Coach Brown led the Albuquerque Academy Chargers for 26 seasons, achieving 432 wins against 263 losses, an enviable .622 record. He began as head coach with the 84-85 season and his final year as head coach was 09-10. During his tenure, the Chargers would win 14 district championships, make 20 state championship appearances and win the championship 6 times.
He played basketball and baseball at St. Pius X, graduating in 1964. After attending St. Edward's University in Austin, he went on to earn a BA in Political Science in 1969 and an MA in Secondary Education in 1974 from University of New Mexico. He began his coaching and teaching career by serving at St. Francis Xavier School and Holy Ghost School in Albuquerque from 1968-1972 and Bernalillo Junior High School in 1973. He then signed on as an assistant coach at Academy where he would serve under Coaches Lou Baudoin and Vince Cordova. He took over as head coach following Cordova's final season which would see the Chargers go 25-1, win the State Championship and have Cordova be named Coach of the Year. It was a difficult record to follow, but he did well. He was named district coach of the year 12 times. His 432 wins ranks him just outside the top 10 among active and retired coaches in the state. The Chargers' 6 state championships ties him for 5th place with Ron Geyer behind such notable names as Ralph Tasker, Jim Murphy, Pete Shock and Jim Hulsman. His 6 state championships are unique in that they were consecutive, beginning with the 88-89 season and ending with the 93-94 season. This ranks first on the list in New Mexico and is a record that will most likely stand for many more years. There are no active coaches on the list who have even as many as 3 consecutive titles. Brown was twice named Coach of the Year by New Mexico High School Coaches Association and was named to its Hall of Honor in 2006. He was named the Albuquerque Journal’s coach of the year in 1993 and 1997, the Albuquerque Sports Hall of Fame Coach of the Year in 2001, the National Federation Coach of the Year for Section 6 in 1995, and the Region 8 Coach of the Year in 1995. His two sons, Greg and Danny Brown each played on three championship teams for their father, followed him into the high school coaching ranks in New Mexico and are still actively coaching at Volcano Vista and Highland, respectively. The following quote from colleague Joe Coleman appeared in the Albuquerque Journal on June 24, 2010. “Mike is more than a coach to me,” said Coleman, who spent eight years with Brown. “And he’s more than a coach to kids. He’s one of those people who come around in your lifetime who changes who you are and how you perceive things. He makes you a better person for having known him.” Acknowledgement: Most of Coach Brown's totals come from my friend Chuck Ferris' excellent site: www.chuckferrissports.com. It is the place to go for New Mexico High School Basketball records.
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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. ![]() 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. This page has migrated to: http://nmsportsblog.com/2014/07/19/owen-smaulding/
![]() Dr. Larry White graduated from Hobbs High School in Lea County, New Mexico in 1950. He played center and linebacker at University of New Mexico, having the distinction of being the first All-American football player from that university. In 1952, the Lobos earned a 7-2 record despite not having a strong offense. That year the Lobo defense was ranked number one in the nation, allowing 46 points the entire season with White on defense. A well rounded student, Dr. White played oboe in the Albuquerque Symphonic Orchestra the UNM Symphonic Band while concentrating on his studies, graduating with a degree in biology. Dr. White speaks of this with typical humor when he says, "People on the football team remember me as a great oboist and people in the orchestra remember me as a great football player." In those days, things were much different in the NFL as salaries were much lower than they are today. The two time UNM All-American was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals of the NFL in 1954, but instead of pursuing a career in the NFL, he chose instead to attend Baylor Dental College in Dallas, Texas, earning his DDS degree in 1959. Dr. White attributes much of his personal make up to lessons learned when he was a youth. He grew up in Hobbs, playing center and linebacker on Coach Duane Fisher's teams where the Eagles won two State Championships in 1948 and 1949 and went to the final again in 1950, losing to the Cavemen of nearby Carlsbad. He also was a starter for Coach Ralph Tasker's basketball teams. Dr. White's interest in the dental profession began with a painful extraction when he was 10, after the local dentist failed to numb the area. A couple of years later however, he had a much more favorable experience with Dr. Jim Reynolds of Lubbock, Texas which led him to contemplate going into the dental field. Following his graduation from dental school, he established dental offices in Hobbs, Roswell and Portales, New Mexico and branches in Denver City, Andrews and Seminole, Texas. After practicing dentistry for a number of years, he returned to Baylor to earn an advanced degree in orthodontics from 1966 to 1968. In addition to practicing orthodontics for many years, he established the orthodontics department at University of Texas San Antonio and has also served on the faculty at Baylor Dental School. Dr. White credits many influential people as his mentors including his high school football coach Duane Fisher and Dr. Jim Reynolds. Life lessons learned include being willing to submit to a team concept, learning to cooperate with others, having discipline and organization, learning to do the right things in the right way. He firmly believes that psychological and physical preparedness can often overcome superior talent and that nowhere is this illustrated better than in team sports. Dr. White's honors include being named All-American two years at University of New Mexico, being inducted into the New Mexico Hall of Honor, being named by Sports Illustrated as one of the Top 50 Athletes of the Decade in New Mexico. He and his wife currently reside in Dallas, Texas. Copies of his book "Eagles Once Soared" may be obtained from the Lea County Museum in Lovington, New Mexico, and from Amazon.com. Ralph Bowyer was a record-setting coach in Carlsbad (Eddy County), New Mexico for whom Bowyer Stadium is named. In his days as a player, he was considered one of the greatest athletes to attend University of New Mexico earning All-Border Conference honors both in football (1934-35) and basketball (1934-1935 and 1935-1936).
