen of El Paso.
“After leaving Continental National Bank, which he chartered in 1973-4 and served on the Board and as president until 1983, he ran unsuccessfully for the El Paso Westside alderman post. The next three years were spent at his home in Alto (Ruidoso) where he skied in the winter and golfed all year (as much as possible), maintaining his scratch golf handicap.”

THEN, SHE ADDS, “Boredom set in, so he studied for and took the exam to get into law school. Upon applying, he was accepted at two law schools – choosing the University of San Diego. In May, 1989, at 65 years old, after four years of study, he received his J.D. degree from the University of San Diego Law School, and he took and passed the California Bar exam before returning to El Paso.
“In early 2003, he sold his home in Jardines (El Paso), where he served on their Association’s Board, and moved to Las Cruces, where he created a governing body for that new neighborhood association. He served on the Las Cruces Airport Board for six years from 2004-2010 (also as chairman). He continued to play golf, at least weekly, at El Paso Country Club with his regular group until about 2008, and his membership at El Paso Country Club is active to this day.”

BILL SQUIRES is now relatively inactive but continues to enjoy reading, television, sports and visits of his children, thirteen grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren.
I hope you enjoyed reading about this extraordinary man as much as I did bringing him to you.

10 Jul

Yankees Have Yogi-isms — and so does El Paso

Posted by EL PASO SPORTS in El Paso Sports, Ray Sanchez. Tagged: , , , .

yogi07.07.13 by Ray Sanchez
Yogi Berra, who has been mentioned in this column recently, has always been one of my favorite New York Yankees. No, it’s not just because of his exceptional ability but because of his sense of humor. In fact, he became famous almost as much for his sayings as his greatness as a catcher.
When the Yankees played in El Paso in 1951, he hit a ball so far over the Dudley Field fence some swear the ball landed where the El Paso Zoo is now, and folks, that’s a long, long way.

OKAY, SO YOGI wasn’t among the prettiest of faces in baseball when he was playing. When someone pointed that out to him, he replied, “Nobody ever hit a baseball with his face.”
Some time ago, reader Tom Hussmann sent me a list of some of Yogi’s funniest comments. I’m still laughing and I thought I’d share some of them with you.
Oh, and I want to add some of the comments I’ve heard on radio and television here in El Paso. We have our own Yogis.

FIRST, HERE are some of my favorite Yogi-isms:
On something happening again: “It’s like deja vu all over again.”
On why the Yankees lost a game: “We made too many wrong mistakes.”
On the economy: “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”
On the world as a whole: “If the world was perfect, it wouldn’t be.”
On getting lost: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up some place else.”
On being quoted: “I really didn’t say everything I said.”
On things to come: “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
On the opera and one of his most quoted sayings: “It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.”

AND A FEW more:
On a restaurant he used to frequent: “Nobody goes there anymore because it’s too crowded.”
On the Yankees: “We have deep depth.”
On fan mail: “Never answer anonymous letters.”
On baseball: “90 percent of the game is half mental.”
On daylight saving time: “It gets late early out there.”
And his most famous line about games: “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”

STILL LAUGHING over Yogi’s sayings? Following are some of the comments I’ve collected, with the help of some other listeners, through the years from callers to talk shows in El Paso:
On complimenting an athlete: “He’s heads and tails above the rest.”
On a controversy: “He added fire to the fuel.”
On complaining about an athlete: “Not to pour rain on his parade.”
On college football: “Lou Holtz doesn’t walk on air.”
On being quoted: “I didn’t say half the things I said.”

AND MORE:
On what baseball is all about: “Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical.”
On a developing story: “The cover is coming off the lid.”
On a developing athlete: “He has quietly made some noise.”
On a controversy: “That’s the whole side of both stories.”
On being wrong: “I was remiss if I missed it early.”
On a controversy: “Coronado has the situation underhand.”

I’M SURE we all misspeak at one time or another. We’re all human. But hey, it’s good to laugh at ourselves every now and then.

6 Jul

El Paso’s Jack Welch Hot on, Off the Course

Posted by EL PASO SPORTS in El Paso Sports. Tagged: , .

jackwithtradetools06.30.13 by Ray Sanchez

Short shots:

JACK WELCH, El Paso golf guru/musician, set a personal golf record the other day at Dos Lagos Golf Course. He birdied five holes in a row on the back nine for a score of 31.
Besides teaching golfers the intricacies of the golf swing, Welch has been packing them in with his music on Thursday nights at the Sunland Winery. In fact, he’s been such a hit he will soon also be performing there on Saturday nights beginning July 6.

