I’ve taken this week off from work (except for Friday), and my GF and I decided to do a couple of day trips. Yesterday we went to Santa Fe (I know, not much of a day trip) but we went the scenic way through Madrid (pronounced “Mahd-rid” not “Ma-Drid” as they say in Spain).
Madrid’s a funky little village on NM 14 between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. It’s a very artsy community, with art galleries located in every other house along the main drag we strolled along.
This was just in from the ABQ Tribune today. Albuquerque Journal Associate Sports Editor Mike Hall died from pneumonia today. Mike was 61 years old. Update: The Albuquerque Journal did a great article in Saturday’s paper as well.
Mike was a friend of mine. He hired me to work on the Journal sports desk over 10 years ago. Well, he didn’t as much “hire” me as let me work there part time (I was already working for the City Desk as a runner) during the week when they needed someone to answer phones.
Mike was still the sports editor at the time, before moving over and letting someone else take the helm of the sports desk. Mike then went on to cover Lobo Women’s Basketball. Mike was very dedicated to the women’s team. He worked hard to find the latest recruits that UNM was interested in and then would write features about them. This in turn helped the women’s program to recruit better players.
Mike was a great guy. I remember one time, when I was still playing rugby, I walked into the office one afternoon and Mike called me over to his desk. “I’m kinda concerned about you playing rugby,” he told me. He showed me an article about a New Zealand rugby player who was accused of sticking his hands up players… well you get the idea. “Is this what rugby is like?” he asked with a grin before we moved on to getting ready for that day’s work.
When Mike was around there was always something smart-assy that would come out of his mouth. Never in a malicious way, but in a light-hearted tone that would bring out the best in you for a response.
However, Mike was a pretty serious smoker. I don’t know how much he smoked, but he was often was seen outside indulging in a smoke break. Then before I left the Journal he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He took some time off to fight it and slowly started to come back to work as he was getting better. Then after I left the Journal he got sick again and, from what I had heard he had to be placed in a coma for a few weeks to try and fight it off.
Mike, you were greatly loved and you will be missed. Now the big paper up there has someone to cover the women’s beat.
Ah, but I wrote “amigos” in the headline…
According to the Albuquerque Journal, the University of New Mexico has a new president. Finally, they picked someone to replace Louis Caldera, the former Clinton-era Secretary of the Army. Although I have to say, having graduated from the University of New Mexico, having someone running the show who had to run an institution like the Army would be a benefit when dealing with that damn teachers union! 
Instead of picking the “safe” candidate, New Mexico Tech President Dan Lopez, the regents at UNM went with president of Oklahoma State University, David Schmidly. Schmidly was picked in part because he comes from a larger institution with a medical school. Lopez was the safe pick because he was endorsed by the Hispano Roundtable , and because he runs a college in New Mexico and everyone would have been happy letting him try to run UNM.
(in disclosure, I went to New Mexico Tech for many years before finishing up at UNM, and I have experience with both campuses, and there’s a great deal of difference between New Mexico Tech and its 2200 students and UNM, with over 24K students, a med school and a law school. Both campuses are cool, but vastly different.)
