Tuesday, October 26, 2010

1961 - The Horsemen - Demon Game

Come the fall in Santa Fe and football fans look forward to the annual clash between the Santa Fe High School Demons and cross-town rivals, the St. Michael’s High School Horsemen. 1961 marked the 40th clash since the rivalry began in 1924 (the math is off because the teams played each other twice in 1925, 1926 and 1927). In 1960, the Demons handed the Horsemen the worst defeat in half a century – 26 to nothing. For 1961, it was a grudge match.

Head Coach for the Demons was Lavon McDonald and he had a great team – Junie Apodaca and Charlie Bennett, the state's two highest scorers. The Demon defensive line was tough with Sammy Roybal and John Martinez anchoring. Horsemen coach Dick Shelley was relying on fullback John Trujillo, speedy wingback David Fernandez and tailback Mike Miller. The defensive line was tough and, for a change, heavier than the Demon's. Joe Fornelli, a 190 pound tackle, headed the Horsemen defensive wall.

Coach Shelley had witnessed how effective the Demon attack, based on a double wing formation, could be. So, for weeks, he drilled his team in a specialized defense. But all for nothing.

Demon superfan Jamie Koch attended the St. Mike's practice, took notes and reported the defense plans to Lavon McDonald. To his credit, McDonald refused the offer of secret information and called Shelley instead. Shelley was boiling but it was too late to do anything about it.

Gametime. The Demons were heavily favored but in the opening minutes, it looked like the Horsemen might pull off an upset. Horsemen running star Dave Fernandez took the ball deep into Demon territory and crossed the goal line but the TD was called back for an off sides violation. On the very next play, Horseman John Trujillo fumbled and Demon linebacker Tom Hartley quickly scooped up the ball and ran back 80 yards for a Demon touchdown. Then the fat lady began to sing.

It was a Demon dream and a Horseman nightmare after that. Demon quarterback Stan Quintana kept throwing perfect passes and receivers Charlie Bennett, Charlie Hughes and Tommy Maxwell kept catching them. Touchdown after touchdown for the Demons until they piled up 45 points.

The only St. Mike’s bright spot was a big kickoff return by John Trujillo – 85 yards for a touchdown, but the conversion attempt by David Fernandez failed. 6 measly points.

Final score Demons 45, Horsemen 6 – for you record keepers out there, that was the biggest margin of victory between the two teams in the entire history of Horseman-Demon football.

Monday, October 18, 2010

1970 - The Mayor versus The Hippies

Santa Fe city politics in 1970 took an interesting turn, much of it driven by the strong personal popularity of the city's Mayor George Gonzales. In 1970, Gonzales, gifted with a wide smile, a gorgeous radio voice and about a million relatives, was favored for a second term as Mayor.

The chief issue in the mayor's race turned out to be Mayor George Gonzales' brother in law, Johnny Vigil. Vigil, a longtime Santa Fe political wheeler and dealer, operated the infamous Pussy Cat Lounge, Santa Fe's only topless club on the main entry street to the Bellamah subdivision. And questions were raised as to how such a business could come to operate in a residential area.

The Mayor's race wasn't really close and Mayor Gonzales coasted to an easy victory, which he took as a mandate. Within weeks of his re-election, Gonzales fired and replaced the City Manager, the City Treasurer, the City Attorney, the head of the Model Cities program and the Police Chief. Throughout the rest of the year, even more heads rolled – all replaced by the Mayor's cronies.

When the Mayor wasn't hiring and firing, he was hounding hippies. To be sure, hippies were becoming a serious social problem. Our neighbors to the north, the village of Taos, appealed to state officials to help them cope with an invasion of hippies. The hippies were abusing the food stamp and welfare programs in the county and were rumored to be planning a rock music festival. Labeled “delinquent transients” by Taos officials, the hippies indulged in “strange activities, illegal narcotics kicks, violation of human decency, immoral sex behavior and flaunting of the rules of health and sanitation.”

Just as an interesting fact, the 1970 US census counted 3,314 hippies in NM, about 540 living in Santa Fe. Contemporary news articles do not explain how that category was defined.

If you wanted to find a hippie in Santa Fe, there were two good places to look. One was the Mt. Ararat Coffee House on Water Street, run by David Davies and Lisa Gilkyson. Music by the Family Lotus Band, lots of incense and occasional classes in Sufi. The other hippie hot spot was the Free Church Community Center on Old Santa Fe Trail, run by a catholic priest, named George Hurd. The Center offered food and shelter to transients, as many hippies were and so the Center attracted exactly the kind of people the Mayor did not want in the City. Using a variety city agencies, the Mayor targeted the Center for extinction.

In June, for example, the Mayor sent the fire inspector to the Center. Forewarned, the Center's lawyer staged a public refusal of entry so the Mayor went to court to force an inspection. Eventually, enough violations were discovered at the Center to inspire the landlord to end the Center's lease, despite petitions by local social welfare agencies to keep the Center open.

The Mayor counted the closing of the Center as a major success of his administration. The Mayor's zeal in this 1970 drive likely explains why there are no hippies in Santa Fe today.

Monday, October 11, 2010

1959 - The City Grows

Santa Fe was growing by leaps and bounds in 1959. A brand new airport, finished in 1958 at a cost of $884,000, gave the city jet service. The bridges at Camino Alire and DeFouri streets were finished. The Casa Solana subdivision – phase 1 – was completed with more to come. And the City was just raising the money to buy the old Bruns Hospital land to build De Vargas Jr High School, a public library and swimming pool.

Senator Dennis Chavez announced funding for major repairs to the Arroyo Mascaras, almost a $1 million to prevent erosion and to build dam checks. The plant was to proceed from Griffin, crossing near Star Lumber upstream to a point between Ft Marcy Park and Magers Field. And the State of New Mexico began clearing the land on the river side at College and Alameda for the new 50,000 square foot State Land Office Building across from the Desert Inn.

In 1959, the City of Santa Fe began negotiations to acquire property of the Public Service Company and the old U&I Cafe, both fronting on Water Street, to build a large parking garage at corner of Water and Don Gaspar. A second site, the old Nusbaum building on the east side of Washington Avenue, between Palace Avenue and Nusbaum Street, was also being examined for more parking near Plaza. That plan was simple. Buy the building, tear it down, and put up a parking lot.

The first annexation ever in City history occurred in 1959. Expanding from traditional 4 leagues (about 2 ½ miles from plaza in cardinal directions – the boundaries of the original Santa Fe Grant) all the way to Airport Y along Cerrillos Road, enclosing some 2,000 acres.

Who was responsible for all these changes? The City leaders in Santa Fe in 1959. Well, Leo Murphy was the mayor who headed up councilors Ray Arias, Andre Senutovitch, Willie Seligman, Ray Smith, Orlando Fernandez, P.A. Baca, Pat Hollis and George Bernstsen. This was the administration, incidentally, which doubled the parking meter fees in town from a nickel an hour to a dime an hour.