Wright: Former Journal sportswriter Maestas, Criss and Quin join NMSHOF

I’m not saying Frank Maestas was one of a kind, since each and every one of us is that — unique in our own way.

I am saying that, in my 76-plus years on the planet, my near half-century in sports journalism and the 15 years I worked with Maestas at the Albuquerque Journal, I’ve never met anyone remotely like him.

Frank was the funniest man I’ve ever met, something he achieved without trying — simply by being himself.

Far more important, though, was his shirt-off-his-back generosity, his love for New Mexico sports and his dedication to bringing those stories to his readers.

Maestas died in 2006 at age 70. Before Sunday’s New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame banquet at the Albuquerque Convention Center, at which his sons Antonio and Miguel were to speak on his behalf, Antonio — better known as “Moe” — was asked what his dad would have said.

Frankly (see what I did there?), he wasn’t sure. But he knew his father’s work was never about him. It was always about the athletes, the coaches, the administrators and the betterment of New Mexico sports.

“He wasn’t into the accolades,” Moe Maestas said. “But I think he would enjoy being alongside the other inductees, all the other inductees all great athletes, (former Lobo football star) Glover Quin and others.

“And I think he’d just enjoy reminiscing about all the great games he saw and covered.”

When longtime Albuquerque Tribune sports writer Carlos Salazar was inducted into the Albuquerque Sports Hall of Fame (forerunner to the NMSHOF) in 1986, making him the first member of the Fourth Estate to be so honored, he was a bit uncomfortable.

Salazar, after all, wasn’t an athlete a coach or a sports administrator. He just wrote about them.

On Sunday, Maestas joined Salazar, Mike Roberts, Connie Alexander, J.D. Kailer and Henry Tafoya as members of the media to be inducted into the NMSHOF.

The media, Moe Maestas said, play “a key role in storytelling and being part of the experience in the love of sports.

“So it’s a great day.”

ALMOST A LOBO: But no, not really.

In December 19, 1966, I watched New Mexico Junior College guard Charlie Criss score 19 points in leading New Mexico Junior College to a 66-64 victory over the University of New Mexico freshman team — the Wolfpups — at The Pit before a UNM varsity game.

My friends and I were of the unanimous opinion that then-UNM coach Bob King should offer this Criss kid a scholarship.

King had done just that, Criss said on Saturday, hours before Criss’ induction into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame.

It was too late.

“(UNM) did try,” Criss said. “Other schools tried. But I was obligated to New Mexico State, because I wasn’t going to go back on my word.”

Criss went on to an outstanding three-year career at NMSU and a starting spot on the 1969-70 Aggies team that advanced to the Final Four of the 1970 NCAA Tournament.

That, Criss said on Sunday, was the highlight of the New York native’s college career.

“They’d never got there before,” he said. “It was the first time a New Mexico State team had ever gone to the Final Four. Nobody has done it (since), so it’s nice to be in that category.”

Criss, standing just 5-foot-8, went on to a 10-year NBA career with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Atlanta Hawks.

He now works for the Hawks, conducting youth basketball camps. He holds camps of his own as well, working with players from age 7 through high school and college.

A DECADE WAS ENOUGH: Glover Quin, at age 36, looks as if he could still play in the NFL if he so desired.

He doesn’t.

Why did he retire in 2018 after 10 years in the NFL as a cornerback and safety with the Houston Texans and the Detroit Lions?

“So I could enjoy these moments,” he said on Sunday before his formal induction into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame. “… I was fortunate and blessed to be able to play for 10 years and only miss one game.”

Quin, a Mississippi native, came to the University of New Mexico in 2006 as a junior-college transfer. He had an outstanding career as a Lobo but, he said on Sunday, never expected that career to earn him a berth in the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame.

“It’s not something I dreamed of, or even thought of,” he said. “… For it to be like this and to get this moment is pretty awesome.”

THE CLASS OF ‘23: Joining Maestas, Criss and Quin in Sunday’s induction class, and no less deserving, are George Brooks, Amber Campbell, Larry Hays, Jim Marshall and Klaus Weber.