INCIDENTALLY, I was surprised with the size of the Sunland Winery, located at1769 Victory Lane, when I visited there recently. I thought it was just a, well, a place that produces wine. But it’s a huge building that also has a room for Spanish and English classes, another section to teach painting and a big section for transferring paintings and photos onto canvases.

TRIVIA QUESTION: This might be a little tricky. What National League first baseman won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1947? Answer at end.

LAST WEEK’S column about Ron Gillett being batboy for the New York Yankees when they played in El Paso in 1951 was well received. In fact, Pete Ciccarrelli, a former El Paso Herald-Post sports writer turned public relations man, emailed me from out of town and called it “fabulous” because it was a story of great human interest. What kid wouldn’t like to be batboy for the New York Yankees?

SO HOW MUCH is the ball autographed by Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto and other Yankees of that era that Gillett owns worth? I did a little googling and found that a ball autographed by just Joe DiMaggio is worth $1200, and there are a bunch of them available. But how about one autographed by DiMaggio and other big stars of that era like Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto and other greats? Should be worth much more.

I WAS SURPRISED how many people are still around who attended that Yankees game and other games involving major league teams more than 60 years ago in El Paso. Julius Lowenberg, who was so successful as a coach at Canutillo High School that the school named its football stadium after him and his lovely wife Irene, recalls seeing fastball pitcher Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians strike out El Paso players in the late 1940s.

BY THE WAY, Julius Lowenberg is a member of the Cathedral High School Alumni Association and says the group will have a very special guest at its monthly breakfast on July 13: Dr. Diana Natalicio. Am I lucky? Julius invited me to attend.

UTEP HAS lost another basketball player due to an incident in a bar. Why, people ask, don’t these young athletes stay away from potential trouble? Don’t they get counseling? I would think they do, but it’s been happening since I started covering sports 63 years ago.
Really, though, as a matter of fact the great majority of athletes I have found to be good, solid people.

AND A RECENT headline read: “Cohen Stadium could become an adventure water park.” Which led a friend of mine named Ron to groan. I paraphrase: “We’ve been told to conserve water. I took it seriously and did some changes at my house toward that end. Now, they’re telling me they’re going to put in a water park at Cohen Stadium?”

ANSWER to trivia question: Jackie Robinson. He became better known as a second baseman but he played first base his first year with the Brooklyn Dodgers because Eddie Stanky was playing second base then. The following year Stanky was traded and Robinson was moved to second base.

6 Jul

When a Local Youth was Batboy for Yankees

Posted by EL PASO SPORTS in El Paso Sports.

ronwithball06.23.13 by Ray Sanchez

With all the millions of dollars in the Major Leagues today it’s hard to believe that some of those teams used to barnstorm around the country playing exhibition games to raise money.
But it happened, even as late as the 1950s. And some of those teams, including the mighty New York Yankees, played right here in El Paso.
I know. I covered some of the games.

RON GILLETT, owner of Dos Lagos Golf Course, knows, too. In fact, he was the batboy for the Yankees when they played the El Paso Texans at Dudley Field in 1951. And he did something that many of us who were also there wish we had done: He got some of the Yankees’ biggest stars, including Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto, to sign a baseball for him.
He’s kept the ball all these years and heaven knows how much it’s worth. The names are a little faded but still very legible. He put the ball in a glass box soon after he got it.

BUT HOW did El Paso get to host Major League teams and how did Gillett, 12 years old at the time, get to be the Yankees’ batboy?
First, a little history:
George Simpson came to El Paso from Georgia with the National Guard just prior to World War II. He settled in El Paso and became owner of one of the biggest drugstores in the city. Simpson had grown up in Georgia near the home of Ty Cobb, one of the greatest Major League players of all time. He got to know Cobb well and because of that had a great connection to the big leagues. He became the biggest promoter of exhibition baseball games in the history of El Paso. He put on as many as four exhibition games involving big league teams in the spring and also had some big league teams play exhibitions after the Major League season was over. He booked such teams as the old St. Louis Browns, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Chicago White Sox, the Philadelphia Athletics, the New York Giants and the Pittsburg Pirates.

