![]() Pete Shock is one of seven 2014 inductees to New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame. He was a native of Cliff in Grant County and graduated from Cliff High School in 1968. He was a three sport athlete, playing basketball, track and baseball and came from a coaching family. At Cliff, he played for his father, Dale Shock, a noted basketball coach who won over 400 games as head coach at Cliff from 1935-1970. Pete was named to the 1968 All-State Team in basketball and the South All-Star Team. After graduating from high school, Coach Shock earned a BA in 1972 and an MA in 1977 from Western New Mexico University. While at WNMU, he lettered in basketball four years under head coach Dick Drangmeister and was named in 1972 to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics All-District and Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference All-Conference Team. He began coaching at Silver High School in 1972, serving as an assistant coach to Marv Sanders for three years before becoming head coach for three. He also served as Head Cross Country Coach during this six year period. In 1978, he accepted the head coaching positions in basketball and track at Cliff High School where he would remain until his retirement in 2013. During his remarkable 41 year career, his teams won 822 games, ranking him behind only Ralph Tasker (1,121) and Marv Sanders (832). Under his leadership, the Cliff Cowboys won nine state championships in basketball. In his last five years, they reached the final four a total of four times, going on to win the championship on two occasions. His track teams also won many district and state titles. Shock has been named Basketball Coach of the Year by New Mexico High School Coaches Association, Class A Coach of the year several times, received district coaching honors numerous times. He was inducted into the National Federation of State High School Association Hall of Fame in 2011. At this writing, Coach Shock is retired and living in New Mexico. Continuing the Shock family coaching legacy, his son Brian Shock now coaches the Cliff Cowboy basketball team.
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Miyamura High School in McKinley County was opened in 2007 on the former campus of Gallup Junior High School. It was named for Korean War veteran and hero Hirosh H. Miyamura. Miyamura, a native of Gallup, had joined the Army in World War II and was a member of the much honored Japanese-American 442 Regimental Combat Team. However, he was too young to go overseas and also suffered a hernia. The war had ended by the time he recovered, but he remained in the U.S. Army Reserve thereafter, returning to active duty to serve in the Korean Conflict. On the evening of April 24, 1951 Miyamura was a machine gun squad leader and his outfit, Company H, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division were defending a position against opposing Chinese troops. During a battle, he found himself with the only machine gun in place until his gun jammed, leaving him with his M-1 rifle, his pistol and two cases of grenades. He could see the Chinese troops were making an effort to outflank his position, so he told his men to withdraw. After defending with his rifle and grenades as long as he could, he was making his own way back to safety when he became caught up in barbed wire. He tried to make contact with the driver of a nearby tank but was unable to do so, so he crawled under the wire and ran a short distance and continued to fight. He is credited with killing 60 enemy troops before his position was was overrun. He lay motionless on the ground in an effort to avoid discovery but was soon captured. Miyamura was taken behind the lines and confined with other captives where he would remain a prisoner of war for over a year. His identity was unknown for a long time, so his family was told that he was missing in action. His his fate was unknown to them for about a year. Miyamura was released on August 23, 1953 and about that time was informed that he'd been awarded the Medal of Honor. The citation for the medal had been signed by President Truman in 1951 but kept secret during his captivity. He was awarded the medal by President Eisenhower on October 27, 1953. Miyamura returned home to Gallup where he worked as an automobile mechanic. He returned to Korea in the 1970s and again in 2000 and on the second visit, he visited the battleground where he was captured. To learn more about Hiroshi Miyamura, please see his Youtube video or the article at Military.com. ![]() George Young, was born in Roswell and graduated from Western High School in Silver City, and then went on to have a record-breaking career at the University of Arizona. Western High School was the former location of Silver High School. The 1939 structure is no longer there, but is now the location of a residence hall of Western New Mexico University. At the University of Arizona, he began running the 3000 meter steeplechase and finished second in that event in the National AAU championship. He graduated from Arizona in 1959 and was named outstanding athlete of the year. Upon his graduation, Young qualified for the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. That year, he lost in the preliminary rounds of the 3000 meter