Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • 27

Albuquerque Journal Saturday, September 2 1 2002 D5 1952 Lobos Football Team, 6 Others To Be Inducted 16th annual UNM Lettermen's Hall of Honor banquet will be held Thursday By J.D. Kailer For the Journal Fifty seasons have passed since Dr. Dudley DeGroot's 1952 University of New Mexico football squad was selected "the finest college defensive team in the U.S." by the wire services. Thursday evening, the 21 surviving members of DeGroot's squad will be gymnastics, skiing, basketball and softball programs; first female member NCAA executive committee. KENNEDY: Outstanding state, UNM and Southwest singles and doubles tennis player (1956-58); the Lobos' first NCAA Ail-American ('58); practicing Albuquerque dentist for 32 years; organized a U.S.

dental think tank. KRALL: Starting Lobos fullback (1946-49); twice all- Border Conference fullback; 15th all-time UNM rusher with 1,421 yards; played in three postseason games in '49; retired Albuquerque contractor. Ph.D.; Phi Beta Kappa; head coach at UNM, San Jose State, West Virginia, Rochester, Washington Redskins (1943-44) and the All-America Conference's Los Angeles Dons; and Skyline Coach of Year. BARNEY: A former all-Skyline swimmer and UNM swim coach, Lobos sports historian; B.S., M.A. and Ph D.

degrees; author, Olympic historian and founding director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies. ESTES: B.S. and M.A. from New Mexico; UNM women's athletic director (1973-2001); initiated women's volleyball, recognized along with six former Lobos notables who will be inducted into the UNM Lettermen's Hall of Honor. The 16th annual banquet will be at the Sheraton Old Town hotel.

They'll also be introduced at halftime of the UNM-Texas Tech game next Friday. Tickets are $40; reservations can be made by calling the UNM Alumni Office. The six Hall of Honor inductees include Dr. Robert Barney, Linda Estes, Dr. Jack Kennedy, Rudy Krall, Marv Levy and Buddy Robertson.

DeGroot will be inducted posthumously. Former UNM president Richard Peck will receive the Distinguished Service Award. After struggling through 2-8 and 4-7 seasons, DeGroot's 1952 team proceeded to use a stonewall defense to finish 7-2. The Lobos shut out five opponents (New Mexico State, Wyoming, Denver, Colorado State and Utah State), allowing just 46 points in nine games. DeGroot, who died in 1970, was named Skyline Conference Coach of the Year.

The 2002 inductees and their accomplishments: LEVY: Joined the Lobos' coaching staff in 1956; named head coach in '58 and led his team to Successive 7-3 seasons ij', Rookies-Division Eagles Soaring High v. -a .4 LINING UP: Redmon Keith (95), Elliott Tsoodle (91) and Aaron 5-0 Eldorado rookles-divlslon team. Its opponent today will be Chris Russo' team is 5-0 after outscoring its opponents 159-6 By Harold Smith For the Journal The positive charges hop from the coaches to the nine-and 10-year-old players to the parents like static electricity on a dry summer day. "I get goosebumps just talking about it," says Eldorado rookies-division coach Chris Russo. "They feel like a team, like YAFL they're champions.

They start chanting on their own now. They're just excited." In his day, Russo was a Highland High School football standout and state champion javelin thrower. He started last year as an assistant coach for the Young America Football League Eagles, now a mostly fourth-grader squad. In the beginning, Russo says he just wanted to be with his son, John, an Eldorado end who attends Georgia O'Keeffe Elementary. "Last year, I really enjoyed it," says Russo, who played 7 for former Hornets coach Bill Gentry.

"This year, I wanted to be the head coach, teach them the fundamentals." The Eagles, 5-0 after outscoring their opponents 159-6, have learned Gentry's Delaware wing-T offense. Accentuating the past even further, Russo says Gentry's grandson, Adam Bay singer plays for the team as a line-. in the Skyline Conference; named Coach of the Year both seasons; coached at California and William Mary; head coach of the CFL's Montreal Alouettes and NFL's Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills; led the Bills to four successive Super Bowls in the '90s. ROBERTSON: All-Skyline Conference catcher three years for the Lobos; baseball coach and athletic director at Valley for APS assistant administratorfor 23 years, APS athletic director for 12 years; instrumental in adopting athletic trainer program. DeGROOT: All-America center at Stanford; B.S., M.A., ROBERTO E.

