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The New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame will honor its 50th class of inductees at an event later this year.

The 2023 class of eight people 鈥� tied for the largest class of inductees ever 鈥� was announced Saturday morning and includes two professional athletes, an Olympian, four prominent college coaches and a sportswriter.

The elite eight will be inducted at a June ceremony the NMSHOF hopes will be its largest in five decades of feting the state鈥檚 top athletes, coaches and others who have profoundly affected the state鈥檚 sports landscape.

鈥淲e want this (induction ceremony) to be the biggest and best ever; the biggest sports celebrity event that New Mexico鈥檚 ever seen,鈥� Marty Saiz, president of the NMSHOF, said during a news conference at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Saiz said all 83 living Hall of Famers are being invited to attend.

New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023

Who鈥檚 being inducted this year?

Former NFL player Glover Quin and former NBA player Charlie Criss will be in the Class of 2023.

Quin was a three-year starter and All-Mountain West cornerback at the University of New Mexico before the Houston Texans drafted him in the fourth round of the 2009 draft. An All-Pro in 2014, Quin started 162 of 165 games at safety over 10 seasons with the Texans and Detroit Lions.

Criss, the first New Mexico State University basketball player to be named All-America, helped lead the Aggies to the 1970 Final Four. The point guard entered the NBA as the shortest active player at 5-foot-8 and played 418 games over eight seasons with the Atlanta Hawks, San Diego Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks.

Amber Campbell, who grew up in Tucumcari, became a three-time US Olympian in the hammer throw. She excelled at Coastal Carolina University, where she was a five-time All-American in a variety of throwing events (weight throw, hammer throw, shot put and discus) and went on to win 11 national track titles and two medals in the Pan American Games.

George Brooks, who brought competitive collegiate skiing to New Mexico as the pioneer and longtime coach of UNM鈥檚 ski team, is among four coaches to be inducted. The others are Larry Hays (college baseball and softball), Jim Marshall (college baseball) and Klaus Weber (soccer, tennis and skiing at UNM and high school).

Brooks鈥� 2004 Lobos became the first team at UNM to win a national championship in any sport. A Taos native, Brooks petitioned the university to create a ski team and in 1970, at age 20, he became a member of the team as well as its head coach. He coached the team for the next 37 years. In 2018, UNM eliminated the sport.

Hays, a member of the College Baseball and NAIA hall of fames, has 1,500 wins as head baseball coach at Lubbock Christian (where he won a NAIA national title in 1983) and Texas Tech (where he won multiple conference titles and had 20 winning seasons in 22 years). Hays is a native of Dora, N.M., and played basketball and baseball at Eastern New Mexico University before becoming a baseball coach. He later came out of retirement as a baseball coach to helm the Texas Tech softball team and currently coaches the Colorado College softball team.

Marshall, who died in 2021, won 619 college baseball games as head coach of New Mexico Highlands University and College of the Southwest. His 1967 Cowboys team won the NAIA national championship.

Weber came to UNM in 1976 to be the cross-country ski coach and eventually coached 2,500 games and meets in soccer, tennis and skiing between the high school, club and collegiate levels. He also played club soccer, even competing at the age of 66 in an over 40 soccer match.

Frank Maestas, a former 近距离内射合集 reporter, will also be inducted into the hall of fame. Maestas, lauded as the first four-sport letterman (football, basketball, baseball and track) in the history of West Las Vegas High School, became one of the first Latino sports writers in the nation in the 1960s.

He covered all sports but will be specifically remembered as a champion of high school sports reporting. He died in 2006.

What they said

Quin and Brooks attended Saturday鈥檚 news conference in person, while Campbell and Hays participated via Zoom. Jim Bob Marshall and Antonio 鈥淢oe鈥� Maestas attended in person and represented their deceased fathers. Criss and Weber were unable to attend.

At the podium, Jim Bob Marshall fought through tears as he remembered his father, who he said raised him with 鈥渢ough love.鈥�

鈥淏ut every kid that I played with and every kid that played before me or after me, they鈥檙e doing well in the community right now. And I think it all because of his tough love,鈥� Jim Bob said.

Brooks, the national-title-winning ski coach, was most proud of his athletes鈥� accomplishments off the mountain.