In coaching, he stood for fairness and equality. After integration came to New Mexico, on overnight stays Bowyer would put his teams up in lesser quality hotels so that they could remain together rather than have his black athletes be refused lodging. On a road trip, Boyer once ordered chicken fried steak dinners for the team. When he was told that his black players would have to eat in the kitchen, Bowyer took the entire team and left the restaurant. It was his supporting attitude that encouraged many of his minority players to go on to college. He was rigid in enforcing discipline. In 1945, he had warned his players against going to a midnight Halloween-week movie before a big game with El Paso Austin. Spotting some of his players in line for the movie, he went in and asked the theater manager to warn his players about attending. Those who still attended sat on the bench for the game. Carlsbad almost went scoreless in the game, only pulling out a win with a last minute touchdown. The lesson may or may not have been learned by all, but it earned him the respect of the team and the town. As a player at Albuquerque High School, he was All-State in football, basketball, track and baseball from 1929-1932. He was a nine time letterwinner in football, basketball and track at University of New Mexico. As a Carlsbad coach, he won eight state football titles during his tenure from 1943 to 1967. Two of those years (1946 and 1947), he coached teams that won state titles in football, basketball and track. Five of his players went on to play in the NFL. He served as athletic director at New Mexico Highlands University from 1967 to 1972 and was inducted into the Albuquerque Sports Hall of Fame in 1975. He was beloved by his players, many of whom considered him to be a father figure and remained in close contact with him for the rest of his life. His high school coaching records were 171-109-10 in football, with eight* state titles, 365-137 in basketball with three state titles and two state titles in track. In his senior years, he was an active Senior Olympian, golfer, fisherman and artist. Carlsbad's football stadium is named in his honor. It has been said that it is not just Bowyer Stadium, but Ralph Bowyer Stadium. Each year the New Mexico High School Coaches Association (of which he was a founding member) honors him by awarding the Ralph Bowyer Coaching for Character Award. * NMAA lists only six championships. The official reason for the difference is unknown, but in years prior to about 1950, there was no sanctioned state championship system. Longtime basketball coach Jim Hulsman is a product of New Mexico. His parents moved to the state in 1940 from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania for his father’s health when Jim was just 10. Jim attended elementary and junior high school in Albuquerque and high school at Albuquerque High School. Albuquerque High was a three year school at the time and Jim lettered in both track and football. Jim also played American Legion baseball and city league basketball. Jim graduated from Albuquerque High School in 1949. Jim then served in the military during the Korean era, enlisting in the US Air Force. Hulsman relates that the US Army needed pilots and Jim qualified for a program that allowed him to qualify for Officer Candidate School and pilot training because of his Air Force service. Jim earned his Second Lieutenant bars before the war ended in 1952. Resuming his education, Hulsman enrolled at St. Joseph College on the Rio Grande (later known as the University of Albuquerque), a Catholic school located at what is now the campus St. Pius X High School. Jim lettered in basketball St. Joseph in 1955 and 1956 despite not having played basketball at Albuquerque High School. He later transferred to University of New Mexico because it offered a degree in health and physical education and received his Bachelor of Science Degree in 1959. While still a college student, Jim served as track and cross country coach and an assistant coach in football and basketball at Highlands High and Albuquerque High. He then served as an assistant football coach from 1961 to 1968 at his alma mater, after which he took over as head basketball coach at Albuquerque High School, a position at which he was to remain for the next 42 years. His second season as head coach, his Albuquerque Bulldog team made it to the state championship for the first time since 1946, losing to Ralph Tasker’s Hobbs High School squad 123-90. Coach Hulsman remarked that the Hobbs full court press was a tremendous factor in the Eagles’ win. The two teams met again in 1971 with the Bulldogs prevailing 81-80 in a game that drew 10,000 fans to the UNM arena. ![]() Coach Hulsman went on to achieve a career record of earning 660 wins, making 24 state championship tournament appearances and winning 7 state championships. During his tenure, AHS would achieve 23 consecutive winning seasons (1969-1991). 