THE YANKEES had never come to El Paso before but because of a scheduling change they agreed to play here one March day in 1951. Ron Gillett’s father, Sam, knew the Dudley Field groundskeeper, Joe Manago. Well before the game, Manago let Ron onto the field and told him to go to the Dudley Field dugout and just sit there.
Ron quietly obeyed. When manager Casey Stengel and third base coach Frank Crosetti got there they just assumed he was assigned to do bat duty.
“I was awe-struck through it all,” Ron says. “Dudley Field was packed. The grandstand was full and many people were along the sidelines.”

RUBEN PORRAS, who had pitched for the Bowie High School Bears when they won the state championship in 1949, was the Texans’ starting pitcher against the Yankees. He got the first two Yankees out then Hank Bauer hit a homerun and Joe DiMaggio followed with another.
“Then,” “Ron recalls, “Yogi Berra came up and hit an even longer homerun. It was way, way over the fence.”
Ron has another recollection of Yogi. “He took some infield practice at second base before the game – with his catcher’s mitt.”
Ron Gillett has just one regret. He didn’t get Mickey Mantle’s autograph. “Mantle was just a rookie and unknown at the time,” Gillett groans.

AFTER THE GAME, Crosetti gave Ron a couple of cracked bats, probably meaning it as a gift of gratitude for Ron’s work. Ron went home, taped them up and used them in basebll games himself.
Ron went on to become a star athlete at El Paso High School and since his father Sam’s death, he has beeen running Dos Lagos Golf Course.
What wonderful memories Ron must have.
And oh, what a treasure that autographed ball must be.

6 Jul

Gloria Estrada Was a Super Star at UTEP

Posted by EL PASO SPORTS in El Paso Sports.

gloriaestrada06.16.13 by Ray Sanchez

I’ve said we shouldn’t forget our sports stars of yore. Wayne Thornton, marketing and public relations manager for the El Paso Parks and Recreation Department, agrees.
And boy, did he come up with a gem this year:
Gloria Estrada.
Hadn’t heard of her? Not too many have. You see she was on the first-ever basketball team at UTEP. Few, if any fans, would show up at the games and there was little notice of the games in the media.
Not only that, there was little money to help the team. “There were no airplane rides for us,” she recalls. “We made long, long trips on vans to out of town games – even Brigham Young University.
“We also didn’t’ have much money for equipment. We would wear converse tennis shoes in games. Turned ankles were common.”
Nevertheless, she was UTEP’s first female basketball super star. She led the Miners in scoring as both a junior and senior and is tied for second in school history for most field goals made in a game (14 versus New Mexico State).

BEFORE MORE on Gloria, let me give you a little history.
Equality in women’s sports came to UTEP as it did with other universities with the adoption of Title IX of the Health, Education and Welfare Department (HEW) in 1972. The Herculean task of implementing it at UTEP fell on the shoulders of newly appointed athletic director of the Miners, Jim Bowden, a former star quarterback at the school. He had inherited the job after George McCarty had left for Wyoming following the 1972 season. It was a big blow to budgets throughout the country but especially to UTEP, which had a low economic base to begin with. What’s more, unlike many other state universities, UTEP did not receive funding from the state legislature,

UTEP’S ATHLETIC budget at the time was $650,000, the lowest in the Western Athletic Conference.
It took a while but there were El Pasoans willing to help. Wayne Thornton and Don Lewis, a couple of radio show hosts at the time, went to UTEP president Arleigh Templeton and proposed forming a women’s basketball team. Thornton and Lewis had coached a girls’ flag football team and Lewis a girls’ intramural basketball team. Templeton was so impressed with their enthusiasm he provided them with $1000. It was barely enough to buy uniforms but it was a start.

BUT GETTING back to Gloria Estrada, Thornton, who co-coached her the first two years at UTEP, says she is the purist shooter he ever saw. “She could hit from anywhere,” he says.
Gloria, who also played volleyball, is quite modest. “There was no three point line in basketball at the time but I made quite a few baskets from that distance,” she says. “I made quite few free throws, too. Unfortunately, no statistics were held in those early years.”
She had been a super star at Fabens High School, too, scoring as much as 60 points in one game. She says she enrolled at UTEP “because I wanted to keep playing basketball.”
She has spent the last 34-plus years teaching and coaching in the Fabens, San Elizario and Canutillo school districts. She’s had many winning seasons.

