Who is on El Paso's Mount Rushmore of athletics? (original) (raw)
From these 35 nominees, four can go on El Paso's Mount Rushmore.
This week pick 16 of the 35 nominations. Voting will end at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 7.
Vote here or below
Nate Archibald
Played point guard for UTEP from 1967 through 1970 and his No. 14 is a Miner retired jersey. He played 14 years in the NBA and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991. He was selected as one of the NBA's 50 greatest players in history. Archibald is still the only NBA player to lead the league in scoring and assists in the same season, averaging 34.0 points and 11.4 assists in 1973.
Jerry Bailey
Born in Dallas but raised in El Paso, Bailey graduated from Coronado High School and briefly attended UTEP. He is considered one of the best jockeys in history. He won the Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey seven times, including an unprecedented four in a row from 2000 through 2003. He won 5,893 races and $296 million in a 31-year career. Bailey won each of the Triple Crown races twice. He was inducted into the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame in 1995.
Ted Banks
From 1972-81 led the Miners to 17 NCAA titles (five outdoor track, six indoor track, six cross country), including triple crowns in 1979-80 and 1980-81. Along the way he coached 189 NCAA All-Americans, including 47 NCAA individual champions. His 1981 NCAA championship cross country team set an NCAA record that has never been approached by scoring 17 points.
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Jim Barnes
One of the most dominating players ever to play at UTEP/Texas Western. The 6-foot-8 Barnes came to Texas Western in 1962 after two years in junior college. He averaged 18.9 points and 16.5 rebounds as a junior and, in leading the Miners to a 25-3 record, averaged 29.2 points and 19.2 rebounds a game as a senior in 1963-64. Barnes is still the school's all-time leading rebounder with 965 and finished with 1,308 points. He was the first player picked in the 1964 draft by the New York Knicks. His No. 45 is retired by UTEP.
Bob Beamon
A Texas Western track and field star in the mid-1960s, and best known for his incredible world record in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Beamon won the gold medal with a world record jump of 29-feet, 2 ½ inches when no one in the world had even jumped better than 27 feet before. It coined the term Beamonesque. His world record stood for almost 23 years and it remains an Olympic record. He is in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame and in the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.
Don Brooks
Oklahoma native coached at Coronado for 40 years, 35 of it as head coach, and his 229 career wins tops the city's history books. He took the Thunderbirds to the state playoffs 21 times including to the state quarterfinals in 1979. The stadium where he won so many of those games is now Jack Quarles-Don Brooks Thunderbird Stadium.
Fred Carr
Quite possibly the best linebacker in UTEP history. Carr played for the Miners from 1965 through 1967. Carr was a first-team All-American in 1967, helping UTEP to a 14-7 win over Mississippi in the Sun Bowl. He received the Jimmy Rogers Jr. Award for outstanding lineman in that Sun Bowl game. Carr was drafted first by the Green Bay Packers and fifth overall in 1968. He played for the Green Bay Packers for 10 years, from 1968 through 1977. He was a three-time Pro Bowl selection. Carr is in both the UTEP Athletics Hall of Fame and the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.
Frank Castillo
A sixth-round pick out of Eastwood in 1987, the right-handed pitcher made it to the majors in 1991 with the Chicago Cubs and played in the big leagues for 14 years. In 1995 with the Cubs, he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against St. Louis, notched his 12th and 13th strikeouts to get to two outs, then gave up a triple that fell just past the glove of a diving Sammy Sosa. He finished with a one-hit victory, one of his 82 MLB wins.
Alan Culpepper
The distance runner won five state titles at Coronado High, where he graduated in 1991, then six more NCAA titles at Colorado before moving up to the marathon. He won the 2004 Olympic Trials in the that race and eventually finished 12th in Athens. He also ran in the 2008 Olympics, won three national championships in cross country and three on the track.
Antonio Davis
He was dominant at UTEP for four NCAA tournament teams from 1986-90 and was All-WAC his last two seasons. Davis went on to a 13-year NBA career, making the 2001 NBA All-Star team, playing for Team USA in the 2002 FIBA World Championships and serving as the president of the NBA Players Association. He had 9,041 points, 6,755 rebounds and 889 blocks in his 903-game NBA career.
Paul Ereng
UTEP's current cross country coach won NCAA national titles in the 800 meters in 1987 and '88 but, after finishing third in the Kenyan Olympic Trials, was a medal longshot in the '88 Olympics when he rallied from seventh to a gold medal in the homestretch. That was Kenya's first-ever Olympic gold in the 800 but started a string where that nation has won five of eight titles.
