Where’s Crazy Horse When You Need Him?

Bob Davie spent part of this week studying the history of his new state and was amazed to learn that Lobos and Aggies have been playing football since 1894.

UNM defeated the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts 25-5 in that first game. Unless you believe the Aggies, who say they lost only 18-6.

It was the first day of a bustling new year, although not exactly a New Year’s Day bowl.

It was a Monday — long before anyone invented “Monday Night Football.”

It was a month before artist Norman Rockwell was born, three months before Coca-Cola was sold in bottles and some 18 years before New Mexico became a state.

Davie, with ties to tradition-rich programs Notre Dame and Texas A&M, appreciates that side of college football. He instituted the “New Mexico Man,” a designated walk-on who leads the team onto the field bearing the state flag.

He’s “excited” to put a team on the field “worthy of the rivalry,” although I’m not sure what that means. As state rivalries go, this is not Alabama-Auburn. It may not even be Montana-Montana State — “The Brawl of the Wild.” But it has had a certain charm. In 1917, the Aggies beat the Lobos 110-3. In 1918, the Lobos disbanded their football program — although it may have had more to do with a flu epidemic than the loss.

Fullback “Sheep” Hays helped UNM to a 12-6 win over the Aggies in 1934, clinching the Border Conference title — the Lobos’

first league crown in school history. The second didn’t arrive until 1962.

In 1960, the second game ever played at University Stadium, and in front of 27,000 fans, the Aggies won 34-0. They were led by a coach named Warren Woodson, who was described that year in a Sports Illustrated article as “an ornery old moss-backed so-and-so.”

The Lobos went 9-50 in the Mike Sheppard era, but were 4-1 against the Aggies. Lobo fans began wearing T-shirts that read: “We May Not Win Many Games, But We Always Beat New Mexico State.”

In 1991, UNM procured the services of a self-proclaimed medicine man/truck driver named Crazy Horse.

While a school official took Lobo home and away jerseys and a game ball to the field at University Stadium, and KOB radio announcer Mike Roberts sprinkled garlic on the grass, Crazy Horse called in a blessing from a truck stop somewhere between Amarillo and Shamrock, Texas.

The Lobos beat the Aggies 17-10 that week. The next week, however, they lost 94-17 at Fresno State.

In 2002, UNM was beaten by the Aggies, prompting Albuquerque Tribune columnist Richard Stevens to write: “The University of New Mexico Lobos deserve to sulk in darkness today. Shame, shame, shame the Lobos lost 24-13 on Saturday to a New Mexico State team the Lobos beat 53-0 a season ago.”

The once-distraught Stevens now works for UNM, penning words of kindness.

On the Wednesday before the 2010 game, fliers appeared on the NMSU campus, asking everyone to withhold sex from Aggie football players until they win a game. Properly inspired, the Aggies won 16-14.

Now we turn to 2012. When asked whether his Lobos were underdogs, Davie worked his way through the question before deciding that they were.

Given last year’s whipping from the Aggies, given that it is Dwayne Walker’s fourth year with NMSU and Davie’s first at UNM, it’s not surprising the Lobos are sixpoint underdogs.

Still, given UNM’s budget, facilities and relative conference stability, the Lobos ought never be underdogs against New Mexico State. That’s not to say the Aggies should never win. Such is the history of rivals.

On the same day Davie talked about being an underdog, UNM men’s soccer coach Jeremy Fishbein also touched on the subject.

“We don’t ever have an underdog mentality here,” Fishbein said. “We expect to win every game. You’ve got to respect your opponent. You know how great an opportunity it is for them to knock you off.”

Saturday the Lobos have the opportunity to knock off the Aggies. It used to be the other way around.

Where’s Crazy Horse when you need him?