ROSALESJOURNAL Dunavant are members of the Valley at 10 a.m. says handoffs are harder to do than they appear. "You have to get it right in the middle of their chest all the time," O'Dwyer says. On defense, linebackers Tony Mariano and Ryan Tru-jillo say they've really stepped it up. "We learned not to commit too much," says Mariano of Manzano Day School.

Adds Matheson Park Ele-mentary's Trujillo: "It's fun, and we get to tackle people." Russo says they run two platoons, and he and his staff really do try to stress sportsmanship. "We've got a really humble group, believe it or not," Russo says. "We just play and shake their hands after the game." Commission Other tribes 'may follow suit. If there's a fight card so big that it must be held at the Pit or the Pan American Center, the New Mexico Commission is back in business. But could the current commission, without Abeyta's experience and with precious little of its own, handle such an assignment? To all the above, a strong, viable, respected state commission would have been at least a partial answer.

Too bad. 1 QUICKLOOKS Rivals Colliding In YAFL Contest "It's going to be a good one to watch," says Young America Football League juniors-division Bulldogs coach Frank Sedillo. In a matchup of old rivals, the Cibola North Cougars and Sedillo's Albuquerque Bulldogs will meet today at 4 p.m. at Bullhead Park's field No. 2.

Both teams are 5-0 this season in the juniors' American Conference North. Cibola North is coached by Randy Powell. Albuquerque defeated winless Sandia 26-0 last Saturday. The Cougars beat the Ravens 34-0. Against the Matadors, the Bulldogs got two touchdowns apiece from Toby Marquez and John Montoya.

While his mostly seventh- grade boys won the Super Bowl as fourth-grade rookies, Sedillo says the Cougars have, won two metr'o-area championship titles, including their peewees year and last season. Eldorado (currently 3-2) earned the freshmen- division crown. In the juniors division's National Conference, the South Bears and South Rams also remain undefeated. All-Comers Run Opens the Season The 2002 New Mexico USA Track and Field cross-country 1 season opens Sunday at 10:30 a.m. with the Albuquerque Athletics Track All-Comers Cross-Country Meet at John B.

Robert Dam and Park on Juan Tabo NE, between Spain and Montgomery. The state championships will be held Nov. 10, also at the AATsite. The state meet will be followed by the Region Junior Olympics Championships in Salt Lake City on Nov. 16 and the national championships Dec.

14 in Carrollton, Ga. The remaining schedule includes: Sept. 29 Rio Rancho PRICED TOO LOWTO ADVERTISE SAUEUPT0 50 C'A SHECTED EilCSES 3 NOW ONLY www C3lV.1STFf::CE CF Hi! YEAS WHILE SUPPLIES LAST NEOTTZSTCSKIIinsnOI i SAVINGS 4i Oi WR MW i 1 UlflJU lUJuuULflJG 1 Running Rams All-Comers Meet No. 1. Oct.

6 Bluebird Track Club All-Comers Meet in Cuba. Oct. 13 TorreonDay School All-Comers Meet at Na'Neelzhiin, southwest of Cuba. Oct. 20 Sky City All-Comers Meet in Laguna-Acoma area.

Oct. 27 Zia Road Runners All-Comers Meet in Los Lunas. Nov. 3 RRRR Meet No. 2.

For information on youth cross-country clubs call at 865-8612 or see the Web site at www.usatf.orgassocnm Four Cyclists Win Two Golds Apiece Three boys and a girl were double gold medalists at the Bicycle Motocross State Championship Race at the Police Athletic League Roadrunner BMX course in Las Cruces on Sept. 8. Three of the four are Albuquerque residents. They are: Alan Straughan, 17-year-old division and 17 boys cruiser; Daniel Valdez, 10s and 10 boys cruiser; and Holly Greaser, girls 12s and 11 girls cruiser. Rio Rancho's Matthew Peralta won the lis division -and the 11 boys cruiser.