72 of his players went on to play college basketball, including Kenny Thomas who also played at University of New Mexico and for 12 seasons in the NBA. During their long careers, Coach Hulsman and Coach Ralph Tasker led teams that were always two of the premier programs in the state. They met 12 times in state championship brackets and three times in the title games with AHS winning 7 of the 12 post season meetings while Hobbs had a 2-1 edge in the championship matches. Jim also has been involved in amateur and semi-pro baseball much of his career. He managed the Rio Grande Lumber Company team of the National Baseball Congress to back-to-back New Mexico Semi-Pro Championships in 1955 and 1956. In 1958, he managed the squad to a 24-8 record and the Albuquerque City Championship. In 1959 and 1960, Jim managed the Albuquerque Highland High School American Legion baseball team to tournament and league championships. He was a manager in the Ken Boyers Missouri Baseball Camp and under the direction of Territorial Scout Supervisor Bobby Goff and served as a scout for the Cleveland Indians for 8 years. Coach Hulsman has received numerous awards and honors over the years. He coached in the Denver/Albuquerque All-Star game in 1974 and the North/South All Star Game sponsored by the New Mexico High School Coaches Association in 1975. In 1988 he was chosen to coach in the 11th annual McDonalds All-American High School Basketball Game. In 1985 and 1989, Jim was Region Eight Coach of the Year by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association. He was named Coach of the Year at least 15 times by sportscasters and sportswriters in New Mexico. In 1983 and 1989 he received the Special Recognition Award from the Albuquerque Sports Hall of Fame. In 2003, Jim was honored by his induction into the NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations) Hall of Fame. Jim currently is retired and living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. ![]() Notah Begay III grew up on the San Felipe reservation in Sandoval County, located between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and is the grandson of a Navajo Code Talker of the same name. He is descended from the Fox Clan of the Navajo Nation. He attended high school at Albuquerque Academy and college at Stanford University. ![]() Many are familiar with Notah's success on the golf course. Fewer would know that while at Albuquerque Academy, he was a three sport athlete, playing golf, soccer and basketball. Notah was a shooting guard on teams that twice won the State Championship. The 1989 team went 20-7 and defeated Lovington 78-76 in the state championship final, also having beaten Goddard and Deming earlier in the playoffs. In the final, the scoring was led by Greg Brown with 22 points. Notah was 4-16 from the field, 4-6 at the free throw line for a total of 14 points and he had 1 assist in that game. Above is the championship team photo. Notah is pictured third from the right on the back row. The win over Lovington marked the first of six straight state championships won by Academy between the years 1989 and 1994 under Head Coach Mike Brown. ![]() Academy's 1990 team downed Oñate 80-61 in the final, also defeating Tucumcari and Socorro in the playoffs. The 1990 team finished with a season record of 25-1. In the final, scoring was again led by Greg Brown with 25 points. Notah was 5-16 from the field for a total of 12 points and had 1 assist in that game. Above is the championship team photo. Notah is pictured second from the right on the back row. [Team photos courtesy of Chuck Ferris of www.chuckferrissports.com.] In high school golf, Notah was the individual A-AAA champion in 1989 and 1990 for Albuquerque Academy and led the school to the team A-AAA championship in 1990. At Stanford, he was a three time All-American and a member of its 1994 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship Team before joining the PGA tour in 1995. As a touring pro, Begay won 6 championships in his career, including 4 PGA tournaments, before being sidelined for a back injury.
