The most thankless job in modern collegiate athletics? No, it isn’t the coach or the players...it is the athletic director. When the team does well and meets most people’s expectations, the coach will get all of the credit, along with the players. While it is true that they certainly deserve the lion’s share of it, there are many behind the scenes who worked just as hard to attain those goals, and it all begins with the Athletic Director (emphasis intended). Of course you will never see any fans admit to such a crazy thing as that. They will give themselves credit for a team’s success long before they ever give “some administrator” his due.

On the other hand, when things go wrong, and their expectations are not fulfilled (if ever they truly are), the athletic director is first in line to be their whipping boy. Now, one might say that since the AD is “King of the Mountain” it is only correct that he be the first one to take the blame, since crap rolls downhill...right?

Such a statement, while colorful for sure, completely ignores the fact of that same “crap” seeming to pile up and stop at the door of the AD year after year regardless of the final outcome on the field.

It certainly takes a politician and an astute businessman to handle such a job, so what do we make of this “outlaw” known as Rudy Davalos? First, a little history is in order for us to better understand the sometimes eccentric and always opinionated individual shaping the University of New Mexico Athletic Department into the new century.

A native of San Antonio, Texas, Rudy Davalos’ leadership skills were formed early on in 1960 as the team captain for Southwest Texas State. A first-team All-America point guard for the Bobcats, Davalos led SWTS to a NAIA national title that same season.

Being a Hispanic man in Texas at the time was not always easy, as the state was still completely segregated among blacks and whites, and many of those ignorant people felt Hispanics should be relegated to that same shameful standard as well.

Never one to conform or adhere to rules he felt were wrong, Rudy thrived on the basketball court and was an all-conference player during those years in the Lone Star conference.

More importantly, he received his degree in education there, and in 1962 he received his master’s degree from Georgetown (Ky.) College.

There were lots of pioneers those days in the area of civil rights (thank God), but considering that Rudy Davalos rarely gets any credit by his critics for being one of only a handful of Hispanic Athletic Directors in the nation, while leading the largest school in a state (New Mexico) with one of the highest percentages of Hispanics seems very odd to me.

Still, playing in the completely segregated Lone Star conference was a great learning experience for the young Davalos, as these statements made later by him clearly show.

“I was quick and fast” Davalos said speaking of the Lone Star conference, “But when we would go to Kansas City (for the NAIA national tournament) we would play Tennessee State and Grambling State. They were faster and bigger. I would have enjoyed playing with black athletes. They were so good.”

Understanding early on in his life that he wanted to contribute to the academic and athletic growth of other students, Rudy Davalos began his coaching career as an assistant coach with Georgetown College in Kentucky in 1961. From there he spent a year as an assistant coach at Kentucky. It was in 1963 that he began a seven-year stint as an assistant coach at Auburn in Alabama.

While there, he was witness to an even greater degree of racial ignorance than he had seen while attending school in Texas.

None of that seemed to faze the young Rudy Davalos. Refusing to recognize or pay any attention to such madness, he continued to live life by his own code of honor. Recruiting the best young basketball players available was all that was on his mind, and that meant traveling to west Alabama to see guard Henry Harris.

Rudy couldn’t charm the young talent with a trip to a fancy restaurant since blacks were not allowed in most Alabama establishments, and certainly were not welcome in many parts of town by the local citizenry.

“I had to go to a Dairy Queen and get a sack lunch to eat with him,” Davalos said.

The same dogged determination that had carried Rudy Davalos to the national championship and beyond, prevailed upon Henry Harris to become the very first African-American athlete to ever sign with Auburn University and one of the very first in the entire state of Alabama.

“To me, it wasn’t a big deal,” said Davalos, who received several hate letters after Harris arrived on campus. “I just really didn’t think about it as a color issue. I never saw myself as a pioneer, it was just the natural thing to do.”

Over forty years later, Rudy Davalos still refuses to allow himself to be encumbered by conventional thinking or by the opinions of the “status quo.”

In 1970, after seven years with Auburn, Rudy accepted the head-coaching job at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He would coach the Tigers for three seasons, from 1970-1973.

That final ‘72-73 season would prove to be the most successful season in the school’s history with a sterling 23-4 mark to finish things out for Davalos. The pull of the southwest was calling him back home, with the allure of the NBA beckoning as well.