THORNTON nominated her for both the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame and the UTEP Athletic Hall of Fame this year.
She didn’t make the former but will be inducted into the UTEP Athletic Hall of Fame at the Hall’s annual banquet in October.
Other inductees into the UTEP Athletic Hall this year will be:
Gus Bailey, Harry Flournoy, Wayne Hansen and Greg Joy.
Bailey earned All-Western Athletic Conference and NABC All-District honors twice (1973-74) during his tenure at UTEP.
Flournoy was the leading rebounder and a team captain on the 1966 national championship squad.
Hansen played at UTEP for three years before moving on to the NFL, first with the Bears and later the Cowboys.
Joy won the high jump title at the 1975 and 1977 NCAA Indoor Championships.
Tickets for the 2013 UTEP Athletic Hall of Fame induction banquet are $25 per person or $160 for tables of eight and can be purchased by calling (915) 747-8759.

6 Jul

Backers of Nolan Richardson Charity are Legion

Posted by EL PASO SPORTS in El Paso Sports, Ray Sanchez.

nolannow06.09.13 by Ray Sanchez

El Pasoan Ron Henry said it best: “I wish I was as rich as Nolan Richardson, not in money, but in friends.”
So many people, organizations and businesses contribute to Richardson’s charity golf tournament in El Paso each year that the list seemed endless when he tried to name them all at the tournament’s 26th annual banquet on May 31.
Richardson proudly announced that his tournament, which is the fund raising arm for the Yvonne Richardson Memorial Foundation that honors his late daughter, has now raised more that $1.5 million which has been donated to various charities.

RICHARDSON and I go back a long way. In fact, I gave him his very first writeup. It was in 1950. Little League baseball had been started in El Paso that year by Bob Haynsworth, an El Paso businessman. There was still segregation in the country but Haynsworth opened Little League to all races.
It was my first year as a sports writer at the El Paso Herald-Post. The Little League games that year were held at Houston Elementary School, which had enough ground to include a small diamond. Richardson, nine years old at the time, stepped up to the plate and hit a tremendous homerun over the fence. If not the first, it was certainly one of the first homeruns ever hit in Little League baseball in El Paso.
I was covering youth sports for the El Paso Herald-Post at the time. I didn’t know, or care, at the time who he was or that he was black but I mentioned his homerun in a little story in the newspaper. For some unknown reason, I saved that little story and still have that clipping in my files.

I CAN’T DESCRIBE the thrills I have felt through the years as I saw what that little guy went on to accomplish in sports. Nolan was an all-district star in all three major sports (football, basketball and baseball) at Bowie High School, an outstanding basketball player at what was then Texas Western College and one of the best college basketball coaches in the country.
To this day, he is the only coach to win all three college level basketball championships – junior college at Western Texas Junior College, the NIT at Tulsa and the NCAA at University of Arkansas.
Not all in life has been rosy for this amazing man. Besides battling the color line all his life, he lost his daughter, Yvonne, to leukemia when she was 15, which led to the creation of the present memorial tournament. And just a little over a year ago, he lost his 47-year-old son, Nolan Richardson III.

THROUGH IT ALL, the elder Richardson has held his head high and has gained some solace in helping others through his charitable foundation.
And he likes to honor people who have helped him. At the banquet this year, attorney Ron Henry was awarded Richardson’s Bobby Joe Hill Humanitarian Man of the Year Award.
The Coach Don Haskins Bear Award went to golf professional Bobby Kaerwer and the Elaine Pharr Woman of the Year Award was presented to Irma Chavez-Rodriguez.
The Alamo Ballroom where the banquet was held was packed, of course. A special guest was Don Haskins’ ever so endearing wife, Mary.

I WAS LUCKY to be invited, too. Nolan has never forgotten the many articles I have written about him, especially in his early years. He even jokingly calls me “my press agent.”
Tubby Smith, the new basketball coach at Texas Tech University, was the guest speaker at the banquet. He said a lot of nice things about Nolan Richardson, not the least of which was his thanks for how Richardson trail blazed and opened opportunities for other black coaches.
Amen to that.