Jim Forbes
The Bel Air grad had a good enough career as a star basketball player at UTEP to get in the UTEP Athletic Hall of Fame, and should have capped it with a gold medal in the 1972 Olympics before the United States lost the gold medal game Soviet Union in one of the most controversial finishes in Olympics history. Forbes has gone on to one of the city's great coaching careers at Riverside and Andress, including leading the Eagles to the Final Four in 2015 and Riverside in 1995. .
Mark Grudzielanek
An all-state player at Hanks in 1989, he played 15 years for six teams in Major League Baseball as a middle infielder, notching 2,040 hits while sporting a career batting average of .289. Grudzielanek appeared in the 1996 All-Star game and last season was the manager of the Triple-A Charlotte Knights, a Chicago White Sox affiliate.
Eddie Guerrero
The Jefferson grad worked his way up through Mexican wrestling before becoming one of the biggest stars in the WWE in the mid-2000s when he was a Triple Crown and Grand Slam Champion. He died of heart failure at the peak of his popularity in 2005 at the age of 38. A 2011 poll of the WWE roster ranked him the 11th greatest professional wrestler of all time.
Tim Hardaway
One of UTEP's basketball greats who had an outstanding professional career. Hardaway led the Miners to the NCAA Tournament in his final two seasons, 1988 and 1989. He was the WAC Player of the Year and won the Naismith Award for the outstanding college player in the nation 6-foot and under in 1989. Hardaway was the first-round pick, 14th overall, of the Golden State Warriors in 1989. He was a five-time NBA all-star and his famed killer crossover was named the UTEP-two-step by analysts. He was part of the famed Run TMC for the Warriors, along with Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullen. He had a career-high scoring average of 23.4 points a game in 1991-92 and a career-high assist average of 10.6 in 1992-93. He played for the Miami Heat from 1996-2001 and in 1997 averaged 20.3 points and 8.6 assists and was fourth in the NBA MVP voting. His No. 10 is retired by UTEP and by the Miami Heat.
Jennifer Han
"El Paso's Sweetheart" claimed the IBF featherweight title in 2015, a belt she still holds. The 36-year-old Irvin alum had her first child last May, then returned to the ring at El Paso Coliseum in February with a win to run her record to 17-3.
Don Haskins
With his 719-353 record at UTEP, he would be way up on this list even without a national championship, but there was that national championship. The 1966 Texas Western Miners changed the face of college basketball, becoming the first team to win an NCAA team title with a starting lineup made completely of black players. Haskins is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Tuff Hedeman
An inductee of both the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and Bull Riding Hall of Fame, the Coronado grad won three PRCA bull riding titles and one PBR title. He later served as the President of the PBR and then the President and Ambassador of Championship Bull Riding. In 2018 he formed the Tuff Hedeman Bull Riding Tour. He still hosts an event in El Paso every year.
Bobby Joe Hill
Along with David Lattin, he was the star of perhaps the most significant team in college basketball history when ran the point for the Texas Western 1966 national champions. UTEP was an underdog against Kentucky in the title game right up until In the first half of the NCAA Championship game, he stole the ball from both Louie Dampier and Tommy Kron twice within the span of a minute and converted both steals into easy layups. He led all scorers with twenty points.
Aaron Jones
The 2013 Burges graduate had three scholarship offers and chose UTEP, where he finished as the school's all-time leading rusher despite playing three full seasons. A fifth-round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers, he led the NFL in rushing touchdowns last year with 16 and was a two-time NFC Offensive Player of the Week. Occasionally after touchdowns, he found a camera and flashed "9-1-5" as a tribute to El Paso.
Seth Joyner
He began his UTEP career as a walk-on in 1982 and ended it as one of the school's best-ever defensive players. He was an eighth-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1986 draft, was cut, but later picked up again by the Eagles and went on to become a 3-time NFL Pro Bowl linebacker and the 1991 Sports Illustrated NFL Player of the Year. He closed his career in 1998 with a Super Bowl title with the Denver Broncos,
Don Maynard
Standout halfback for Texas Western from 1954 through 1956. Maynard was best known for his 10-year career with the New York Jets. He caught 633 passes for 11,834 yards and 88 touchdowns in his professional career. His 11,834 yards were a professional record when he retired. His average of 18.7 yards per catch are still the most ever for any receiver who caught more than 600 passes. Maynard was chosen to the American Football League All-Time team and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987.
Ray Mickens
Outstanding athlete out of Andress High School and one of this city's best football players ever. Mickens was a two-time all-state running back for Andress in 1990 and again in 1991. Mickens then went on to a standout career at Texas A&M as a cornerback, making All-Southwest Conference and All-American in 1994 and in 1995. Mickens was drafted in the third round by the New York Jets in 1996 and played for the Jets from 1996 through 2004. He missed two games in his first eight seasons. He played for Cleveland in 2005 and for New England in 2006.