Joining the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs as an assistant later that year, Davalos provided commentary on Spurs' radio broadcasts and served as the director of community relations for three seasons. Inevitably, his original dream of helping to provide a higher education and develop young athletes pulled him away to become the very first athletic director at the University of Texas San Antonio.

It certainly appears that Rudy Davalos has never lacked in confidence. Whether that meant making social change as a young coach in the deep south, or harassing bigger opponents as a collegiate athlete, or making sure the Division I school in his hometown got off to a successful start in athletics.

“Rudy never changed very much,” said Marvin Greer, who coached Davalos at Edison Junior High. “He’s always been energetic and a good guy to work with. He’s always been a hard worker.”

Apparently, his energy also extended to coaching his peers on that same middle school team.

“He would try and convince us that keeping his elbow out (while shooting) was better than keeping it in,” Greer said chuckling.

Sharp elbows and a sharp tongue have certainly been attributed to Rudy Davalos, but his sharp mind and soft heart – while perhaps less well-known, have served him far better.

Davalos would eventually spend nine successful years (1975-84) as the Athletic Director at UTSA, completely fulfilling his initial promise to turn his hometown college into a real division I university.

“San Antonio ought to be really proud of him,” said Vernon McDonald, a former Southwest Texas State basketball coach who was an assistant when Rudy played there.

Taking a break from university life for a while, Davalos rejoined the Spurs organization where he served as assistant coach and Director of Player Personnel from 1985 to 1986.

In 1987 he was hired by the University of Houston as Athletic Director and soon proved their wisdom with the procurement of gift-in-kind donations for the Cougar athletic department totaling in excess of $32 million dollars.

Always seeking ways to build and improve the schools he worked at, Rudy spearheaded projects at Houston that led to a state-of-the-art athletics facility (something he would do again years later at New Mexico), a baseball stadium, tennis courts and the renovation of departmental offices. While at Houston he also served on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee.

Under Davalos, the Cougars prospered on and off the field – winning championships and even producing a Heisman Trophy winner (Andre Ware in 1989).

In his fifty-one years, Rudy had pretty much seen everything sports had to offer– the good, the bad and the ugly. Seeing Andre Ware win the highest honor in college football must certainly have been one of the very best moments for a man whose college conference would not even allow blacks to play back in 1961.

Of course, segregation no longer exists for Davalos the administrator, but challenges still remain everywhere, and he continues to meet them head-on. One of those he does seem to have a problem with though, is watching his old sport from the stands.

“I actually enjoy watching football more,” Davalos said. “I am less attached to it. When I watch the team on TV when they are on the road, I have to turn it off sometimes and turn it back on.”

“I’m too intense. It might be a flaw, but it’s the same quality that helped me as a player.”

That same quality also landed Rudy Davalos in both the Texas and San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame, among his many honors. It also is the quality that makes the man fiercely loyal to his employers and schools. It is even the quality his critics use to try and point out some real – but mostly imaginary flaws.

And in 1992, it would be that same quality that led Rudy Davalos to the land of enchantment for another chance to build and overcome obstacles where an almost endless number had always existed.

Had the “Rude Dawg” (as some Lobo fans soon began to call him) finally bitten off more than he could chew? Nah, utterly fearless – and above the contempt of those for whom words spoke louder than their actions, Davalos began what is now the third longest tenure in university history.

Davalos wasted little time in causing a few ripples in that notorious “New Mexico fishbowl” (so-named because the Lobos tended to be the only fish in a relatively shallow New Mexican sea). In fact, those ripples are likely to resonate for many more years to come.

Countless great victories and major disappointments lay ahead in the school’s future, but such is the game of life when one chooses to confront it’s obstacles with a mouthful of sharp teeth rather than to roll over and play dead.

As King Arthur said to Indiana Jones in a movie once upon a time...we had chosen well.

Part 2: Marking Off His Territory

While it appeared that the Lobos had found their alpha-male, most people in Albuquerque still weren’t convinced. To them, the only real power guiding sports at the University of New Mexico could be summed-up in two simple words: Lobo Basketball. For it’s new athletic director, this was both a blessing and a curse, so he immediately set out to fatten-up the other sports without killing the sacred cow.