6 Jul

When Dan Wever Met Legendary John Phelan

Posted by EL PASO SPORTS in El Paso Sports.

danwever
As I’ve written before, I love hearing stories from readers. Here’s another one.
Dan Wever is one of the most unusual athletes I’ve ever covered. He was little, he was big, he was a boxer, he was a champion tennis player, he was a horse racing enthusiast and, lately, he’s been involved in civic affairs.
So it was with great interest that I read what he wrote in the following email:

“READ YOUR article with the mention of John Phelan and thought I would share with you a story of my first seeing him. He was in the hospital. I guess it was at Beaumont. I was a member of the YMCA boxing team and we were taken out there to entertain the guys in the hospital. I remember John because he was disfigured and had a tube of flesh grafted to his face as I remember it. I am not sure of the date but it would have had to be around 1948 so he was still recovering from his World War II wounds years after the war was over.
“The guys in the hospital enjoyed the show and probably enjoyed me trying to swing the 16 ounce gloves and stay standing up. If you remember I was rather small back then. As a freshman tennis player I was five feet two and weighed 89 pounds. As a matter of fact I remember you called me ‘a little swatter’ in one of your articles. I like remembering things that referred to me as little. I remember going out for football and coach Red Harris telling me ‘Son, I think you need to find a new sport.’ Which I did.”

THAT LITTLE guy stretched like a rubber band during his teen years and before long Wever stood a bit more than six feet five inches tall.
He added, “Ray, I am only six feet four now as I have shrunk about an inch and a half. I was only 6-1 when I graduated and grew the rest in the service. I only weighed 132 pounds then and only weighed 155 when I got married at 25 years of age, thus my nickname with my friends of ‘El Flaco.’
“Today I am a 75-year-old man trapped in a body with the mind of an 18-year-old but the parts don’t work as they should. My bowling average is 147 and the last time I picked up a 10-pin was last year.”

AS FOR the late John Phelan, he recovered from his wounds and not only did he become one of El Paso’s greatest radio and television sportscasters at KTSM, he became one of the most important figures in the history of El Paso sports.
He helped start the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame in 1955 and was involved in local professional baseball for decades. The team was dissolved after a disastrous 1957 season but Phelan and several others revived the team in 1961 and he served as general manager.
As a sportscaster, he covered just about every sport imaginable.

AS FOR HIS war injury, here’s how I described it in one of my books, “El Paso’s Greatest Sports Heroes:”
“First Lieutenant John Phelan crawled out of the burning building, his face, arms and legs horribly burned. The room he had entered had been booby-trapped by the retreating
German army during World War II. ‘The whole room seemed to explode,’ Phelan painfully remembers. ‘I’m lucky I’m alive.’
“…Phelan’s injuries were sustained on April 1, 1945 – just a little more than a month before Germany surrendered. He was sent to William Beaumont Hospital in El Paso for treatment. He had been burned so badly he required extensive plastic surgery.”

THE DOCTORS did a magnificent job. Phelan became a striking figure, tall and attractive and incredibly personable. And oh, so talented.
He remains one of El Paso’s all-time most admired sports personalities.

6 Jul

Bowie High Ex Did Much for Golf, El Paso

Posted by EL PASO SPORTS in El Paso Sports.

elmanchapa 05.26.13 by Ray Sanchez

In a recent column I wrote that I marveled at how many folks give of their time and effort to help sports and other endeavors in El Paso.
We have lost one of the best in that category. Elman Chapa passed away earlier this month.
It seemed like Elman was born to serve. He was an award-winning drum major and student body president at his beloved Bowie High School, served his country in the Navy during World War II, was the first Hispanic elected to the El Paso Independent School Board where he served for 12 years, was a member and then chairman of the West Texas Council of Governments Executive Committee, was a member of the Executive Committee of the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) and president of the Bowie Alumni Association for many years.

SPORTSWISE, his passion was golf and he became president of the Ascarate Golf Course Association, ran the annual City Golf Championship Tournament, served as president of the El Paso Golf Hall of Fame and was later inducted to the Hall himself.
I knew him and his wife, Lupe, well. He said that his mother once told him, “Nothing worth anything comes easy. If you don’t work for it, you don’t deserve it.” He put that advice to good use.
A devoted husband, father and grandfather, he moved to Dallas a few years ago when his wife needed a heart transplant. She passed away in 2011. It was a hard blow. He became despondent and passed away after a bout with Alzheimer’s at the age of 87 in Dallas on May 13.
Thank you, Elman. You left El Paso better for having been among us.

TRIVIA QUESTION: A player once scored a record 40 points in a National Football League game. Can you name him? Answer at end of column.

