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Take a short step back in time with me sports fans. All the way back to the end of the 2003 college football regular season. The New Mexico Lobos have just earned their third Bowl Game in the last forty-two years by finishing second in the Mountain West Conference. It is to be the Lobo's second Las Vegas Bowl in a row and comes just six years after their Insight.com Bowl Game against Arizona. Unfortunately for the folks back home, New Mexico would come up short on the scoreboard for the third straight time in Bowl action, as Oregon State became just the latest PAC-10 team to rain on our postseason parade. Nevertheless, for a program so dominated by it's basketball teams, these were heady times on the Lobo gridiron. Better still, the upcoming 2005 season held open the very real possibilty of yet another Bowl berth for Rocky Long's boys, with hopefully a much happier ending in store for all of us. For even with all of their recent success on the field, the sky is still not quite the limit for the university. In fact, by almost any measure, New Mexico Lobo football is still just...learning to fly. Oh, but for a brief and almost forgotten time - on a cold and snowy day way back in 1961 and upon the very turf where aviation itself was born, wolves were seen soaring above the clouds. Ah yes, 1961...those sweet days of innocence. Okay, maybe not so innocent. In April of that year, 1,200 US-sponsored anti-Castro exiles invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs and were all killed or captured by Cuban forces. By August, East Germany had completed the Berlin Wall, both as a symbolic and realistic division between East and West, and a monument of sorts to the Cold War. In October, the USSR detonated a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb in the largest man-made explosion in history. By the year's end, there were some 2,000 US military advisers in South Vietnam, marking the beginning of our longest, costliest, and most devisive military conflict. Oh, and a certain Lobo fan was born that year too. God, help us! It should also be noted that here at UNM in 1961 - and in fact, going back to the very earliest days of the university, football was the undisputed King on campus. Basketball was just an afterthought - that is, when it was even thought of at all. It would still be another three years before an ambitious new "King" strolled in from the cornfields of Iowa and kicked the long-reigning football monarch off of it's throne...at least for a while. "Keep your heads up and your butts down!" yelled Coach Bill Weeks to his Lobo linemen. "Vision and leverage equals power!" The man uttering those words did not quite seem to fit the mold. Normally reserved and unassuming, Coach Weeks nevertheless had everyone's rapt attention. Tutored under former Lobo head coach Marv Levy, Weeks was about to take his Lobos somewhere that his former boss and NFL coaching legend never did. That is, to a bowl game. Named to the job just one season before in 1960, Coach Weeks had already seen a lot of Lobo history take place during his tenure. In fact, during his very first game as head man, the formal dedication of UNM's new 30,000-seat stadium had taken place at halftime of the season opener. That game, a 77-6 Lobo victory over the visiting National University of Mexico, was the very first one in the new stadium that was to become it's modern home. It somehow seemed fitting, that the No. 43 jersey of Lobo and Dallas Cowboy great Don Perkins was also retired on that same day in front of a then school record, 24,085 fans. Something old and something new
Losing three out of their first five games that year, the Lobos suddenly kicked in the afterburners to win four out of their last five contests. While their regular season record of six wins against four losses was only good enough to earn them fourth place in the highly competitive Skyline Conference, it had been deemed good enough to bring them to Ohio and that was all that mattered on this day. Especially since this was to be only the fifth time in school history that they had played in a Bowl game, and the first such invite in almost 15 years. Would his Lobos be ready? Coach Weeks wondered if they would be. Their opponent after all, was Western Michigan. And while maybe not the biggest school in the state, he knew better than to take any eastern football team lightly.
Meanwhile back east, similar apprehensions were being felt in regards to the upcoming game, though for much different reasons. Sponsored with just $15,000 dollars by the local Jaycees, New Mexico had been chosen by the committee to play the relatively nearby Western Michigan University Broncos simply because it was seen as a rather exotic and mostly unknown choice. Their hopes being that the upstarts from out west (were they even part of the United States?) would be able to provide a much hoped for happy ending to the throngs of locals and nearby Michigan residents who were expected to attend the game. On such a shoestring budget, this was deemed to be of the utmost importantance, if they were to continue with it in later years. This inital paragraph from the official Aviation Bowl Game Program hints strongly at their hopes and goals for the upcoming game. Football fans throughout the mid-west have long voiced their interest in a Bowl Game played within reach. To meet this demand and to provide middle-weight" college teams with an opportunity to play in a bowl game, the Aviation Bowl Classic was launched. It's hoped that you will thoroughly enjoy seeing Western Michigan University and the University of New Mexico compete today, in what is expected to be the first of a long series of Aviation Bowl Games.