In Dave Bliss, he had inherited a basketball coach who would go on to win more games than any coach in New Mexico history. He also inherited an arena considered by many at the time to be one of the toughest anywhere in the country for an opponent to play. To go along with that, he acquired a rabid group of fans to go inside of that arena, many longtime season ticket holders (10,000 at the time – 14,000 by 1999) who had kept the Pit top ten in national attendance since 1966.

The flip side to all of this was that for New Mexico, Lobo basketball really was the sacred “cash cow.” Unfortunately, it was a cow that existed on a very poor farm. That farm also tended to be populated by farmers with unrealistic expectations, selective tastes, and very short memories.

Only twelve years earlier, the program had almost disappeared completely in the infamous scandal known as Lobogate. That it survived at all is as much a tribute to those fans as it is to any other thing. Even after sanctions and defections decimated their team, those fans continued to fill the arena and cheer for a team comprised mostly of walk-ons and benchwarmers - with few good players. It was then - as it still is today, their finest hour.

But that was then and this was now.

By 1992 those fans had become less patient and far more demanding. Fortunately, Bliss had taken the team to the NCAA tournament the year before for just the fourth time in school history and for the first time since the scandal-ridden year of 1978. This was to be a rebuilding year for Bliss however, and he would not return his team to the tournament this season. He would return it to the big dance in 1993 though, starting a string of six straight tourney appearances.

It is important to note that this six-year run was exactly two more tournament appearances than the university had received in its previous 100-year history,

and all six of them under the careful watch of Rudy Davalos.

This was not the miracle cure that would solve all of his problems though, as Rudy Davalos understood all too well. Struggling to fund the rest of his athletic departments with only one real moneymaker, the obvious (though only partial) solution was to increase the gate at other sporting events – especially football.

Unfortunately, the fans and the administration’s apathy towards anything non-basketball related was legendary, and was the single biggest reason for the failure of other sports at UNM. Little did most fans know at the time, but it also adversely affected recruiting for the basketball team, and contributed to the general lack of respect they received from national sportswriters during the basketball season.

Consider the story of former athletic director John Bridgers. Beginning in 1979 and finishing in 1987, Bridgers saw both the best and the worst of Lobo athletics during his career. Arriving here from Florida State, he was handpicked to bring the basketball program back from the smoldering ashes of Lobogate. Working in tandem with the under-appreciated efforts of Coach Gary Colson, they were able to regain much of the respect the program had lost, while putting the “tainted goods” of the past far behind them.

It was to be the magical season of the football team in 1982 however, that became his legacy. Finishing 10-1 that season, the Lobos still somehow failed to get a bowl bid in what ranks as one of the most grotesque oversights in school history.

Reportedly, the empty seats at University Stadium had turned off bowl officials, even though the miniscule average of 23,236 per game was by then, the second best attendance figure in school history.

Although disappointed about the snub, Bridger’s main concern at the time was in retaining his suddenly popular head coach, Joe Morrison. Unfortunately, the school administration did not share his concern, and Morrison bolted for South Carolina and three times the salary, where he would coach the Gamecocks to three bowl games before prematurely dying of a heart attack in 1989.

Bridgers, now retired and living in Florida, bristles with bitterness when recalling his days with the Lobos.

“I know (Morrison) never felt the administration was giving him the support it should – he was right,” said Bridgers. “A coach can’t do it by himself, I don’t care how good he is. A lot of people felt football was worthless and did not want to give it any support at all.”

Bridgers knew what he was talking about. Prior to coming to UNM he had been the AD responsible for turning Florida State into a national power – and for hiring legendary coach Bobby Bowden. The gross indifference that the UNM administration had displayed would cost the school for many years to come, as the Lobo football team would go eleven straight years without another winning season.

“Among the people who had the leadership”, he said, “there weren’t enough of them who saw the need for a good football program. As a result, it struggled and did not achieve the level of success I always felt it could.”

John Bridgers never gave up, and in fact, he had plans to add 4,000 seats to university stadium, which at the time had a capacity of 30,646.

Without any support from the administration or regents, he was able to raise $1.2 million in cash and pledges towards the $2 Million project. But once again, Bridges good intentions fell upon deaf ears. University president Gerald May informed the athletic director to return all of the money and donations.

“I never understood that,” Bridgers said. “A good program is not going to just come by accident.”

These days, John Bridgers would rather just forget about the University of New Mexico and his time spent there. Perhaps the difficulties an athletic director faces in this state are best summed-up in the two words he uses to describe his initial decision to leave Florida State for UNM: “A mistake.”

