Albuquerque restaurateur Gary Hines donating $1 million to Lobo Athletics — no strings attached

There will be no building with his name on it.

No locker room dedicated to him.

And the Pittsburgh Steelers probably ruined the idea of naming a field after him, even if it is spelled differently.

No, for Gary Hines, the longtime Albuquerque restaurateur and former University of New Mexico wrestler who is donating $1 million to Lobo Athletics, just writing a check to his alma mater and letting them figure out what to do with it is enough.

“Maybe they can find the old wrestling mats and stick my name on one of those,” joked Hines, the longtime Lobo Club member and valued friend to Lobo Athletics.

His donation is believed to be the largest to UNM Athletics not specifically tied to naming rights or some other ongoing initiative within the department.

“I’ve been, and really a lot of us are just real impressed with Eddie (Nuñez, UNM’s athletic director) and the way that things are going and the way that we conduct ourselves,” Hines said. “That’s big to me, you know, because I’m proud to be a UNM Lobo.”

Don’t get it twisted. Hines has earned his cherry and silver stripes.

Nuñez and others at the university would gladly have Hines’ name adorn the side of just about any piece of property on UNM’s south campus (and, frankly, they still might) after years of generous contributions to the Lobo Club. The 66-year-old founder, and eventual seller, of such successful Albuquerque staples as Twisters and Stripes, has been an integral part of helping projects get done within the department and has long been a part of the Lobo Champion’s Council, reserved for the highest level of giving with at least, according to the Lobo Club website, a gift of $50,000 or more.

“There aren’t that many individuals that are this special that want to do things without having something tied to their name or something,” Nuñez said, noting Hines was one of the first people he met when he took the job at UNM in 2017 during a dinner at former baseball coach Ray Birmingham’s house.

“He’s always been there to help us. And it was pretty unique when he said, ‘No. I don’t want anything. I don’t want any recognition.’”

Hines grew up in Albuquerque, won a state wrestling championship at Manzano and wrestled from 1976-79 for UNM. He was the Lobos team captain for three of those years and a multiple-time qualifier for the NCAA Tournament.

He never wrestled much with which university to attend — and also says he’s never regretted staying in Albuquerque.

“Oh, not at all,” Hines said. “One big part was family was still here in town. And I had huge respect for my high school coach, Dale Scott. And Ron Jacobson was the coach here (at UNM) at the time. So I was looking forward to it.”

Hines, who still sees old wrestling teammates at sporting events and even attends games still with his high school coach, Scott, says an ad in the newspaper shortly after earning his business degree from UNM changed his career path when he was young.

He had been an assistant wrestling coach at UNM with Jacobson and had recently come to the realization that when adding up the hours he was putting in, he was making roughly 49 cents per hour.

“Oh my gosh, I gotta find another career,” Hines thought.

That’s when he saw an ad for Furr’s Cafeteria manager — a well-paying position relative to his current one.

He’s opened more than 30 restaurants in the Albuquerque area through the years and started successful chains such as Twisters, which had 19 locations when he sold it more than 20 years ago, and Stripes, which had six locations when he sold those a year ago. In a Jan. 27, 1977, interview with the Journal, Hines may have had foreshadowed how he would one day use the skills he was learning in wrestling to be success in the high-risk restaurant startup business.

“Most people think of wrestling as two dumb oxes out there squeezing each other,” Hines told former Journal staffer Toby Smith in 1977. “That’s just not what it’s all about. You’ve got to have a game plan in wrestling, a technique for every match.”

This week, asked about what he took from his athletics career and applied to business, Hines was quick to answer.

“I was amazed how close athletics and business were in common — especially the food business because it was like tapping into that same never-say-die mentality,” Hines said. “How much practice you need, and there were parts about it that were just about how much can you take? You learn all that in college athletics. You learn from your wins, but also from your losses. Those eat at you and you figure out how to get better.”

UNM cut the wrestling program in 1999, but Hines’ support of the athletic department never wavered.

Though now out of restaurants, Hines is probably too active to say he’s retired. He has four grandkids in Albuquerque, stays busy with pickleball and hitting the gym, attends plenty of Lobo sporting events and still dabbles in commercial real estate investing.

“Albuquerque has been unbelievably good to me. The people here have always supported me big time and I’m super appreciative of that,” Hines said.

“Being the competitor that I am, I’ve always dreamed of being able to give back to the university and hopefully make an impact. I was always hoping that I could get to that level to do something. I feel so lucky with all this — the success with the business that I was able to have. And I just wanted to do it while I was still here on this earth.”