Former Lobo athletic director Lavon McDonald passed away this week in Albuquerque. He was 85 years old and a figure from which Lobo athletic history both ebbed and flowed for the University of New Mexico down through the years.

Serving as UNM’s athletic director from 1974-1979, McDonald got the job almost by accident it seemed. It surely wasn’t by popular choice at the time, as beloved Lobo coach Bob King was that choice, having stepped aside as coach of the men’s basketball team (bad knees and all) in order to await friend and then-current athletic director Pete McDavid and his forthcoming retirement announcement. McDavid was grooming King to take his place when he stepped down, but by the time it actually happened, New Mexico politics had become involved and it was a whole new ballgame.

McDonald was an associate director of student aid at the university during the changeover, and nobody outside of his friend and then-Governor Bruce King --along with a few other friends in high places, would have even remotely considered him a candidate for the job. UNM President Ferrel Heady apparently fell under their influence, naming McDonald to that very position in 1974. Unbeknownst to most people at the time however, was the fact that it had been a lifetime dream and goal of McDonald’s to become athletic director at his alma mater. He had previously starred as a football player for the Lobos in both the 1945 Sun Bowl and in the 1946 Harbor Bowl. Early on and much to his credit, he was soon able to help lead the university out of the racial turmoil and (often) violent student war demonstrations that had occurred with alarming frequency during the first half of the Seventies.

A somewhat disappointed Bob King left Albuquerque not too long afterwards, only to take over the reins of the previously unheralded Indiana State University athletics department. While there, he personally recruited Larry Bird to play on the basketball team, which eventually resulted in the Sycamores reaching the NCAA Championship game against Magic Johnson and Michigan State in 1979.

Although Bob King and Indiana State went on to lose to the Spartans that night, it was a game that has long been considered 'ground zero' for the sudden massive jump in popularity that the NCAA Tournament has enjoyed, as well as the rapid and continual growth of college basketball in general.

Of course, the popularity of basketball in Albuquerque had always been ahead of the national curve anyway, so using his superb salesmanship skills, Lavon McDonald was able to wrangle a national championship game of his own for New Mexico. Putting in a bid for the NCAA Final Four in 1978, McDonald must have been ecstatic when it was announced that the university would be awarded the 1983 Final Four. The fact that the eventual championship game that was broadcast coast-to-coast on national television in 1983 would arguably become the most exciting and renowned college basketball game of all time, probably never even occurred to anyone way back then. Surely, not even McDonald could have foreseen the images of coach Jim Valvano running around the court looking for somebody to hug after his North Carolina State Wolfpack team (how apropos) upset the University of Houston Cougars on a last second bucket.

That iconic crown jewel in university athletic history should have been McDonald’s lasting legacy, as well as the Press Box at University stadium, the Lobo Tennis Complex and the Mezzanine section in the Pit that he ram-rodded through during his tenure.

Unfortunately, there was another event that tarnished those accomplishments, known forever as Lobogate. When some 90 NCAA violations were uncovered within the Lobo men’s basketball program during the fall of 1979, McDonald was quick to distance himself from coach Norm Ellenberger and the basketball program. Describing his involvement to reporters as “a man whose wife is running around and he’s the last one to know,” McDonald would later implicate himself during Ellenberger’s trial in Roswell, just a year and a half later. Admitting to the court under oath of having had a “general knowledge” that the basketball program had been violating NCAA rules under Ellenberger, McDonald had been by this time, long-relieved of his athletic director duties by the university.

So much history has passed through the years, as have passed on so many of the men who helped shape that history; Pete McDavid in 1983; Jim Valvano in 1993; Bob King in 2004; Ferrel Heady in 2006 and Bruce King in 2009. Decorated World War II veteran and lifelong New Mexican Lavon McDonald, certainly deserves to be remembered among such men --if only for that fabled night in 1983, when millions of television sets were tuned in to watch a seemingly crazy man, running around in rapturous joy and seeking someone (anyone) to share it all with.

Twenty-seven years later, and much has changed for the arena that these men are so often linked with. A sixty million dollar renovation is currently underway, and did I mention that the home team is at the moment 16-3 and skirting the edges of the Top 25? Hell, they were ranked 12th in the nation just a few weeks ago with an undefeated record of 12-0. This was all accomplished with the third youngest team in the entire nation, by the way. But of course, you already knew that, or else you just accidentally stumbled upon this website by mistake.

So then, the obvious question is why doesn't the Pit sell out for every game? There are 3,500 less seats this year due to the rennovation, so it should be easy. Perhaps it is true what they say about the jaded and apathetic nature of the modern day sports fan. I mean, can you ask for a better bunch of young athletes to root for that the current edition of the New Mexico Lobos? They have indeed ‘seized the day’ game after game after game this season, and to a man, they deserve the best support that we can possibly give them.

It isn’t exactly like these types of seasons are commonplace around here, you know. Or maybe you don’t. I have noticed for several years now, that many sports fans (and people in general) don’t really give two hoots about the history of anything. They are missing out on so much, I believe. No, not just some 8-millimeter black and white movies that you found at grandmas’ house. Nor some dusty old photographs tucked away in your neighbor’s attic. I am talking about how history shapes the present and sometimes can even foretell the future.

It really can, you know.

