Henson’s true, enduring legacy is his kindness
One day you might find yourself walking up to the grand entrance of the Pan American Center in Las Cruces and pass a bronze statue of the man who made it all possible and wonder about the things that made him tick. One day, perhaps. “I mean, that’s the least we can do,” said Mario Moccia, New Mexico State’s athletic director, who spoke Wednesday about the legacy of Lou Henson, the father of modern-day Aggies basketball and arguably one of the most revered sports figures in state history. “You can’t really think about New Mexico State without Lou coming to mind. I think a statue of some sort is in our future.”
Moccia’s friendship with the Hall of Fame coach extends back much further than 2015 when Moccia was named NMSU’s athletic director. It was that spring when he learned that Henson was a man without equal, the kind of man that many heard about but few actually knew firsthand.
Hired away from Southern Illinois after a nine-year run, Moccia and his family planned to take up temporary residence in NMSU’s student housing unit while searching for their own home. Henson stepped in and told them they were welcome to stay with him as long as necessary.
“Lou had this casita attached to his place and I thought he was talking about that, but Mary [Henson’s wife] stepped in and said they wanted us to live in the house, the actual house,” Moccia said with a laugh.
“I was so humbled and, of course, I tried to say I couldn’t accept because, hell, it’s the man’s house,” he said. “Mary said it was a done deal because she and Lou were headed back to their other house in Champaign [Ill.] and wanted someone to stay.”
The Hensons even agreed to charge them rent — $1.
“We were in that house from May to maybe October and the guy’s charging me $1,” Moccia said.
That, in one fell swoop, describes the outgoing friendliness of the winningest coach NMSU has ever seen, the man who took two teams to the Final Four and returned for a second tour of duty at NMSU after the Aggies program was rocked by scandal in the mid-1990s. Just a year into retirement following his celebrated run at Illinois, he was back in Las Cruces and agreed to coach his alma mater in 1997-98 for a coaching contract that paid him $1.
“My rent was the same as his salary,” Moccia joked. “He just loved this school.”
For six glorious seasons, the universal alignment brought together the coaching troika of Henson, Don Haskins and Bob King. From 1966 through the end of the ’72 season, the three enjoyed what can be described as the golden years of their programs.
Haskins had taken Texas Western to the 1966 national championship the season before Henson took over at NMSU. Henson then led the Aggies to the 1972 Final Four, barely four years after he helped open the Pan Am Center. All Bob King did was christen The Pit in ’66 and lead the Lobos to their first NCAA Tournament berth two years later — losing to Henson’s Aggies in The Pit during a season in which both teams climbed into the nation’s top 10.
Ask anyone long enough in the tooth to recall those times and they’ll tell you about the seething crowds that developed a deep-seated distaste for one another. The games were often emotional slugfests that pitted family members on opposite sides, each despising everything about the other, from school colors to the characteristics of the head coaches.
Toss in the nutty times of the late ’60s and what you had was your run-of-the-mill three-way fight between perennial top 20 powerhouse teams right in our own backyard.
You wanted to hate the Aggies, and you probably did. You couldn’t stand the cherry and silver or the orange pickax, which is understandable. You were disgusted by the nasty aftertaste your rivals left behind.
As hot as those times were, the coaches were anything but with one another.
Current UNM head coach Paul Weir, whose unique perspective allowed him to serve a decade with Henson in the wings during his time in Las Cruces, says the behind-the-scenes story about Henson, Haskins and King was nothing but friendship and respect.
“I learned from Lou when I became a head coach how friendly he was with fellow coaches, that he would have dinner at Haskins’ house and vice versa the night before a game,” Weir said.
That includes similar outings in the Big Ten with Indiana’s Bobby Knight and Purdue’s Gene Keady.
“You can talk about people in this state — people, not just sports personalities — who sit in the top five of being the biggest influence on New Mexico life, and Lou is certainly one of those people on there with, I don’t know who else, maybe Pete Dominici,” Moccia said. “He was truly a gentlemen’s gentleman. A great coach, yes, and a great leader. But more, just a great man, a nice and genuine person who made anyone who talked to him for five minutes walk away and saying, ‘I’m now friends with Lou Henson.’ He had that gift. I’m glad I was friends with Lou.”