© 2012 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Forty some years ago then NMSU Head Football Coach Warren Woodson was forced by NMSU to retire because he was 65 years of age. It is the curse of the Chicago Cubs Billy Goat and the trade of the Babe to the New York Yankees all in one. NMSU suffers from the “Old Man Woodson Curse” which is still going strong.
Warren Woodson was NMSU’s only successful football coach since the 1930s in terms of consistent winning seasons. He was also a witty fellow saying, “The perfect college football record is seven wins and four losses. The fans are happy, the alumni are sullen but not mutinous and the NCAA does not investigate your program.”
Both the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and New Mexico State University in Las Cruces have struggled in past years. At both universities there have been cries that Division 1 sports should go the way of the rotary phone. Heavens no!
With the privilege of age I reflect on the last 45 years in New Mexico of D1 football. Besides watching Aggie football, I also worked at UNM in 1982 when then UNM Head Football Coach Joe Morrison had a ten and one record but did so without fan support.
After 45 seasons there are things I know. Also, for many years I have sat next to my uncle who came to NMSU in 1946 out of the Navy and graduated in Electrical Engineering. He then worked at White Sands for forty years. At age 86 he is not the oldest Aggie fan but in the running with 66 years of Aggie games.
We both know the cheer, “Go Aggies, Go Aggies, Aw Shuckins.”
 |
| Coach Warren Woodson |
My first season watching the Aggies was Woodson’s last. He was seven and four. My college freshman year in 1968 was with new Coach Jim Woods, the first of many coaches to deal with the Woodson Curse.
The curse is not so much on the field as in the administration offices, those same offices that decided Woodson would have to resign. In the late1970s they decided to make money by having the football team sell losses to national powerhouses. I believe NMSU is around two wins and seventy losses for a losing percentage of 97.15 percent.
Those programs selling losses more than a year or two ultimately disband their football programs. The immediacy of selling losses is so that the athletic director, staff and the coaches can guarantee their own salaries since there is no guarantee that the fans will come. By playing ethically bankrupt fund-raising games the program gives up two losses out of eleven games each year, gets their players bruised, both physically and mentally and the fans stay away because the team never goes to bowl games.
That Woodson Curse sure does work. Football programs are judged by win/loss records and so NMSU has not gone to a bowl game since Ike was in the White House. What should they do? Two things, they must cut expenses to live within their means, and look at their program from the fans point of view.
Now I may be wrong but I am still the one with the money in my pocket. They must please me or I will vote with my feet. Over the last four decades I have not seen fan-centric attitudes often.
That said, I want D1 football at UNM and NMSU. It is the face of the two universities like nothing else. In fact, nationwide most people know nothing about colleges except their sports presence. When the Arizona Wildcats made the final four in basketball years ago student enrollment surged.
For NMSU to get rid of the Old Man Woodson Curse the administration needs to stop being stupid. They have hired many good coaches who could have been great. Like the hardcore Aggies we are, my uncle and I bought six season tickets this year. Better to have extra room, eh?
However, unless NMSU throws off the curse of stupid administrative decisions, it is right to wonder how any more seasons can the Aggies keep going if they keep doing the things they have been doing?
My advice: keep the football team, lose the administration.
Dr. Michael Swickard is co-host of radio talk show News New Mexico 6 to 9 a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