As the Lobo players slept the night before their flight to Dayton, it is easy to imagine the excitement and apprehension that they must have felt just before playing in the biggest game of their young lives. Halfway across the country, once again, much similar feelings were taking place. With the sponsors not able to get anyone to purchase the television rights, they had pretty much put all of their eggs in a single basket. That basket of course, being the actual ticket sales. But, with a forecast calling for mild (if chilly) weather, they were nervously confident in a good turnout to offset the $40,000 in total expenses for the game - over half of which went to to the teams themselves. Because of the great distance to the game and the need for a chartered flight, New Mexico was guaranteed $18,000. On the other side of the ball, Western Michigan was guaranteed 'only' $6,000 as they planned to travel the short distance from Kalamazoo in the school's own bus. And who were these Western Michigan University Broncos? Entering the game with a 5-3-1 record, the team was a member the Mid-American Conference, having finished second that season. Many of the players had barely even heard of New Mexico, and the most common perception of their foe envisioned tumbleweeds, gunfights and rattlesnakes. What the hell is a 'Lobo' anyway? Some kind of outlaw? Head Coach Merle J. Schlosser felt confident going into the game that their passing attack would be more than a match for this team from the "frontier" proclaiming to the local media, "I understand that these Lobos have a really nice running game, but I like our chances if we just keep our noses clean and play Bronco-style football." By that, I take it that he meant the Bronco's potent air attack. It was called the Aviation Bowl after all. Coach Schlosser had a good reason to feel so confident, even if he didn't know much about his upcoming opponent. His quarterback, senior Ed Chlebek, had rewritten the Western Michigan and MAC record books during his career, and would one day be playing for the New York Jets of the fledgling AFL. Three yards and a cloud of dust? Nah, that was for those hooligans from the deserts of New Mexico. Gameday It is a well known fact that snow, sleet and rain are bad for the entire aviation business. On this day, it was going to prove devastating for the Aviation Bowl Game business. Saturday dawned like a...well, it didn't really dawn at all. Players getting up at their normal time might have been tempted to turn over and go back to sleep, thinking it was still dark outside. Changing winds had hit the Dayton area overnight, dumping two inches of snow and causing the temperatures to plummet below freezing. The cold and snowy weather doomed any chance of a nice walk-up crowd for the game, and in fact, only about 400 tickets were to be sold at the gate that day. Those people, along with the people who had already purchased their tickets and decided to brave the storm, brought the announced attendence of the First Annual Aviation Bowl to a little under 4,000 people - far below the 'break even' point of 8,000 fans that the sponsors had counted on. Nevertheless, there was a game to be played, and as Vince Lombardi might have said, this was football weather.
New Mexico's Bobby Morgan took the opening kickoff from his own 10-yard line in the near-blizzard conditions and cut a path through the snow all the way up to the 44-yard line. On the very first play from scrimmage, Lobo star halfback Bobby Santiago sped 19 yards to the Bronco 37, and that was immediately followed by stablemate Bobby Morgan breaking loose all the way down to the Bronco two yard line. Lobo quarterback Jim Cromartie then punched it in for the go-ahead touchdown. The Lobos went on to miss the extra point in the miserable kicking conditions, but that was about all that went wrong for the wolfpack in the early going. Who are these guys? When Lobo linebacker Chuck Cummings recovered a Bronco fumble on the change of possession, it took the determined Lobos only ten plays to cover 63 yards for another score, capped by the 5'8" and 158-pound (soaking wet) Santiago's 10 yard dash down the middle of the field. The Broncos were stunned. With extremely few tapes available in those days to scout your opponent, they were amazed at the Lobo's ability to block and run on such a tenuous surface. Deciding to forgoe the point-after this time, the Lobos instead went for two, with Bobby Morgan hauling it over for the conversion and making the score 14-0. The game slowed down on the next few possessions, as the two teams scratched and clawed their way up and down the slippery field. When the Lobos were finally forced to punt near the end of the first quarter, it gave Western their first real scoring chance at midfield. Surprisingly staying on the ground, WMU scored in 10 plays with running back Bob White bulling it in from the four yard line with 28 seconds left in the first quarter. The point after was missed, making the score: Lobos 14; Broncos 6.