This was the dilemma facing Rudy Davalos in 1992. Would he be able to build his own “field of dreams” where John Bridgers had failed? Would he be able to find his own Joe Morrison and retain him? Would he be able to change attitudes in New Mexico about football and other sports? And finally, would his exertions to improve the other sports cause the “cash cow” to become a piggy bank?

Ah, but sharp teeth will only take a wolf so far, and after that cunning and leadership are needed to finish off the objective. It also doesn’t hurt to have friends in high places with deep pockets.

In 1992, the entire Lobo athletic budget was fixed at $9.4 million. By the 2001-02 season that budget had been increased to $17 million – far and away the biggest nine-year increase in school history. That increase is due – in part, because of Davalos’ ability to identify and maximize revenue-generating opportunities. He gets a lot of heat for moving the students section inside the Pit, but there was never a really massive student presence there anyway, despite the rose-colored glasses view taken by many. Almost any announcer that has ever worked a game at New Mexico will tell you that it has always been more of a “pro crowd.”

Now this is not necessarily a good thing, and I for one would like to see those students moved underneath one of the goals. I would also like to see some sort of “school pride” incentives created to get them to attend in higher numbers.

Nevertheless that move, creating the Lobo Level seating area at the Pit, adds nearly $500,000 each year to the scholarship fund along with another Davalos brainchild, the nine sold-out skysuites at University Stadium.

Early on in his tenure, Davalos assembled a nationally respected marketing and promotions campaign, along with a fund-raising organization called the Lobo Club, that all together would bring in more than $6 million annually for UNM athletics.

Before Rudy Davalos was hired, the amount brought in was less than one-third of that total. This, along with the generous aid of the State Legislature, various govenors, local businesses and private donations, allowed Rudy Davalos to begin turning those dreams of the past into the reality we see today. Virtually every UNM athletics facility has received a facelift since he arrived, and the process is ongoing. Already, he has added two tennis bubbles for indoor play, along with new infield grass and lights for the men’s and women’s soccer and track and field teams. He hasn’t forgotten about the “cash cow” either.

Renovations and much-needed exterior landscaping were provided for the venerable old Pit by the late nineties, but just a few years later, Davalos was already thinking about an even greater transformation. Currently, studies are underway on plans to include a new or reinforced roof to hold a state-of-the-art scoreboard, additional seating, restrooms and concessions, as well as a completely new practice gym.

A big project and a costly one. But those who know the man behind New Mexico athletics will be quick to give a warning to those doubting the project will ever see the light of day: Don’t bet against Rudy Davalos.

Nowhere is there more proof of this, than in the amazing improvements he has brought about to University Stadium. Beginning back in 1992, Rudy was able to get approved a plan through sheer will it seemed, that would renovate and modernize the football program in five phases. Much grander than Bridger’s vision, Davalos nonetheless succeeded where Bridger had earlier failed.

This Master Plan for expansion of the University Stadium proposed increased seating for 43,000 spectators, enlarged and improved restrooms and concessions, and the creation of a continuous concourse around the facility by enclosing the endzones.

Phase I of the project was to construct a new training facility. The former building was such an eyesore and so antiquated that it was a common practice for coaches to steer any potential recruits away from it.

This all changed in 1995 with the unveiling of the $8.5 million Tow Diehm Athletics Facility, one of the premier training facilities to be found anywhere in intercollegiate athletics.

Ex-Lobo and current Green Bay Packer defensive back Scott McGarrahan calls it "probably the best weight room I've ever been in. Without it, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

UNM would not be where it is today either, according to Davalos.

“If the Tow Diehm building had not been built and the facilities had stayed the way they were,” Davalos said, “we’d be playing in the Western Athletic Conference.”

The next phase completed was a $1.5 million renovation of the concession area and restrooms in the northwest corner of the stadium in October of 2000. The best was yet to come though, with the unveiling of a $3.6 million expansion of University Stadium in August of 2001. This included adding 5,946 seats that enclosed the north endzone and “LoboVision,” a huge, state-of-the-art video scoreboard.

The final phases are lagging a little behind right now, due to that age-old problem here in New Mexico: Lack of funding. The State Legislature bailed out on an earlier commitment to finance the construction, and a major donor has been impossible to find thus far. If Rudy Davalos has his way (and he will), we should see the finish of this project within the next one to two years. Remember, it has never paid to bet against Rudy Davalos.

