Coaching icon Brazil reaches 700-win milestone

Generally speaking, Eloy Brazil doesn’t devote much time to career milestones.

But after attaining his 700th career basketball victory as a head coach last week, he admitted this one hit a little different.

“This one here, I think it was on my mind more, only because I’m getting older,” said Brazil, 71, the head boys coach at Cimarron High School and one of New Mexico’s coaching legends across all the sports. “You look at the ones who have accomplished it, they are legendary coaches, and to be up there with that caliber of coaches, I feel good about it.”

Indeed, only five coaches have won more games than Brazil: Ralph Tasker, Jim Murphy, Pete Shock, Marv Sanders and Frank Castillo.

He is second on the active list behind Hope Christian’s Murphy.

Brazil became a head coach right out of the College of Santa Fe, and he was barely legal to drink when he first became Cimarron’s head coach.

“I think as you get older, there is more patience with the kids,” Brazil said. “I tell them, ‘When I started out at (around) the age of 21, I was more like a brother.’ We would go fishing and hunting together. As I grew older, I kind of became like a dad to them, and then a grandfather.”

Brazil turns 72 in March. About the only coaching he had done before being a head coach was helping Bobby Rodriguez at St. Michael’s.

His head coaching career has included stops at Cimarron, Maxwell and Springer. His Rams are 10-5 this season.

His is the latest among the milestone numbers achieved this season. Roy Sanchez earned his 500th career win at Eldorado earlier this month, and Greg Brown at Volcano Vista recently reached career victory No. 400.

COACHING LIST, P.S.: Interestingly, Hope’s Murphy is closing in on his 900th career victory …

… for the second time.

Murphy started the season with the Hope boys with 882 career victories, and the Huskies have won 10 games so far this season. He’s eight wins shy and could reach 900 soon.

But, what is mostly unknown about Murphy is that he also has 18 career coaching wins with the Hope girls basketball team, and he actually finished last season with a combined 900 victories in the two genders.

Murphy ranks No. 2, only to Tasker, on the career wins list in New Mexico.