© 2024 KRWG
News that Matters.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Longest Yard

Commentary: People in Dona Ana County and around the nation will soon witness a rare and amazing event.

In fact, it’s only happened three times before in all of human history. No, it’s not another Super Moon. It’s not the passage of another tax bill to alter the finances of every American over the coming years. It’s not President Trump and the national media actually getting along. It’s not a Trader Joe’s market coming to town, at least not yet. But it is the appearance of the New Mexico State University football team in a bowl game. Yes, a post regular season appearance for the football team on the field.
 
This amazing occurrence has not happened since 1960 when the Aggies last played in a bowl game, the Sun Bowl in El Paso. In fact, the Sun Bowl has been the only bowl that NMSU has played in. That will change later this month when the Aggies take on Utah State in Tucson, Arizona. So it will have taken 57 years for the Aggies go 275 miles to Tucson and into a strange new world of football recognition.
 
Think about the world of 1960 when the Aggies last appeared in a bowl game. Las Cruces was a small town compared to the growing and sprawling city of today. John F. Kennedy was not yet our President. No one had yet ever heard of the Beatles. The Beach Boys were young kids in their bedrooms in Southern California just learning about surfing. Passenger jets were just being introduced to the flying public. You could still board a passenger train at the Las Cruces depot for Albuquerque, El Paso, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Gas cost a quarter a gallon, a loaf of bread was less than that, an a postage stamp cost a nickle. There was no traffic congestion at Lohman and Amador. No one had ever heard of an SUV. The internet was something you might catch fish with.
 
Thousands of NMSU football players have put on and taken off the pads since then. Generations have come and generations have gone.
 
Football is a violent game that more and more people question whether should be played at all in its current form. But it cannot be denied that football can bring a community together like almost nothing else. And a successful program can energize a city and its people in a unique way. There’s nothing like the buzz around town on game day before a big game.
 
NMSU will never be a college football powerhouse like Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio State, and others at that level. But the Aggie program can work to maintain a standard of success and excellence that can bring pride and attention to the school and the area.
 
Las Cruces and Dona Ana County get overlooked in a lot of ways. Many people in America don’t even know where the State of New Mexico is, let alone the City of Las Cruces. This Southern New Mexico city needs something to feel good about and a way to better introduce itself to the nation and the world. This bowl game appearance by the Aggies is one way to do that.
 
Good luck to NMSU in the game. And please, let’s not have to wait another 57 years to see this kind of thing happen again. And also, could we one day be able to board a train again to Albuquerque?