Despite his various achievements in sports, Notah considers his Economics degree from Stanford to be his most important career accomplishment. He is currently active in the Notah Begay III Foundation, which he and his father founded in 2005. The goal of the organization is to have a positive impact on the lives and well being of Native American youth in New Mexico and across Indian Country. [This post below is a contribution from our friend Ben Moffett, New Mexico basketball historian and author of an upcoming book on the history of New Mexico high school baskeball.]
ON MARTIN LUTHER KING'S BIRTHDAY, REMEMBERING THE END OF SCHOOL SEGREGATION IN HOBBS AND NM, 1954 Following is an excerpt of a chapter from Ben Moffett's forthcoming book on the history of basketball in New Mexico. It outlines the end of school integration in the state, brought on by the landmark Supreme Court decision of 1954, Brown v. Board of Education, just six decades ago this year. The last school to integrate was Booker T. Washington in Hobbs, and its merger with Hobbs High created the longest big school basketball dynasty in New Mexico, a legendary NBA player, Bill Bridges, and better basketball throughout the state. This segment of the chapter includes the names of the members of the last segregated team. New Mexico and Hobbs were well ahead of Texas in responding to the Brown v. Board decision, and had made changes much earlier in anticipation of it. In 1953-54, Booker T. Washington and the segregated Lincoln-Jackson High of Clovis were allowed to compete against white schools in regular and post season basketball. Before 1953-54, the black schools were members of a Segregated Schools League in New Mexico. They played an abbreviated schedule brought about by tight budgets and the limited number of segregated prep schools in New Mexico and across the sparsely populated state line in Texas. The performances of Booker T. Washington in the 1953-54 season-ending district tournament gave some indication of the black talent base. A tiny school in numbers, it compiled a 13-9 season record in the small school division, with three of those wins in the district tournament. Coached by Arlee Jackson and assistant Freddie H. Sewell, the school lost its tourney opener to Eunice, 41-40, but bounced back with consolation wins over St. Peter's of Roswell, 48-47, Hagerman, 55-30, and Jal, 47-38. The team consisted of James Atkinson, Curtis Battles, Londell Butler, Thomas Clay, Preston Davis, Harvey Edwards, Willie Lee Evans, Cornelius Patterson, Aaron Williams, Harold Jackson, Louis Owens, and student trainer J.C. Gambles. In 1954-55, the first season after integration, Hobbs became a team to be reckoned with in state basketball circles. Aided by a black player, sophomore guard Ray Clay, for the first time, and with but one returning letterman, Ed Bryson, the Eagles stunned their neighbor and district rival, defending state champion Carlsbad, during the regular season. Although Carlsbad, which had integrated earlier, would win a second straight title that season, the totally rebuilt Eagles just missed out on a state finals rematch. They fell in the semifinals, 65-63 in overtime, to Los Alamos. Carlsbad, coached by Ralph Bowyer who played at Albuquerque High and the University of New Mexico, won its second straight title by defeating Los Alamos, coached by Bob Cox, 58-51. The Cavemen had two black starters, John Wooten and Joe Kelly, both of whom were on the all-tournament first team. Wooten would go on to become a football all-America at the University of Colorado, a guard in the National Football League (Cleveland and Washington) for nine and a half years, and a fixture in NFL front offices before retiring in 1997. Kelly competed in four sports at NMSU, most notably as a quarterback, and was inducted into the school's hall of honor. Wooten said he was “blessed” by the early integration of Carlsbad. “We didn't have enough people at the Carver School, grades 1 to 12, to field a football team,” he said. “I'm only half joking when I tell people I might have wound up picking up trash for the city, like my father did, or working as a laborer. He attributes early integration at Carlsbad to enlightened leadership including head football and basketball coach Ralph Bowyer, Carlsbad principal Guy Wade, former principal and school superintendent Tom Hansen, and black community leader Emmitt Smith. As the 1955-56 season got underway, Carlsbad seemed on its way to an unprecedented third straight state title despite the graduation of Wooten and Kelly. But by then, Hobbs was loaded with lettermen. In its second year of integration, the Eagles, who since 1949-50 had been guided by a kind and caring coach named Ralph Tasker, had an awesome scorer in senior Kim Nash, soon to be a fixture at Southern Methodist University, tournament-tested point guard Clay, and junior Aubrey Linne, a 6-7 inside man who would play college football at Texas Christian and in the Canadian Football League. Finally, they had Bill Bridges, a fast-developing African-American up from the junior varsity, who was