steeplechase event after tripping over a hurdle, thus disqualifying him for the finals, but the following year he broke the American record by completing the event in 8:31.0. In the 1964 Tokyo games, he improved his record in the event. He also competed in the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics, becoming the first U.S. runner to compete in four Olympics. At the 1968 Olympics held at the high altitude venue in Mexico, he competed in the marathon and the steeplechase, placing 16th in the former event and winning the bronze medal in the latter. Young went on to compete in the following two Summer Olympics. Along the way, he set two world records for the indoor two and three mile. During his career, he held age records in various events. At age 34, he became the oldest person at the time to run a mile in under four minutes with a time of 3:59.6. Young went on to coach seven sports during his 25 year tenure at Central Arizona College, winning 14 championships there, including the 1988 national cross country title. In 1988, Young was named the National Junior College Athletic Association Coach of the Year. He became a member of the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1981 and the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in 2003. He was honored in 2014 by being named to the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame. His biography was penned in 1975 by author Frank Dolson in his book "Always Young," available from various sources. To learn more about George Young, please see his interview at www.garycohenrunning.com. Rocky Arroyo was born in 1925 to Mexican immigrant parents then living in El Paso, Texas. He was an exceptional student, and skipping grades allowed him to enter El Paso High School at the age of 12. There he continued to excel with his academic and athletic skills. He played on the Texas state championship team that defeated Abilene High for the title. He graduated from El Paso High at age 16 and first attended the Texas School of Mines and Metallurgy, now known as University of Texas at El Paso, for one summer before transferring to University of New Mexico.
At University of New Mexico, Arroyo competed on basketball teams that were to win Border Conference championships in 1943-1944 and 1944-1945, the only two championships ever won by UNM. While attending, Arroyo played varsity football, baseball and basketball and earned an electrical engineering degree at the age of 20. When asked by his granddaughter in an audio interview about how he got his nickname, he replied that he was given it by UNM Athletic Director George "Blanco" White. Blanco had asked Arroyo his name and when he told him "Vicente Arroyo," Blanco asked, "You mean like the arroyos we have around here?" He proceeded to name him Rocky, and the nickname stuck. Arroyo went on to become the head coach at Our Lady of Sorrows High School in Bernalillo in 1946 while finding time to also compete on the Mexican Olympic basketball team that same year. Our Lady of Sorrows was a Catholic High School and the only high school in Bernalillo for many years until Bernalillo built a public school in 1950s. Despite his youth, he was appealing as a teacher because of his degree in science which allowed him to teach mathematics. He also fluently spoke both English and Spanish. His teams competed well against the larger schools in the Rio Grande Valley, including St. Mary's, Albuquerque High and Highland High, once defeating all three in back to back games. He later coached one season (1954) at Valley High School before leaving education for the business world. He never lost his love for athletics and served for many years as a official at the high school and college level. Arroyo officiated at the New Mexico State Basketball Tournament at least 6 times between 1960-1972 and for the Western Athletic Conference, he officiated in football for four Sun Bowl games and one Japan Bowl, Peach Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and Rose Bowl and numerous other college games. He had a business career as an engineer at Sandia Corporation and also founded other varied businesses in the Albuquerque area. Rocky Arroyo was inducted into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame in its 2014 class. Now retired, Arroyo resides in Albuquerque. [Addendum: Rocky Arroyo passed away in January, 2015, shortly after this was written.] The New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame, formerly known as the Albuquerque Sports Hall of Fame, inducted 7 individuals into its 2014 class, including Vicente Francisco "Rocky" Arroyo, Trent Dimas, Ralph Neely, Pete Shock, Bill Bridges, George Young and the late Ralph Kiner. In the coming weeks, we will profile those who have not yet been already been discussed here in the blog.
The 2015 New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for March 1, 2015 at Sandia Resort & Casino. Tickets for the banquet may be purchased through the NMSHOF website. |
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We post articles of general interest about New Mexico athletes, coaches and sports. Some names will already be familiar to you. Others are perhaps not as well known, but we hope you enjoy them all. Archives
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