To understand the magnitude of the deal-making and financial “wrangling” Rudy has been able to pull off in New Mexico so far, all one has to do is to look for parallels inside our own conference. Well actually, there are none since the only members to undergo major renovations since 1997 (Utah and UNLV) got far more money through more conventional means to complete their work.

Utah received $50 million to rebuild Rice stadium and UNLV received $19 million for Sam Boyd Stadium renovations. Both projects were done in one phase – not by the piecemeal system that UNM is forced to use.

In addition, each project was funded by sources completely unavailable to us. Utah got both public and private funding because the stadium was to be used in the 2002 Winter Olympics, while UNLV was able to get a large chunk of money from the city’s convention bureau since the stadium is the yearly site for a bowl game.

It is the perhaps the truest measure of the man himself, that Rudy Davalos has never let underdog status or long odds keep him down. Such a man makes his share of enemies, however. Not everyone appreciates athletics and those who do, are often never satisfied because they fail to understand the dynamics (or lack thereof) driving this state. By the year 2003, athletic budgets of $40 million were no longer rare in this country, and in fact, there are a few out there exceeding $100 million dollars. It makes you kind of wonder how New Mexico is still able to compete on a level playing surface, eh?

For many at the university, just as in years past, they couldn’t care less.

UNM professor Peter Dorato has been a long-time critic of Lobo football, and has seldom failed to speak out against the appropriation of funds for the program.

“To have winning teams in football,” said Dorato, you need people who are good football players, who spend a lot of time at it and who spent a lot of time at it in high school, and hence less on their academic preparation” (Obviously, this professor is some sort of freakish genius).

“I can’t get journals I need because they say we don’t have enough money and yet, they can expand the stadium. How’s that possible?”

Perhaps Professor Dorato (fine engineering professor that he is) would prefer teaching at the schoolhouse from “Little House On the Prairie” fame. That is not too far removed from what UNM would be without the allure and entertainment value of athletics. Right or wrong, it is the most recognized face behind the educational robes. It is a well-known fact that the registration of new students (the vast majority of whom are not athletes) often rises and falls with the fortunes of a particular team, and the subsequent press that it generates.

Professor Dorato was far from alone in his criticism. Cisco McSorley, a member of the state legislature for 20 years, says no matter how much money goes into improving the football program, it never seems to be enough.

“We were told a huge top (the press box built in 1976) would change the program,” he says speaking as a former graduate. “We were told a weight room would change the program. But I don’t see the stadium busting out at the seams on a regular basis for home games.”

These and countless other skeptics and non-believers have not deterred Rudy Davalos from doing what he saw was in the best interests of the University of New Mexico. In fact, the only thing that seems to matter more to him than recruiting quality athletes to New Mexico, is the recruiting of quality student - athletes to the university.

In the year 2000-01, the athletes representing UNM’s 21 intercollegiate sports combined for the two highest semester grade point averages since the school began keeping track of them in 1988. Those Lobos recorded a 2.91 GPA during the fall and spring semesters. This would make nine straight semesters (under Davalos) the Lobos had attained a 2.80 GPA or higher. Eleven UNM student-athletes were named to academic All-America teams while an amazing 109 earned all-conference honors.

War is not always pretty though, and there were casualties along the way. Men’s swimming, gymnastics, and wrestling were given the hatchet, mostly to meet Title IX compliance. It was also in keeping with the general configuration of other schools in the Mountain West Conference. This may or may not have been the wisest decision of the Davalos administration, and critics are still extremely vocal in protesting it today. At any rate, Title IX compliance is not a voluntary decision in modern athletics, it is a legal one. UNM could not afford to have federal dollars withheld by overzealous lawyers intent on upholding the letter of the law.

So, Rudy Davalos had proven himself an extremely capable administrator and fundraiser, but how did this translate out on the field where the fans chose to pass their judgement? Did he ever find his own Joe Morrison to fill those extra seats, and would he retain him after football glory was acheived?

The answer to that question is, “Yes, he got what he wanted, but he lost what he had. In doing so, he found what he was looking for the whole time.”

Sound confusing? Well, hopefully parts 3 and 4 of this series will explain that story in greater detail. Of course with Rudy Davalos, anything is possible.