about to become a legend. Bridges, like Wooten, stands as an exquisite example of the value of diversity and the flaws of the “separate but equal” concept. Had he stayed at Booker T. Washington, strapped with a short schedule against small schools and with virtually no media coverage, it is unlikely that he would have become a famous and well-paid professional player. It is equally unlikely that Hobbs would have won a state title. Thanks in large part to integration, Hobbs won the championship in Bridges' initial varsity season (1955-56) for the first time in school history. “Hobbs, defeating Carlsbad for the fourth time this year...took the lead, 79-77, with three minutes to play on a follow-up shot by Bill Bridges in a hair-raising finale,” wrote Hobbs Sun-News sports editor Art Gatts. The final score: Hobbs 89, Carlsbad 82. Bridges' rebound and put-back was surely one of the most important plays in his young career, spotlighting the Eagles rise from obscurity to statewide dominance. The information here came from a variety of sources. It is difficult to keep the footnotes in place here, but a big contributor was The Rev. Dr. Charles E. Becknell, Sr., who played for Hobbs just after Bill Bridges left, and wrote a book, "No Challenge, No Change: Growing Up Black in New Mexico," 2003, Jubilee Publications, Kearney, NE. Coach Ralph Tasker of Hobbs, NM died on July 19, 1999 at his home after a short battle with cancer. He was 80 and had also suffered from pneumonia prior to his death. He left behind his wife of almost 49 years, Margaret, his three children, a host of former players and assistants including Ross Black (played for UNM), Bill Bridges (played for Kansas and in the NBA), Rob Evans (played for Lubbock Christian and UNM and coached at University of Mississippi and Arizona State), Larry Robinson (played for Texas), Larry Williams (played at Kansas State), Jeff Taylor, Sr. (played Texas Tech, in the NBA and in Europe), Vince Taylor (played at Texas Tech, the NBA and Europe, now coaching) and Kent Williams (played at Texas Tech). Longtime assistant Don Abbott of Farmington, said of Tasker, ''He basically changed the way the game of basketball was played,'' said Abbott. ''He made better coaches out of all his opponents because of his ability to get the best out of them as well as out of his own teams. He is well respected all over - not only among high school coaches, but college coaches have used some of his innovations,'' Abbott added. ''He was a wonderful teacher in the classroom as well. I was fortunate enough to have him as a teacher, too. He taught government and history.'' [Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, July 20, 1999] Tasker was born and raised in West Virginia and played his college ball for the Alderson Broaddus Mountaineers. Upon his graduation and after coaching for one year at Sulphur Springs High School in Ohio, Tasker enlisted in the US Army Air Corps, having been motivated by the attack on Pearl Harbor. After his military service, he accepted a coaching position in Lovington, NM in 1946. That is a story of its own, but Tasker was hired by Lovington's superintentent of schools, H. C. Pannell. Both Tasker and Pannell happened to be in Albuquerque at the same time. Tasker was being mustered out of the US Army Air Corps and Pannell was there for a meeting. Pannell offered Tasker the job and Tasker accepted. Three years later, he won his first state championship in Lovington, which proved to be Lovington's only championship for the next 34 years. Tasker then moved to Hobbs in 1950 where he served as head basketball coach for the next 49 years. By the time he retired in 1998, his combined record from the three schools included 1,122 wins, 291 losses and his teams had earned 12 state championships. His last team finished third in the New Mexico state tournament, one game short of notching what would have been Tasker's 37th 20-game winning season. ![]() Tasker's teams were known for a productive offense and a merciless full-court press defense from start to finish. His 1970 team averaged 114.6 points a game, a national high school record set before the institution of the 3-point shot. Coach Tasker's twelve New Mexico state basketball championships are as follows: one in Lovington (1949) followed by eleven in Hobbs (1956, 1957, 1958, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1980, 1981, 1987 and 1988). He was twice named National High School Coach of the Year and was inducted into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1988. He also received the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Morgan Wooten Award. Tasker was named to the New Mexico High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor and the Walt Disney Coach/Teacher of the Year both in 1991. [Arguably one of the most effective coaches in the history of high school basketball, Tasker will likely be the subject of several blog posts.] |
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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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