Some three months ago, when Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record was being threatened, the former NFL star did everything but stick pins in an Adrian Peterson voodoo doll.

For that matter, we don’t know he didn’t; maybe that’s why Peterson came up 8 yards short.

Nick Pino can’t understand that kind of attitude.

“I want to congratulate the guy,” Pino said of La Cueva’s Bryce Alford, who Wednesday broke Pino’s 50-year-old New Mexico high school single-season basketball scoring record.

“He seems like a nice kid. I haven’t met him, but I’ve met his dad (UNM men’s basketball coach Steve Alford), and I just want to congratulate him.”

That Pino’s record of 1,033 points for the 1962-63 St. Michael’s Horsemen lasted a half-century is a bit surprising, considering he played before there was a 3-point line.

Then again, a 3-point line would have been of no help, and of no need, to Pino. A 7-footer with a soft, accurate hook that he could shoot with either hand, he scored virtually all of those 1,033 points in and around the paint or at the free-throw line.

“One thing I can say,” Pino said Friday in a phone interview from Santa Fe, “is I cannot remember anybody ever blocking my hook shot.”

In truth, no one played better defense against Pino than his coach at St. Michael’s, Dick Shelley. Before his record-breaking senior season, the big center had logged more time on the bench than on the court.

Shelley’s 1961-62 team, labeled “The Mighty Midgets,” had come within three points of a big-school state title before losing to Sandia. Pino didn’t play a single minute in that game, even though the Matadors started two talented big men in 6-8 Gary Suiter and 6-7 Louie Baudoin.

Looking back, Pino is philosophical.

“We had the Mighty Midgets,” he said. “… They could go the whole game full-court pressing; they were phenomenal. I couldn’t keep up with them. It just wasn’t my style of play.”

The next season, though, Shelley decided to cast his lot with Pino. The big center responded by pouring in points at a record rate, including an 80-point outburst in a single game against El Rito.

In March of ’63, Pino led the Horsemen into the state tournament. Despite his 31 points, they lost in overtime to Roswell, the eventual champion, in the semifinals.

Bob King, having just finished his inaugural season as coach at UNM, was eager to see Pino in a Lobo uniform. But Pino opted for Kansas State and coach Tex Winter out of more than 100 scholarship offers.

“I don’t know if you know about Tex,” Pino said, of Winter, now 91, “but he’s a true gentleman.”

Pino’s career averages at K-State were modest: 10.6 points and 7.2 rebounds. But he had some monster moments for the Wildcats, three times scoring more than 20 points and grabbing 20 rebounds in a single game.

The former Horseman was selected in the sixth round of the 1968 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers, but reported to training camp still hobbling from a knee injury suffered in an NCAA Tournament game against TCU.

Besides, the Lakers weren’t exactly hurting for big men. They had just acquired Wilt Chamberlain from the Philadelphia 76ers and had another 7-footer, Mel Counts, in reserve.

“Why they drafted me, I don’t know,” Pino said.

Pino left the game at that point and started an insurance business — first in Manhattan, Kan., then in Kansas City. Then, five years after he last played for Kansas State, he got an offer to play professionally in Mexico.

He played there for one season, helping a team from San Luís Potosí win a national title — and, finally, got to play against Suiter, the former Sandia Matador.

Pino then returned to his business in Kansas City but moved home to Santa Fe in 1985. He still roots hard for St. Michael’s and would love to be in attendance for the Horsemen’s Class 3A state title game this morning against Hope Christian; he has a great nephew, Gabriel Pino, who plays on the team. But a bad hip makes it too painful to fold his 7-foot frame into a car long enough to make the trip.

For the same reason, he was unable to be at the Pit when Alford surpassed his record — finishing with 1,050 points on the season.

“Maybe his record,” Pino said, “will last 100 years.”