Ross Black is going to be honored at NMJC on April 18, 2015 Ross Black attended Lovington High School where he was a four sport letterman, all-state two times in basketball. In high school, he lettered in football two years, basketball three years, track three years and baseball one year. He was captain of the basketball and track teams his senior year and earned both all-district and all-state honors. In 1949-50, he played for the South in the North-South All Star game in 1950. He was President of the senior class, named best all around boy and most outstanding in school activities in 1950. He was starting guard for the 1949 New Mexico State Championship basketball team, Lovington's first state championship in that sport, under then head coach Ralph Tasker.
He attended Ft. Lewis Junior College in Durango, Colorado, where he was all-conference in basketball and was named Athlete of the Year in 1951. He was captain of the basketball team, lettering in basketball, track and tennis. After transferring to University of New Mexico in 1952, he was a three year letterman in track and basketball, also captain of the track and baskeball teams in 1954. Black was named Track Man of the Year in 1953 and received the Lobo Award for best all around student athlete in 1954. Upon graduation from UNM, Black returned to Lovington to begin his coaching career in 1954, serving as head track coach and assistant football and basketball coach, assuming the head basketball and track coach duties two years later. He was named New Mexico Basketball Coach of the year in 1960 and coached the South to a victory in the 1958 New Mexico North South All Star game. He was honored as New Mexico Physical Education Associan Merit Teacher of the Year award in 1961. His basketball teams won District championships and were runners up one year when Lovington competed in the top class in the state, competing with the largest schools. His teams won four state championships in gymnastics during his tenure at Lovington and his track team finished third in the state meet in 1964, second in 1965 and first in 1966. He served New Mexico Activities Association as a member of the Boys Athletic Committee, Handbook Revision Committee, Budget Committee, Building Committee and Chairman for District 4-AAA. Black served three two year terms as member of the National Federation Executive Committee and served as President of the National Federation Executive Committee in 1989. He also served on several committees and task forces for the National Federation, including Budget Committee for two years, Insurance Committee and the task force for catastrophic injuries. In 1966, he became the first coach and athletic director at the newly completed New Mexico Junior College. His first basketball team earned an 18-10 record and won a position in the Region V playoff tournament. Black organized his first track team at NMJC in 1967. In its first year the Thunderbird track team won the conference championship and Black was named Region V Track Coach of the Year. In 1969, the track team was undefeated in the regular season, winning its second conference championship and finishing 5th at the national track meet. In 1970, win a third consecutive West Junior College Athletic Conference championship, climaxing the season by winning the National Junior College Championship in Mesa, Arizona. Coach Black was honored as National Junior College Coach of the year in 1971 and was also honored by being named as coach of the American team in an international competition in Madrid, Spain. The 1972 track team went undefeated for a fourth consecutive time during its regular season setting a record of 51 consecutive wins, finishing high in the national meet. Black served as President of the National Junior College Track and Field Coaches Association for three years. He retired from coaching at NMJC after the 1973 season to focus on his duties as Athletic Director and Dean of the Division of Education and Psychology. In August of that year, he went to Moscow to serve as a coach on the United States track team in the World University Games, thus ending his remarkable track coaching career. His two relay teams earned the only two gold medals won by the United States in track. He was nominated for the Olympic track and field coaching staff for the 1976 Olympic Games. In 1977 he returned to Lovington to serve as high school principal for four years before becoming superintendent of schools, a position he held until his retirement. He was honored as New Mexico School Administrator of the Year in 1987. His honors include being inducted into the New Mexico Athletic Activities Hall of Fame and being named New Mexico Superintendent of the Year in 1991. He was inducted into the Ft. Lewis College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994, the Western Junior College Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Lea County Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008. After his retirement, Black resided in Lovington until his passing in 2013.
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Joel Hunt was born in Texico, New Mexico in Curry County and graduated from Texico High School. He attended Texas A&M University and was quarterback of the football team under Coach Dana X. Bible. Joel was named to the All-Southwest Conference team all three years. At Texas A&M, his teams had a combined record of 20-4-3 and were conference champions in 1925 and 1927. During his career, he scored 30 touchdowns, which was a school record for 63 years. He also played defense. In one notable game against Southern Methodist University in 1927, Hunt scored 3 touchdowns, punted for an average of 40 yards and intercepted 4 passes in the Aggies' 39-13 win over the Mustangs. He was 5-10 and weighed 162 pounds his senior year. Joel was named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1967.