In the second quarter the Lobo continued to race across the snow-capped turf as if on skis, although neither team would score any points. All that kept the Lobos from blowing the game wide open however, were a couple of crippling penalties that they picked up while deep in scoring territory. On the first one, Bobby Santiago had a 64-yard touchdown run nullified by a clipping penalty, while on the next one, the Lobos failed to capitalize on a first and ten opportunity from the Bronco 12-yard line. As the gun sounded to end the first half of play, players from both teams must surely have been relieved to arrive at the temperature controlled surroundings of their respective locker rooms, an icy mud covering the uniforms of the combatants. Strangely enough though, for both teams the halftime was somewhat bittersweet. In the Lobos locker room, they were ecstatic over their lead, but despondent that Bobby Santiago - no doubt their star player from the first half, was injured and would see only limited action in the second half. For Western Michigan, the bad news was there for all to see on the scoreboard. The good news was evident as well, with the sleet and snow that had hindered their vaunted passing attack having ended by the time that they kicked the ball off to start the second half of action.. Not that it really seemed to matter much though. With their star player sitting on the sidelines with bruised ribs, the Lobos took the opening kickoff and marched 69 yards in 13 plays, with the other Bobby - Bobby Morgan, finding a hole down the center and racing the final 12-yards for a touchdown. The two-point conversion failed, making the score, New Mexico 20; Western Michigan 6.
Just as had happened in the opening half, team captain Chuck Cummings once again made a big play on defense, when he picked off a Chlebek pass to his tight end over the middle. Cummings then raced 43 yards for the touchdown - all but putting the game on ice (no pun intended). This time, the two-point conversion was good, making the score, New Mexico 28; Western Michigan 6. On the sideline, the Lobo players were back-slapping and hugging each other as if the game was over. "What the...?" Coach Weeks was almost beside himself. While his Lobos were clearly in firm control of the game, he knew that now was not the time to start celebrating. Urging his team to play the final quarter as if it was they who were the ones behind, he steadied his young squad, instictively knowing that a great passing team like the Broncs were still a dangerous adversary. By gosh, he was not about to let this one get away from New Mexico! And it would not get away from us on this day. While the remainder of the game was almost completely the Ed Chlebek show, completing 18 of 33 passes for 207 yards along the way, it would be too little too late as the stingy Lobo defense bent, but it rarely broke during the first real aerial barrage of the day. As the clock continued to run, all the future Jet could manage in the final stanza was a mere six points on a five yard toss to receiver Dave Cook for the final touchdown of the game. His lob into the endzone for the two-point conversion would flutter helplessly into a snowbank at the corner of the endzone, as the last of the sparse crowd began to dash for the relative warmth of their automobiles. Undaunted, in the closing seconds Chlebek kept chucking the ball, and managed to take his team down to the Lobo 20-yard line before coming up just inches short of the first down markers as time ran out. The final score, New Mexico Lobos 28; Western Michigan Broncos 12. It was a game that these Lobos would never forget. They had flown into the heart of football country and come away as victors in the biggest game of their lives. Your 1961 Aviation Bowl Winning Lobo Football Team
Bronco coach Merle Schlosser was characteristically blunt, but respectful in his post game comments to the local media regarding his team's total domination at the hands of the Lobos. "We couldn't stop their halfback speed," he told a Dayton sportswriter. "Their pulling guards hurt us. New Mexico's offense was wonderful under the conditions. They controlled the ball and the ball game. I think the weather hurt us." It hurt a great many others as well, not the least of which was the game's sponsors. The Dayton Junior Chamber of Commerce had taken an ice bath on this one. The final tally of the tickets sold having left the group about $15,000 in the hole, although some $5,000 of the red ink disappeared when local businesses decided to donate their services or supplies. Nevertheless, the First Annual Aviation Bowl Classic was the final Aviation Bowl Classic. The money for such a game was just not there, the Chamber of Commerce concluded.. But long before any of that was decided, the New Mexico Lobo football team celebrated their victory out on the rarefied air of Cloud 9. Bobby Santiago - despite having missed most of the second half, was named the game's Most Valuable Back, ending up with 86 yards in just 13 carries and one touchdown. While a case could certainly have been made that Bobby Morgan deserved that honor (98 yards on 13 carries and one touchdown), Lineman of the Game unquestionably belonged to Lobo captain, Chuck Cummings. "Our kids were really up," an excited Coach Weeks told reporters. "They came to play and they hit hard and executed well throughout. Santiago and Cummings were outstanding and I felt that Bobby Morgan had his best game of the year."
