Lobos’ decision to bypass bowl still haunts Cromartie

Jim Cromartie earlier this month sat in gusty University Stadium alongside his friend, Bobby Santiago, whose name happens to be on a wall overlooking the field.

The 2016 Gildan New Mexico Bowl was hardly their first bowl together. They belong to a still rare fraternity — former Lobo football players who have played in a bowl.

In 1961, on a bitter winter day in Akron, Ohio, they shared the same UNM backfield — Cromartie the quarterback, Santiago the halfback — playing in the first (and last) Aviation Bowl. It was the Lobos’ first postseason football game since 1947. It would be their last until 1997.

But there is another bowl seared into Cromartie’s mind — the 1962 Sun Bowl.

It is a game in which UNM did not play. It is a game the Lobos turned down — a decision that grieves Cromartie still. It is one of two decisions, he believes, haunted UNM football for decades.

Cromartie arrived in Albuquerque in 1959 from Quanah, Texas, in an era of one-platoon football.

“We didn’t sit around talking about going to the pros,” said Cromartie, who lives in Rio Rancho and later became a coach and high school administrator. “Nobody did. Our biggest concern was to try to get a degree so we could get a job.”

The Lobos entered the 1962 season confident. Coach Bill Weeks declared the Aug. 30 practice “probably the best first day we’ve ever had.”

On Sept. 15, the Lobos beat New Mexico State 28-17 in the season opener before 28,576 fans at University Stadium.

On Oct. 13, the Journal’s front page carried the news of President John F. Kennedy’s impending trip to Albuquerque and UNM’s 14-13 homecoming win over Utah State in front of another 28,000. On a fourth-down play late in the game, Cromartie threw a lateral to fellow senior Santiago, who tossed a 22-yard, gamewinning touchdown pass to Larry Jasper.

On Nov. 17, Cromartie ran for a touchdown and intercepted two passes as the Lobos (7-2-1) beat Montana 41-12 and won the Western Athletic Conference’s first football title. Included in the crowd were representatives of the Sun Bowl.

A day later, the Lobos gathered. It was 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and Cromartie expected to hear details of the trip to the Sun Bowl.

“The only question was who we would play,” he said.

Instead, the coaches told the players it was up to them if they wanted to face West Texas State in the 28th Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve. There was no discussion. The players voted 32-18 against playing. “The vote was really a big surprise,” Cromartie said. “I was so angry.”

In those days, the holiday break started the Friday before Christmas and ended after Jan. 1. Cromartie understands how some of the out-of-state players did not want their vacation almost completely tied up in football. The Journal speculated that others felt West Texas State was not a worthy enough opponent and they should hold out for a better bowl.

In 1962, there were only 10 bowl games. No other offers would come.

The Lobos also won WAC titles in 1963 and ’64. No bowl bids came then, either. Certainly not from the Sun Bowl. Cromartie thinks that was no coincidence.

“It was a big mistake, a bad mistake,” he said. “We made them look bad.”

The second decision Cromartie believes cost UNM was its unwillingness to go to two-platoon football. The school’s administration deemed it too costly. And besides, the Lobos were winning.

“We were ahead of BYU at the time,” Cromartie said. “They didn’t have near the program we had. Then they made a commitment and we didn’t.”

But Cromartie likes what he sees in Bob Davie’s Lobos. He enjoyed watching the excitement of the fans at the New Mexico Bowl and the Lobos’ response to the fans.

Cromartie, as a run-first quarterback, would have fit in the current offense, although he’s not sure he would have played much.

“The players are bigger, better, faster,” he said, adding that former Lobo teammate Jim Ottmann still gives him grief over his completion percentage.

Still, he could deliver. The Lobos were 18-6 with him as their starting quarterback. He would have loved to have tried for a 19th win on that long ago New Year’s Eve.

“The bitterness has subsided a bit,” he said. “But the disappointment never will.”