Punt, Pass Kick Event To Be Oct. 13 The local Gatorade Punt, Pass and Kick competition, for boys and girls, ages 8 to 15, will take place Oct. 13 at Milne Stadium. Gates open at 8 a.m. Competition begins at 9.

For information and signup forms, call Fred Hultberg or Adrienne Palacio at 764-1510. Harold Smith Harold Smith covers youth sports for the Journal. He can be reached at 292-9409 or hgsmtthJrOhotinail.com. Send story Ideas, news Items and results to Youth Sports, P.O. Drawer Albuquerque 87103.

S2 OFF ALL GOLF GLOUES mm PRICE TOO IQViTO ADVERTISE SEVERAL COLORS TO CHOOSE FROM mm, ESSE SftlXSSCX SELECTED KSXEPEECEPTJIXacm SAVE UP TO 50 i I after five Eagles' touchdowns were called back. Eldorado running backs Gary Maestas, of O'Keeffe, and James Brown, who goes to Albuquerque Christian School, together have scored 25 touchdowns this season. Brown, whose favorite pro player is Deion Sanders, says, "I juke a bunch of people, and I can hit really hard." Maestas says several reasons exist for the Eagles' success this year, "I think it's because we picked up some good players, especially on our line," Maestas says. "'And we've got a new quarterback this year." That new field general, in his initial year of YAFL play, is Cullen O'Dwyer, who also attends O'Keeffe. O'Dwyer N.M.

Athletic better part of 20 years, is gone. The current situation isn't good, for at least three reasons. Abeyta has been hired by Santa Ana to help supervise Santa Ana, rather than being employed by the state to help supervise everyone. The potential conflicts are built-in. With the New Mexico commission helpless and the tribal commissions autonomous, there's no one to prevent Santa Ana and Isleta from eating each other alive.

Abeyta Resigns; R.LP. for More football Today's complete schedule of ballgames D4 backer and backup quarterback. Baysinger's father, Al, is the interim head coach at Eldorado High. A student at Mitchell Elementary, Baysinger says it won't be easy to defeat Valley, the Eagles' age-division nemesis, today at 10 a.m. at Bullhead Park.

The Vikings, the 2001 peewees Super Bowl runners-up, are currently 4-1. "It'll take a lot of effort," says Baysinger, who's a chip off the old block, "they do a lot of trick stuff, motion, passing." Valley beat Eldorado in last year's playoff semifinals of the Connecticut commission, works in harmony with the Mashantucket tribal commission to stage cards at Foxwoods Resort Casino. But in New Mexico, the Land of Entanglement? Josef Mason, director of the Colorado commission, is scheduled to supervise Friday when Albuquerque's Danny Romero challenges Mexico's Cruz Carbajal for the WBO bantamweight title. "For some reason," Lueckenhoff says, "the tribes haven't wanted to work with the New Mexico commission." Nor does anyone else. Almost from its inception, the New Mexico Athletic Commission has been an open wound of political and personal turmoil.

In recent years, it also has lost most of its boxing expertise: Sandy Pino, Louie Burke, Stan Gallup, the late Jim Boggio, et al. And now Abeyta, the commission's legs for the I i.SALEENDS I I JC MONDAY riSi from PAGE D1 fully sanctioned by the Association of Boxing Commissions and fully independent of the NMAC. "Santa Ana was voted in as a full member at our annual meeting in Miami on the first of August," says Tim Lueckenhoff, executive director of the Missouri commission and president of the ABC. Isleta, meanwhile, has applied for ABC membership. In order to be considered, Lueckenhoff says, the Isleta tribal commission must be supervised and observed at three different events by an ABC-member commission.

It might follow that the ABC-member commission doing the observing would be the NMAC. In Oklahoma, Lueckenhoff says, Indian tribes involved in boxing willingly are supervised by the state commission. John Burns, head 21 ft Non-winged Sprint Car Race UNOMVUAUUQUHQM SOW AUMIMNIJUST WIST Of MS-W7-JA00 LAND ItOVf I SANTA PI VALOIS BUSMISS HUtK ON OUUUOS 474-OSU; a ii II 'k'fA- II.