These two loyal Lobo fans have been to nearly every UNM football game for 32 years

Of course Karen and J.R. Willis were there.

They’re always there.

In good times and bad, the Willises have been to more New Mexico football games than you. Or me. Or any Lobo player. Or coach. Or administrator.

Yes, the Willises, who have been to nearly every Lobo game in the past 32 years, were among the 30,575 people at University Stadium who saw the Lobos beat San Diego State 23-17 in double overtime to complete a perfect 6-0 home season and improve to 9-3 overall and 6-2 in the Mountain West.

It’ll be the Lobos’ first winning season since 2016 and only the fourth in the past 20 years. UNM is 76-160 in those two decades, losing on average more than two out of every three games. From 2009 to 2011, the Lobos were 1-11 for three straight years. Still, the Willises were there.

“During those 1-11 (coach Mike) Locksley years,” J.R. recalled, “people kept asking why we keep going to games. I said we know they’re going to win one, we just never knew which one.”

Not counting the lost COVID season of 2021, the first couple of Lobo football fandom have missed a grand total of six games — home or road — since the 1993 season.

This season, UNM head coach Jason Eck — in his first year coaching at the FBS, or highest, level in college football, no less — will not only be taking the Lobos to a bowl game, he’s making college football matter in Albuquerque.

“This has been an amazing year. This coach is phenomenal. He’s the best-fitting coach for New Mexico I think we’ve ever seen,” Karen said. “He’s out there. He is everywhere you go. I don’t know that there’s any better fit for the local fans than coach Eck.”

J.R. added, “if he was on the ballot for mayor in that (Dec. 9) runoff, he’d win it.”

For now, Eck and the Lobos have had to settle for the title of honorary mayor to the city college football forgot — or at least so we thought.

As it turns out, a little bit of community engagement — not the norm for some past UNM football coaches — and a healthy dose of winning meaningful games — definitely not the norm for some past UNM football programs — will get fans inside of that six-decade-old concrete stadium at the corner of Avenida Cesar Chavez and University Boulevard.

UNM will finish the regular season with an announced 151,510 fans having come to watch Lobo football — an average of 25,252 fans per game. That represents a 57.8% increase from the 2024 average home attendance of 16,001 — the largest annual increase for any college football team at the FBS level in the country this season.

“What a moment not just for Lobo Athletics but for our entire institution, our community, and our state,” Athletics Director Fernando Lovo said following Friday’s game. “To be 6-0 at home for the first time since the 1930s shows just how powerful our fans truly are. They have a real impact on winning and losing, and you saw it.”

For an athletic department bending over backward to meet Lovo’s self-imposed deadline of 2030 to put the school in the best possible position heading into what he expects to be the next wave of conference realignment, this past season is proof of a concept: Maybe it can be done here.

While a big part of the fan engagement push at UNM this year has been about trying to reach fans who either turned their back on the Lobos or were never on board to begin with, Friday seemed to be as much about the payoff for loyal fans like the Willises and others who were a part of the ride when there was no bandwagon.

The Santrocks are also in that group.

“We’ve been season-ticket holders since 1997,” Brian Santrock said of him and his wife, Michelle, while the two were tailgating before Friday’s game. “We’ve had between eight and 12 season tickets every year and bring friends or whoever we can get to come with us.

“She’s more the (Lobo) basketball fan, I’m more the (Lobo) football guy. But all that means is together we’re just at more games for both (sports).”

Friday’s outcome wasn’t going to change their Lobo basketball plans over the next few months or fall plans in 2026.

“It’s what we do,” Michelle Santrock said. “We love supporting the kids and we’ll keep doing it.”

Same with the Willises. They’ll still be at University Stadium for home games and boarding a plane for wherever the Lobos play their road games every weekend next fall. Same for most Lobo basketball games (all home games, most road games for hoops).

J.R. Willis, who is from Louisiana, has called the Land of Enchantment home for nearly half a century.

“I got to New Mexico on a Sunday in 1981,” J.R. Willis recalled. “I met Karen on a Wednesday at a bar called Cotton Eyed Joes in Farmington and didn’t step on her toes when we danced.

“I’ve been here ever since. ... We’re not going anywhere.”

UNM is hoping all those new Lobo football fans who came along for the ride this season won’t go anywhere either.

UNM football defeats San Diego State: Photos