Aggie History With Walter Hines

What does ex-Aggie basketball coach George McCarty have in common with the great Adolph Rupp, Phog Allen, Frank McGuire, and John Wooden? Answer? They all brought teams to the 1952 NCAA Basketball Tournament.

It was the Aggies first NCAA tournament, though NM A&M did have a strong tournament tradition, having played in the NIT in 1939 and several NAIB Tournaments in the 1930s and early 1950s, including the NAIB in Februrary 1952 just prior to the NCAA tournment. The NAIB, or National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball, held a tournament for "small colleges" each year. It was not unusual for schools to play in both the NAIB and NCAA tournments in those days.

George Courtney McCarty had an unlikely background for a basketball coach. Recruited from the Texas JC football ranks in 1937, he had a scholarship offer from Oklahoma A&M. Instead, he chose to accept one from NM A&M. An undersized, but very tough guard on the fine Aggie football teams of the late 1930s, the 160-lb, 5'8" McCarty never played college basketball, but he was a student of the game and a fan of the great Aggie basketball teams of the late 1930s.

When my friend Jimmy (aka Big Bad Wolf) asked me, a dyed-in-the-wool Aggie, to contribute to his book on Lobo athletics he gave me a simple admonition. "Write anything, as long as it mentions the Lobos." Well, here goes.

Growing up in Las Cruces, then living in Southern California for a year where my dad Jerry got an MS at USC, the family had moved to Albuquerque in 1950. There, my dad introduced me to Lobo athletics. I was a little brat of seven and in awe of college athletes.

A 1926 graduate of NM A&M and a good athlete in both football and basketball, Jerry had coached those two sports and served as athletic director at A&M from 1929-40. In fall 1940, his NM National Guard Unit, the 120th Combat Engineers, was mobilized for active duty with the 45th Division (that included Bill Mauldin) in the build up before WWII. After service in Africa, Sicily, and Italy, he returned to coach the Aggies for one year in 1947, but a bad heart developed in Italy prevented him from coaching after that.

The ending of the Aggie women’s game on Saturday, March 1, 2008 saw Haley Munro of Fresno State make a miraculous 55-foot shot with no time left on the clock to win the game in overtime for the Bulldogs, 85-84. It came after Tyshe Walton missed a free throw that would have given the Aggies a three point lead. The shot, launched off balance from the right sideline behind the half court line, banked in cleanly. The Aggies fell to the floor in disbelief.

Aggie Coach Spence thought it impossible that the shot actually got off in the 1.3 seconds that were left on the game clock when the play started. After all, the ball had to be inbounded. Munro had to dribble and gather herself, then shoot. The referees huddled for several minutes, but called it good. The shot received national attention, painfully replayed over and over again by the networks. To add insult to pain, it is destined to haunt Aggiedom for years thanks to YouTube.

bleedCrimson.net is pleased to announce the debut of a new regular feature called Aggie History With Walter Hines. Walter is the son of Jerry Hines, former football and basketball head coach and athletic director at New Mexico A&M (now NMSU) from 1929-40, and 1946-47. Walter's mother, Nona led the women's sports program at New Mexico A&M from 1933-40. We're very excited to be able to have Walter share his unique perspective and knowledge of Aggie history with bleedCrimson.net and our readers.

Pecos Uvalde Finley -- a cowboy hero in a Louis L'Amour novel? Not quite, but close. Pecos Finley was a hero alright, and he was straight off the eastern New Mexico cowboy country. Finley's brief shining life reflects both the glory and the tragedy of many young NM A&M athletes and students before and during WW II.

There are precious few still around who remember Finley as a star Aggie basketball player in the mid-and late-'30s. Mention Pecos and the old eyes sparkle, then squint, and close. They see him on the Williams Gym floor racing down court leading the potent fast break on a team that won three Border Conference Championships and a trip to the NIT in Madison Square Garden in 1939. They see the fluid, Cousy-like one handers, and the running, the constant running. They remember a handsome young man, his cowboy charm, humility and sportsmanship. Slowly, as the old eyes open, they are sad. Now they remember Bataan and Finley and his New Mexico compadres, and their cruel fate at the hands of the Japanese in WW II.