At Texas A&M, his teams had a combined record of 20-4-3 and were conference champions in 1925 and 1927. During his career, he scored 30 touchdowns, which was a school record for 63 years. He also played defense. In one notable game against Southern Methodist University in 1927, Hunt scored 3 touchdowns, punted for an average of 40 yards and intercepted 4 passes in the Aggies' 39-13 win. He was 5-10 and weighed 162 pounds his senior year. Joel was named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1967. Following his exit from Texas A&M, Joel was head football coach at Marshall Junior College in Texas from 1928-1929, head football coach at Georgia 1938 and at Wyoming 1939. He then returned to Texas A&M where he was assistant coach from 1930-1932, assistant coach at University of Houston 1955, followed by positions at Louisiana State University from 1933-1936, 1940-1941 and from 1945-1947. He joined the pros as assistant with the Buffalo Bills in 1949, Baltimore Colts in 1950. In 1949-52 he served in the Army Air Corps, rising to the rank of Captain. In 1951-1953 he was a salesman for Wilson Sporting Goods. He also played professional baseball, mostly in the minor leagues, but reached the big leagues for 16 games in 1931-32 with the St. Louis Cardinals. Joel was undoubtedly an excellent all around athlete. It is said that some of the best compliments are those one receives from an opponent. Rice head coach John Heisman said of Hunt that he was "the greatest all-around player I ever saw." Hunt died at the age of 72 in Teague, Texas in 1978. Clayton, New Mexico is in Union County, in the extreme northeast corner of the state. The Yellowjackets have made 11 appearances in the state football championships: 2014, 2013, 2009, 2008, 2006, 1998, 1988, 1987, 1978, 1976, 1974, taking the title in 2013. They are usually in the chase for the title all season long.
The town itself was founded in 1887, a concept of a group of businessmen including U. S. Senator Stephen Dorsey hoping to buy land and build a town in the path of a railroad. It lay on the historic Santa Fe Trail that ran from Missouri to Santa Fe. Originally the budding community was named Perico, but it was renamed Clayton for Clayton Dorsey, the eldest son of Senator Dorsey, in 1888 after the first train arrived on the new track. Senator Dorsey had come to Colfax County a decade earlier and built a cattle ranch southeast of Raton, running as many as 22,000 head at its peak. In addition to naming Clayton for his son, Stephen Dorsey named a town for himself, Dorsey, now a ghost town. Clayton Dorsey graduated from Yale University in 1890. He did not attend law school, but rather "studied law" under practicing attorneys, as was the tradition back then. He was admitted to the bar and practiced as an attorney in Colorado most of his life. In football, the Clayton Yellowjackets have gone 122-87 since 1995 and the last three years, they've had a record of 30-7. Clayton finished the 2014 season at 11-1 under new coach Collin Justiss, its only loss coming in the championship game to Estancia. Trent Dimas is the final 2014 inductee to the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame to be profiled here. He was a Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics.
Dimas was born in 1970 in Albuquerque and is a graduate of Eldorado High School. At the time of his Olympic appearance he was a nationally and internationally ranked athlete having competed in the Goodwill Games and Pan American Games. He had won the American Cup and was the U.S. Men’s Vault Champion, Parallel Bars Champion and Horizontal Bar Champion. His Olympic moment came on the last day of the last event of the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. The American team was languishing in 6th place. Dimas was next to last on the list of performers after being the final person selected for the team at the Olympic Trials in Maryland months before. Trent Dimas’ high bar routine lasted only one minute and is shown here in the YouTube link below. Trent Dimas Olympic Gold Medal Performance, 1992 The video only takes about 2 minutes to watch from start to finish and is well worth the time. It is an electrifying performance that energized his team and the crowd. Dimas scored 9.875 out of a possible 10. This was only the second time that an American gymnast had one a gold medal at an Olympics held outside the United States, the first being Frank Kriz in Paris in 1924. It is also believed that this is the first time that an American of Hispanic heritage had won an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport of gymnastics. This was Dimas’ only appearance in the Olympic Games. Before the Olympics, Trent and his brother Ted had entered University of Nebraska but Trent had left school after his freshman year to pursue his Olympic dream. After the Olympics he went on to graduate from Columbia University with a BA degree in Political Science and University of New Mexico School of Law. At this writing, he is living in Albuquerque and serving as Director of Development for the University of New Mexico Foundation. 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. 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. One might think that the town Moriarty was named from the villainous character from the "Sherlock Holmes" mysteries of author A. Conan Doyle, but it was not. Instead, it was named for a settler named Michael Timothy Moriarty who moved to the area from California in the late 1880s, seeking relief from his chronic rheumatism. Situated in Torrance County, it is home to Moriarty High School and the Moriarty Pintos. Located on historic US Route 66, Moriarty also hosts the annual Pinto Bean Fiesta, which culminates in crowning of the year's "Pinto Bean Queen," but their high school mascot is the equine variety. Political figures from Moriarty include former New Mexico Governor Toney Anaya. Notable athletes from Moriarty include Major League Baseball pitcher Matt Moore of the Tampa Bay Rays and left fielder/first baseman Kyle Blanks of the Oakland Athletics. Moriarty competes in District 5-5A against the Albuquerque Academy Chargers, Grants Pirates and St. Pius X Sartans. The Pintos have made the state football playoffs 8 out of the last 10 years in football, compiling a record since 2005 of 63-49. |
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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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