June 12, 2024 Vol. IX, No. 6
Your Unauthorized Connection to the UTEP Miners
Miners Are Forever
Mt. Rushmore of Miners ?
A Look at UTEP's Top 5 Studs of All Time
Nobody asked, but it says here naming the top five most accomplished athletes in UTEP history starts with three lock-solid picks, then veers into a debate over the remaining most coveted spots.
No arguments on the first three. In no particular order, they are:
? Nate Archibald ? This slightly-built basketball guard from the streets of New York was nicknamed ?Tiny,? but was huge on the court. While leading the Miners, he caught the eye of legend Bob Cousy, who urged the Boston Celtics to draft Archibald. Good move. Tiny went on to be the only man to ever lead the NBA in scoring and assists ? in the same season.
? Fred Carr ? This decorated linebacker from Phoenix who played for Coach Bobby Dobbs? Sun Bowl championship team of 1967. Carr was drafted out of UTEP as the first pick in 1968 draft by Green Bay coaching legend Vince Lombardi. ?Freddie,? as friends called him, died in 2018 of complications from dementia. He is remembered as one of the most gifted Packers ever to wear green and gold.
? Don Maynard ? To get from Colorado City, Texas to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, you?d better pack a sack lunch. But that was the route taken by the late wide receiver, who starred at Texas Western in the 1950s before winning a Super Bowl with the N.Y. Jets and a quarterback named Joe Willie Namath. Footspeed, hands, wits. The superstitious Miner of yesteryear, always wearing number 13, was the total package.
From here, I give a heavy lean toward defensive back Charlie West and point to the track star Paul Gibson and basketball jumping-jack Scott English.
West who came out of Big Spring in the 1960s to gain prominence on the UTEP bowl winner of 1967. He would later win a Super Bowl championship ring with Coach Bud Grant and the Minnesota Vikings. Baseball scouts forecast Charlie as a big-league catcher, and Miners basketball Coach Don Haskins always said Charlie could have played for his UTEP teams. High praise indeed.
The late Gibson, from Carlsbad, N.M., was a national-class hurdler who earned spot duty as a receiver for the Miners in the early 1970s. My spies tell me this double duty did little to improve personal relationship between track coach Wayne Vandenburg and football coach Bobby Dobbs. In the early 1970s, Scott English was one of Haskins? bounciest forwards, then played for the NBA Suns and starred in pro volleyball.
If Gibson and English do not make your top five, then it?s truly an elite list. What about the late Jim ?Bad News? Barnes in basketball? College basketball Hall of Fame Coach Nolan Richardson? The late Fred Wendt from football?s leather helmet days?
Surely you have a name to add to the Mount Rushmore of Miners, yes? Let?s hear from you: mark@dustdevilpublishing.com.
Steve Tredennick was one of the early building blocks for Miners basketball. He met his wife, Diane, in high school at El Paso Burges, and married while Steve was in law school.
They Call Him "Hondo"
Miners basketball burst into the public consciousness in 1966 as the first college championship team to start five Blacks. But to those who followed the game beyond East Coast media, this meteoric rise was not quite so improbable. Texas Western, as the far West Texas school under Coach Don Haskins was playing some competitive basketball.
One of those who helped build the championship foundation was a forward in the early 1960s out of El Paso Burges High named Steve Tredennick. He came to be known as ?Hondo,? a salute to his multiple skills likened to the do-everything Swiss Army knife play of Celtics? John Havlicek.
In a recent email exchange, Hondo shared thoughts with MAF:
MAF: You played for Don Haskins 1961-1954, right?
Hondo: Freshman could not play varsity ball my freshman year, so we had a freshman team that played against some Army teams from Fort Bliss and other local amateur teams that year.
MAF: Where did you learn your earliest fundamentals?
Hondo: At Burges, (1959-1961), but even the year prior to my Burges, I played my sophomore year for Charles ?Lefty? Driesell, who later gained coaching fame at Davidson, Maryland and several other colleges. In 2018, he was enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Lefty died in Virginia Beach, Va. in February of this year, at the age of 92. He was one year younger than Coach Haskins.
MAF: My spies tell me it didn?t take you long to find a wife. True?
Hondo: Diane French was her maiden name. She was a classmate at Burges, later at TWC. In 1966, she joined me as my dear spouse during my second year in law school at Thomas Jefferson?s university a/k/a University of Virginia in Charlottesville. {Note: Diane helped Steve handle details prior to and during a reunion of Miners held in El Paso during the 2022 homecoming weekend.}
MAF: Where?s home for Hondo?
Hondo: Round Rock, Texas. Been there since 1996. Prior to that, from 1969 to 1996, we lived in El Paso, four years at Fort Bliss and the rest in private practice in the city.
MAF: Your specialty of practice?
Hondo: I?m still working part-time and "of-counsel" to a Round Rock law firm {Dietz & Jarrard, P.C.} Primarily, for me it?s an office practice involving business law ? LLCs, corporations, partnerships ? and estate planning. Wills, trusts and tax planning.
MAF: Want to take one last free throw?
Hondo: I second the messages from others who expressed their joy in reading your stories of old Miners and supporters. Thanks for starting this back. It is good to reflect on the Maynard Haddads, the H. Cowans, the Willie Quinns, and the others. I enjoy reading comments from those writing to commend you for starting the newsletter back up.
The Customers Always Write
You do a good job. How about telling your story on wrestling? That would bring some laughs.
? Dick Reisman, west coast of Washington State
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Miners Are Forever: Oh, dear, that?s one tale that may never die. More later.
Congratulations, Mark, on this newest (MAF). Fun, and informative newsletter! John would have loved it also. Miners Forever!
? Necah Stewart Furman, Houston
Miners Are Forever: Necah is a Ph.D. in history, an author, a Pulitzer Prize nominee and the widow of former Texas Western quarterback John Furman. Her most recent book ?Raymond Henri Dietrich: Automotive Architect of the Classic Era & Beyond? has been released in hardcover, available on Amazon ($225). For those of you who might have played defense in football, the book contains more than 400 photos.
Thanks for another "Imbedded" newsletter. I was sorry about the departure of Nate Poss. He always got players to attend the UTEP Woman's Auxiliary benefit luncheon. I never knew if he would get me the names in time, but he always came through. I'm sorry to say that the EP Times is a joke. I remember Chuck Whitlock, Bob Ingram (Herald-Post), Ray Sanchez, and Bill Knight well. Great coverage of both college and high school athletics. Don't know if you knew that Daddy played semi-pro baseball, first for the El Paso Texans and then for the Alpine Cowboys. We used to drive to Alpine on the weekends for the games. He also ran the college pool in the summers. What a great childhood I had!
? Marilyn Cromeans, El Paso
Miners Are Forever: The writer is the daughter of noted Miners athletic trainer Ross (Mo) Moore. More soon on his remarkable contributions to sports rehabilitation, including the young students who went on to fine careers in their own right.
To post other announcements for the Miners mail bag, write mark@dustdevilpublishing.com.
LOOKING BACK
?Longer I?m gone, the better I was.?
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Formerly newsroom furniture, UTEP journalism grad Mark McDonald Sr. now writes and manages book projects with his Dust Devil Publishing team. Miners Are Forever continues later this month. To receive more life-changing posts like this, at no charge, email Mark@DustDevilPublishing.com.
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