Suleiman Nyambui
He won fifteen individual NCAA championships for UTEP from 1979-82, the second most ever, and was part of a record 11 national championship teams. Nyambui is one of five NCAA athletes to win four straight national championships in the outdoor 10,000 meters. While still at UTEP he won the Olympic silver medal for Tanzania at the 1980 Olympics.
Omar Quintanilla
The all-state infielder at Socorro went on to win a national championship at Texas and was a first-round pick of the Oakland A's in 2003. He went on to play parts of 11 seasons in Major League Baseball with five different teams.
Nolan Richardson
A standout basketball player at Bowie and UTEP, he made his mark in a coaching career that spanned six decades. The cap came when he won the 1994 NCAA national championship at Arkansas, making him the only person ever to win a championship in the NCAA, NIT tournament (1981 with Tulsa) and the NJCAA (1980 with Western Texas). He was elected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.
Bruce Ruffin
The Hanks grad won a national championship at Texas in 1983 and was later a second-round pick of the Philadelphia Phillies. He had a 9-4 record and a 2.46 earned-run average in his rookie year in 1986, eventually finishing seventh in the rookie of the year voting. He went on to a 12-year career in the majors.
Dick Savitt
The right-handed tennis player from El Paso High won the Australian Open and Wimbledon Hall of Fame tennis player won Wimbeldon and the Australian Open in 1951 and also reached the US Open semifinals and French Open quarterfinals that year. He then abruptly retired at age 25 after winning the 1952 U.S. National Indoor Singles Championships. He is in the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Obadele Thompson
Thompson, who won a bronze medal for Barbados in the 100-meter dash at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was an 11-time All-American at UTEP. He won four NCAA sprint titles and was a 16-time Western Athletic Conference champion. He has a best time of 9.87 in the 100-meters and 19.97 in the 200-meters. His time of 5.99 in the indoor 55-meters remains a world record. In 1996 at Kidd Field Thompson ran the fastest 100-meters under any conditions in history at that time, a wind-aided 9.69. He has become an author and an attorney.
Kayla Thornton
A star at Irvin, she became the all-time leading scorer and rebounder at UTEP and was on two of their great teams, the NCAA tournament squad of 2012 and the WNIT finalists in 2014. She worked her way into the WNBA and started the last two years for the Dallas Wings after a sixth-player role in 2017. She was the MVP of the Korean League in 2019.
Lee Trevino
Grew up in Dallas but moved to El Paso in 1966. He was sponsored on the PGA Tour initially by a group of El Pasoans that year. He won six major championships, five of them while living in El Paso. Trevino won the U.S. Open, the British Open and the Canadian Open in a span of three weeks in 1971 and was named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year in 1971. Inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981.
Jesse Whittenton
Back when college football was still one-platoon, the Ysleta alum went to UTEP where he rushed 1,351 yards, passed for 1,381 yards, intercepted nine passes and was a star returner. In a 1955 Sun Bowl win over Florida State, he accounted for a Sun Bowl-record 35 points (three passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, five extra points). He went on to intercept 20 passes in eight seasons with the Green Bay Packers and is in their Hall of Fame. He later played on the Senior PGA Tour.
Brian Young
The all-city player at Andress was the WAC defensive player of the year in 1999. He went on to a nine-year playing career in the NFL and tied a league record with three fumble recoveries in a 2003 game to earn NFC Defensive Player of the Week. He is now a coach with the New Orleans Saints, where he concluded his career.
Bruce Reichman
Reichman, who is the only boys soccer coach in school history, has coached Del Valle to a pair of state titles and one state-runner-up showing.
Reichman's teams won state titles in 2005 and 2008 and was the state runner-up in 2013.
He started working at Del Valle High School in 1987 when the school opened and remained as the school’s first and only varsity soccer coach for nearly 31 years, according to YISD.
Reichman was inducted into the El Paso Hall of Fame in 2013 and was also named state and national Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association.
Flo Valdez
Valdez has been inducted into multiple halls of fame, including the New Mexico High School Coaches Hall of Honor [1998], the Texas Girls Coaches Hall of Fame [2009], the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame [2009] and the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame [2016].
She began at Franklin in 1996 and led the Franklin program to 15 district titles, three area championships and seven bi-district titles
Valdez was also named the National Federation High School Coaches Association Coach of Year in 2001. At one point at Franklin, her teams won 11 consecutive District 1-5A Championships in volleyball [1998 -2008].
Valdez began her coaching career in 1967 at Tatum High School in New Mexico. She was active on the Region 8 Board of Directors of the Texas Girls Coaches Association and ha worked closely with the Greater El Paso Girls Coaches Association.