With their victory, the New Mexico Lobos entered a brief Golden Age for the football program, although another Bowl Game bid would not be offered for another 36 years. In 1962, the university bolted to the newly formed Western Athletic Conference, and proceeded to win the conference crown for the next three seasons - 1962, 1963 and 1964. This had never been accomplished by a Lobo team before or since, and in fact, it would take another 33 years before the Lobo football team captured another conference championship in 1997 (their last, as of this writing). By an odd twist of fate, 1964 was also the year of the Lobo basketball team's ascendancy to the throne previously occupied by the football team. History is often the brightest light to shine upon a place that we find darkened by the gloom of the present. All too often, we forget the many great things that this school has accomplished over the years, and I don't want this game to be one of them. In April of this year, Big George Heard from that fabled team died of prostate cancer. He was 62, one year removed from his favorite athletic accomplishment. "I was really saddened to hear," said Bobby Santiago, the former teammate and a close friend of Heard who had turned on the jets that snowy day, with Big George clearing the runway. "It really broke my heart. George was a good guy with a wonderful personality." "It's kind of scary, to be quite honest - being in the same age group." Santiago, who had arrived at UNM with Heard as a freshman in 1959, said he saw Heard this past summer during a reunion of Lobos football players. Ex-Lobos from that era routinely get together every two years, Santiago said, and Heard was a regular attendee. "Most guys you know are a braggart or a complainer," Santiago said. "George was a guy who didn't complain and you never heard him say anything negative. "He was a very quiet, hard-working guy." Heard played both ways for the Lobos, which was commonplace in that era. In addition to tight end, the versatile 6-foot-3 athlete played defensive end and was a sprinter on the UNM track team. "He was a superb athlete," said Gary Ness, another one of the players from that 1961 team. Now the current football coach at Albuquerque High, for a while Ness served as athletic director at his old school.. "For his size, he had excellent speed," Ness continued. "His teammates fondly called him Buffalo." Although some of them are no longer with us, like any proud father, Bill Weeks is still looking out for his kids. While UNM was busy printing out press releases during last season saying that Casey Kelly was closing in on Rocky Long as the player with the most wins as a starting quarterback, it was Weeks who correctly pointed out that Jim Cromartie actually was the one that Kelly was chasing - not Long. Up until that time, Cromartie had been listed in fifth place with a record of 14-3. But after further review, (and loving attention to detail by Weeks), Cromartie's numbers were edited to read 18-6. And even though the next 40 years would mostly be dominated by the men's basketball team, the brief flight that "Week's Warriors" took together forty years ago will not be the last. Just like Bill Weeks before him, Rocky Long has moved mountains and leveled the landscape in a way that makes almost anything seem possible these days. Might the Lobos be flying again soon? Jim Ottmann, another of those 1961 aviators and the longtime head coach at Albuquerque's Sandia High School, thinks so. He believes that the university is laying the foundation for it right now. While Ottmann was in Las Vegas to watch his old team play in the 2002 Las Vegas Bowl, he had this to say, "The more your name is out there, the better it is. When we went to Dayton, nobody there even knew where New Mexico was." They
are starting to get the general idea, I suspect. Our best years as a university have all taken place during the past ten seasons, and mainly through the efforts of our underappreciated athletic director Rudy Davalos. His name belongs right up there with the Roy Johnsons and Bob Kings of this world. No longer just a 'one trick pony,' the University of New Mexico ranks higher in more athletic categories than it ever has, and yet has made that dramatic leap without a decline in the classroom. My God, a National Championship (in skiing) for us this last season? Strange days indeed. But this is not the beginning of the end Lobo fans, this is just the end of the beginning.
Dedicated to the players and coaches of the 1961 Aviation Bowl Classic winning team, and to all the other Lobo aviators who chase after their dreams.
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Though
that first season with the new head coach would end up somewhat disappointingly
for the team, here they were just one year later - on December 9th 1961,
preparing to take the field of play at the First Annual Aviation Bowl
in Dayton, Ohio. To say that the invitation had been a surprise to Lobo
fans is a bit of an understatement - to say the least.
That
slight about "middle-weight" teams notwithstanding, Coach
Weeks prepared his young team as if they were playing the Nittany Lions
themselves. Having come on late in the season, the team seemed to be
jelling at just the right time for postseason play. Nevertheless, the
coach was extremely worried about the Bronco passing game, which
had been among it's conference leaders.
