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.
