St. Michael’s honors ‘Mighty Midgets’ who played basketball in 1960s
Members of famed 1960s ‘Mighty Midgets’ gather to reminisce about their success and beloved coach
The way Ivan Montoya put it, he was a part of the first rock ’n’ roll team of state basketball — because everyone knew who the “Mighty Midgets” were.
“We were famous,” Montoya said. “We were … famous back in those days, and everybody wanted a piece of history.”
Almost 57 years have passed since St. Michael’s made its mark in the state’s basketball lexicon when a group of players, almost all of whom were shorter than 6 feet tall, made a remarkable journey to the Class 1A state championship game in 1962 before losing to Albuquerque Sandia in triple overtime. Montoya, who was a senior on the Horsemen squad that produced one of the most famous monikers in state history because of their lack of size, was back in his old stomping grounds Thursday night to relive a piece of history and to take part in a fundraiser at the school.
A group of 15 people — almost all of which played at the school at some point from 1961-69 — watched a 20-minute clip of that famous state championship game in the St. Michael’s library, as well as pieces of game film against Santa Fe High and the now defunct Española Hornets, to help raise money for the Dick Shelley St. Michael’s High School Basketball Scholarship offered through the New Mexico Activities Association Foundation.
Leading the event was Joey Butler, a 1969 St. Michael’s graduate and a former NMAA administrator who helped create the scholarship in 2017 in honor of Shelley, who coached at the school from 1960-67 and had a 179-27 record with five finals appearances and a state title in 1967.
He suffered a series of heart attacks in 1967 before learning he was born with an irregular heart valve. Shelley received a heart transplant later that year when the procedure was still new, but he died in 1968 at the age of 39.
As decorated as his coaching career was, it was his leadership skills as a coach that resonated with his players.
“His contribution to us individually was why we played hard for him,” said Steve Arias, a member of the “Mighty Midgets” and a 1962 graduate. “He was a very tough disciplinarian, but he taught us the lesson of unity and staying loyal. We were proof that hard work paid off and that’s what he instilled in us. When we all left school, we kept that determination in our own different ways.”
Jackie Ortega, a 1967 graduate of the school who later coached the Horsemen to the 1999 state title, told the audience after the viewing about the importance of keeping Shelley’s legacy alive.
“The scholarship, I think, allows us to keep his memory alive going
forward, particularly at the state tournament, where he had a lot of success,” Ortega said. “He just set the tone for St. Mike’s to what it is today. I think the expectations of the kids who play here on the weekend and during the weekdays, it all started in ’62.”
During an era in which St. Michael’s played against schools that were three to four times its size, the Horsemen made a spirited run to the finals, beating Carlsbad in triple overtime and Albuquerque Valley in the semifinals. They faced a Sandia team that had four players 6-4 and taller, including Louis Baudoin, who played in the 1966 national championship team at Texas Western (now UTEP). It took three overtimes for Sandia to beat the Horsemen, although the film only showed footage up to the third quarter.
Montoya said people in other towns always talked about that team, even when they were playing at the time. The fame that came from being a part of that team continued as an adults, saying even people in Las Cruces would recognize him as a part of the celebrated squad.
For Kathleen Shelley, the head coach’s daughter, said she is always touched when she goes to events that honor Dick Shelley because she gets a chance to revel in the memories that the players carry with them about her dad. It is why she takes such an active role in helping promote the scholarship.
“They want this, too,” Kathleen Shelley said. “It’s not just I. It’s very touching to me. I hope that every year we can continue doing it.”
Kathleen Shelley also played an important role in helping preserve some of her father’s history, as she found several canisters of game film from her dad’s coaching days — one which included the 1962 championship game.
While she handed it off to various people after her mother passed away about a decade ago, Kathleen Shelley began to recollect them so the film could be transferred from its original 16mm film to a digital format.
Toby Lujan, a 1965 St. Michael’s graduate whose brother Felix was on the 1962 team, has taken point on the project, using a friend’s studio to help with the transfer.
“I put the 16-millimeter film on the screen, and then I have a camcorder and focus it on the film,” Lujan said. “My system at home is a VHS, so I record it there and I converted to DVD.”
Lujan said it is a cheaper process than using a system to go from film to digital. He said when Kathleen Shelley tried that, it cost her about $300 to $400 for just one game.
The main challenge for Lujan is that his system requires almost complete concentration because of how delicate the film quality is. That was clear while watching the digital upload, as there were moments when the film faded in an out and other distortions common with film appeared on the projector.
Lujan showed only about 20 minutes of the signature game, as there were issues with the transfer for the viewing party.
However, he said he has an almost complete version of the game that he is in the process of transferring. Once that is complete, he plans on giving copies of that and other games from the 1960s to the school for preservation purposes.
“That way they can have it for their history,” Lujan said. “Not only for our personal history, but for the school’s history. For my history, my kids know of their dad at St. Michael’s. Our names are right there [in the portraits of each graduation class that line the St. Michael’s hallways]. But it’s my grandkids now.
“When I show them this film, they are like, ‘Grandpa, look how funny you guys look.’ It’s a labor of love, and not just for my classmates and my teammates. It’s also for the school.”
And how else can you tell the legacy of basketball at St. Michael’s, as well as of Dick Shelley, without the team that might be the most famous of all.
During an era in which St. Michael’s played against schools that were three to four times its size, the Horsemen made a spirited run to the finals.