鈥淚 was asked this morning what was the biggest honor (of his career) and that is we had probably 350 or 400 athletes at UNM that graduated, that are going out in the community and are doing great things and that is the most important thing New Mexico skiing did.鈥�

Later, speaking to a journalist, Brooks explained how he became a renowned ski coach. He said he joined UNM鈥檚 non-competitive skiing club in the late 1960s and brought up the idea of creating a ski team.

鈥淭he president of ski club turned to me and he said, 鈥楪eorge, I have tried, I couldn鈥檛 do it, it can鈥檛 be done.鈥� And that was a challenge. And I said, 鈥榃e鈥檙e gonna have a ski team here.鈥� So we got petitions signed by student athletes, representing the university, and we got recognized as ski team.鈥� Brooks said. 鈥淚 had no intent to be a coach, I had no intent to stay at the university. I just wanted to have a program that myself and my friends could participate in, which we did.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 how it started. And, you know, it鈥檚 the type of thing that I enjoyed every moment of it,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y personality is such that, you know, mediocrity is not acceptable; good is the enemy of great. And I wanted to be better.鈥�

Quin, who鈥檚 from a small town in Mississippi, said he had never heard of New Mexico when he was being recruited to play football for the Lobos.

鈥淚 was just a little kid from a small town that wanted to keep playing ball and New Mexico gave me an opportunity,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd 鈥� I鈥檓 just gonna make the most of it.鈥� After leveraging a chance to play at UNM into an NFL career, Quin said the lesson he tries to pass along: 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 really matter where you start, it鈥檚 how you finish.鈥�

Appearing on a large television screen, Hays and Campbell each said they were grateful for the recognition. Hays is currently coaching and Campbell couldn鈥檛 be there in person Saturday because she鈥檚 39 weeks pregnant and her doctor advised her not to travel, she said.

Moe Maestas, a state senator from Albuquerque, recalled how his father covered prominent sports teams and athletes, such as the Albuquerque Dukes, a Triple-A baseball franchise, and Nancy Lopez, a golfing legend from New Mexico. But his father deferred to writing about high school sports and spearheaded the publication of prep box scores and rankings.

鈥淗e reached out to those (high school) players, those coaches, those teams 鈥� and promoted them,鈥� Maestas said. 鈥淗e wrote articles that grandmas and moms would put on the on the fridge and made a tremendous difference to that family, that community, that school at that time.鈥�

Frank Maestas was suspended from the Journal amid a gambling probe in 1990 and later pleaded no contest to three petty misdemeanor counts of making a bet.

Saiz said the committee responsible for choosing the inductees was aware of Frank Maestas鈥� alleged involvement in the bookmaking operation 鈥� which made front-page headlines at the time 鈥� but was swayed in favor of including Maestas in this year鈥檚 class due to letters written by community members in support of the former journalist.

Phill Casaus, editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican and a former Journal sportswriter, offered his support for Maestas, noting in an email that his former colleague was a 鈥済reat journalist and an even better man.鈥�

Casaus wrote: 鈥淭here was a three-decade period in which Frank鈥檚 voice was among the most important and well-respected in New Mexico journalism. A native of Las Vegas, he knew the people, the teams, the coaches and the deep hold sports had on the state.

鈥淗e also was a journalist鈥檚 journalist 鈥� fair, dedicated and above all, dedicated to the truth.鈥�

Moe Maestas said he was grateful to the committee for considering his father鈥檚 nomination.

鈥淭he allegations, which were newsworthy at the time, would be trivial today, with sports betting being legal,鈥� he said. Sports betting is now legal in more than 30 states and in a some tribal jurisdictions, including within New Mexico.

The induction ceremony

The first Albuquerque Sports Hall of Fame ceremony was held March 5, 1974 and nearly 1,000 people attended, Saiz said, making it the largest induction banquet to date.

The hall of fame has since expanded to honor athletes from all over the state and Saiz hopes this year鈥檚 ceremony, the 50th, will attract more than 1,000 guests to meet not only the current class but all living hall of famers who can attend.

The banquet to induct the Class of 2023 will be June 23 at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Tickets are $50 per person or $500 for a table of 10 through March 31 and then prices go up to $75 ($750 per table) on April 1 and rise to $100 ($1,000 per table) on May 15.

Other events around the celebration weekend will include an autograph signing and a breakfast with New Mexico sports heroes.

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