IT’S GOOD to see the El Paso Softball Hall of Fame revived. The sport has such a great history.
The Hall had been in limbo since 2005 but last May 15 there was the man for all occasions, Wayne Thornton of the El Paso Parks and Recreation Department, emceeing the induction of 11 new members at Vista Hills Country Club.
Softball has been popular since the early days of El Paso but it really hit its peak in the 1950s and 1960s. It seems like everybody was playing the sport then. There were teams and leagues and the competition was so fierce players were imported from out of town. Think pitcher Paul Lopez.

THE JEWEL of the softball boom was the Major Softball League. It played its games at Memorial Park and I not only attended the games and wrote about them but served as official scorekeeper.
And what a thrill it was when one of our teams, sponsored by late real estate mogul Jack Dautrich, went and won the World Softball Tournament in Canada in 1961 and 1962.
Bobby Nunez, a member of those world champs, was among the inductees into the El Paso Softball Hall of Fame this year.
Other inductees were Bobby Morales, Larry McFarlin, Joe Munoz, Frank Del Toro, Alfredo Gomez, Rick Perez and, posthumously, Isaac Torres, Junie Gamboa, Ricardo Cardenas and Rodolfo Garcia.
Del Toro, you may have noticed, was outstanding in baseball as well as softball and was inducted into the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame as well this year. How sweet is that?

ANSWER to trivia question: Ernie Nevers. He scored six touchdowns and four extra points.

6 Jul

Recalling One of UTEP’s Greatest Linemen

Posted by EL PASO SPORTS in El Paso Sports.

hansenphoto05.19.13 by Ray Sanchez
Some readers have asked me if I have trouble finding something to write about for my weekly sports column. No, I don’t. There’s so much going on locally, nationally and internationally – on the surface as well as behind the scenes – that I usually have a full plate to choose from.
For the subject this week I picked the UTEP Athletic Hall of Fame after I learned that UTEP assistant athletic director Jeff Darby had been put in charge of handling the annual event and was asking for nominations. The induction banquet won’t be held until October but selections have to be made early so that inductees can be contacted, interviewed, arrangements made for transportation, etc.

I QUICKLY nominated the late Wayne Hansen for the honor. Sometimes I’m glad to have been a sports writer as long as I have and can recall some of our greatest athletes of the past. We should never forget them. Allow me to reminisce.
I’ve always felt that football linemen don’t get enough credit. I’ve been lucky during my many years of sports writing to have watched some of the greatest at that position who have played for the Miners.
Wayne Hansen belongs with the best of the best.
He was the toughest Miner on the great UTEP teams of the late 1940s that won 21 of 31 games from1947 through 1949. He played both offense as a center and defense as a guard, tackle and linebacker. He’s the one who opened those gaping holes that star running backs Fred Wendt and Pug Gabrel ran through. And on defense he was an absolute terror.
It’s hard to believe that a lineman can dominate a game, but he could. He wasn’t only big and strong but quick. If Wendt was sent wide because of his speed, there was Hansen blocking for him. If Gabrel was sent up the middle near the goal line, there was Hansen opening the hole for him.
On defense, he was so quick he returned an onside kick 51 yards for a touchdown in the 1950 Sun Bowl to clinch a 33-20 victory over Georgetown. No opponent could catch him.

NOT ONLY WAS he an All-Border Conference selection but he was picked on the all-time All-Rocky Mountain Team made of players since the beginning of time. He was also chosen on the All-Time Miners team up to that point.
He was drafted by Chicago Bears of the National Football League in 1950. There were only 12 teams then and each team was composed of only 33 players. He not only made the team as a rookie but immediately became a starter. He played offensive guard and defensive tackle and even center for a while. In 1955 he was switched to linebacker and it fit him to perfection. He was selected All-Pro and made the Pro Bowl in 1956, 1957 and 1958, He was the Bears’ defensive captain those years.
He retired in 1960 but was lured out of retirement by the Dallas Cowboys and played for them in 1961 and 1962.

HE WOUND up his football career as an assistant coach at Texas Western College, University of Oklahoma and Stanford University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, later got a Masters in physical education and spent the rest of his life as a big backer of the Miners.
I got to know him personally. His son, Rick, and my son, Victor, played basketball together at Coronado High School in the 1960s.
Wayne Hansen was inducted into the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973 and when the Sun Bowl picked an all-star team for its 75th anniversary in 2008 he was chosen on that team, too.
He definitely belongs on the list of UTEP’s greatest football stars.

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