But more than that, history can also help give us a better understanding of how the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows have impacted our teams down through the ages. For if it happened once, it will happen again. Of course, winning and losing is still spelled out in graphic detail upon the scoreboard after each embittered contest, but recognizing and understanding those ebbs and flows can give us a much better grasp of the current team. And did I mention that they are 16-3? You can pretty much count the Lobo teams of the past who have had that same record to this point on one hand.

One freaking hand. You don't need to be a math or history professor to figure that one out.

Oh, but getting back to the current situation, I'll admit that if this were an Apollo mission (no –not the space shuttle….check your history books), we’d have already heard over the crackle of static, “Albuquerque, I think we have a problem.”

And unfortunately, they would have a point. Look no further than the statistics down below for proof.

Point margin in the last 7 games: +1

The FG% during the last 7 games: 38%

3-point % for the last 7 games: 29%

3-pointers made per contest --last 7: 4.8

Assists per game through the last 7: 10.8

Turnovers per game through last 7: 14.3

Sweet Patron Saint of Roundball! What in the hell is going on around here? And more importantly, how could we have only lost 3 games?

I'll tell you how we have only lost three games: Because we have found a way to win. Ask anybody at this level, and I do mean anybody, and they will all tell you that the difference between a good team and a great team is that the great teams always find a way to win. Even if it means winning ugly.

Can't find your outside shot? How about a little dribble-drive penetration to brighten up your day! Can't shoot and can't drive? How about pounding it in down low to your outrageously athletic big men for the easy deuce! Can't shoot, can't drive and can't pound it inside? How about rediscovering the lock-down defense that was so successful early on in the season!

It's rather elementary of course, providing your dog has four legs like our particular dawg does. Those legs being, (1) Athleticism + (2) Skill set + (3) Chemistry + (4) Coaching = 16 and 3. It really is that simple, and currently, 306 teams in NCAA Division 1 basketball would kill to have our record and RPI.

I can just hear all of the cynics out there thinking, "so what about the other 21 teams in the country?"

Oh, they would probably kill to have the 5th element of our dawg. I mean, every healthy dawg needs a tail to wag. And to sometimes even have the tail wag him. The Lobo tail? Why of course, it is the fan support that I spoke of ealier, otherwise known as the Lobos' Sixth Man. Which somewhat skillfully, takes our little old tale or 'tail,' back to where it originally began.

Celebrate, support and enjoy this 16 and 3 team while you can, but be sure to tuck it away in your own personal, time capsule to be studied and mulled over at a later date. For at best, we will have these players for maybe four years. Then POOF! --and they are gone...hopefully to much bigger and better things. Meanwhile, we’ll still be over here nitpicking and arguing over port-a-potties and how many ‘stars’ our newest recruit has.

Forget about those hypothetical 'stars'. Each and every player that passes through the Pit tunnel leaves a unique fingerprint upon this program, and no two of them are ever exactly alike. Roman Martinez? Hell, they broke the mold with that crazy-cat, and the clock is now ticking for our elder statesman.

Enjoy them while you can people.

Embrace this 16-3 team.

Make every second count.

SEIZE THE DAY!

Chapter 15 was to originally have ended up above, but leave it to someone else to put perhaps the perfect coda on our story --and more importantly, to remind us all of how absolutely essential it is to apppreciate what you have before it is gone. In a post over on the RedMenace.com, Lobo fan Dan Rivera shared his grief over the loss of his beloved wife Carol earlier this month. Heartbreakingly poignant, I believe that Dan was also trying to teach us something with this heart-felt valentine to his lady.

The Good Lord took Carol Paige, my wife of 33 years on January 4 2010. I know I begin a new chapter in my life and have my kids and grand daughter to help me along.

Carol always said, " Never leave without saying good bye and I Love you, you never know if you will ever the the chance again." We never failed saying those words for 33 years...Miss saying them to her each day.

Love ya Babe...

Immediately after reading this post, I felt compelled --no, make that I felt driven to embrace my Linda, and to mutually promise each other to emulate those words that Carol always said. Thanks Dan, and god bless your family.

It was then that Linda reminded me of something related that happened this past Christmas, something that is probably so commonplace to most of you, that I can just hear your jeers and snickers now.

I hugged my dad.

Yeah, that's all it was. I say "that's all" rather loosely, because it was actually a pretty big deal for me.

And for my dad.

We hadn't really had that kind of intimacy since I was 10 or 11 years young. I am 48 years old now, and there has been an awful lot of water underneath that particular bridge.

So what took us so long? Well, even as a child I could feel his uncomfortable awkwardness towards such emotional displays. He just wasn't built that way, I guess. And as for me, I probably took on a great deal of that awkwardness during the later years of my life. Not that we haven't always been close, because we always have been --just not so that anybody else could see. It could easily have been too late. His health has been in such a rapid and serious decline for years. Maybe that was my reason for such a late and belated show of affection.

But then again, maybe not.

All I know is that right after we gave him his Christmas presents this year, I felt compelled to hug my father for the first time in 38 years, no matter how uncomfortable it made him. His reaction? He cried, as did myself just a little while later when he couldn't see me do it. A copout on my part? Perhaps, but I won't be making that mistake again anytime soon. Nor will I be waiting for another Christmas as an excuse to give him another one.

Carpe diem (Deo volente).