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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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. ![]() 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. We normally focus on sports that are played at the high school level and above, but will depart from this from time to time. Unless you are a ski enthusiast, you may never have heard of Betty Woolsey, but in recognition of the 2014 Winter Olympics, she is our subject. We believe that she was the first athlete with New Mexico ties to compete in the Winter Olympics. Betty's parents were Theodore Salisbury Woolsey, Jr. (a graduate of Yale University and a descendant of evangelist Jonathan Edwards) and Ruby Hilman Pickett in Albuquerque in 1908 where Theodore was appointed to serve as a district forester the same year. Elizabeth Davenport "Betty" Woolsey was born in Albuquerque in late December of that year, the first of five daughters. ![]() Betty grew up in a log house in Albuquerque. Her bedroom window faced the craggy Sandias to the east which, she said, cast a spell on her, leading to a life-long affair with the mountains. The family eventually relocated to the east coast as she continued to develop her love of skiing. After entering international ski races in Europe, she was chosen to participate in the 1936 Winter Olympics (officially known as the IV Winter Olympic Games) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Woolsey was selected to captain the women's team, the first United States Olympic Women's Ski Team. She was considered to be the best skier on the team, excelling at downhill. Only 17 medals were awarded in the Games. Neither the men nor the women on the 1936 United States team won medals, but the experience gained would have provided a great base for future teams, had the next two Olympics (1940 and 1944) not been cancelled for World War II. After 1936, Betty skied competitively for a few years, winning the 1939 United States Downhill Championship in Mount Hood, Oregon. She continued to pursue her love of the sport, founding and developing Trail Creek Ranch, a ski center and dude ranch near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She was elected to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and Museum in 1969 and the Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard Club has initiated the Betty Woolsey Olympian Endowment in her honor. |
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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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