VETERANS DAY HONOR: Lobo Coach Bob King Robert King made UNM basketball a winner. He was the only Lobo coach through the present time, except for his successor, Norm Ellenberger, who was able to get the Lobos into the top five in the national ranking. King started the 1966-67 season sixth and reached as high as third in mid-January. His 1967-68 WAC champs were unranked until January, climbed to fourth in February and finished the season at number six. In 1968-69 the team was ranked fifth for six straight weeks. It was just one of his many accomplishments. King had more connections to New Mexico than basketball. A native of Iowa, he served in Deming as a member of a bomber crew stationed in the southern New Mexico town. He got his first look at Albuquerque flying into the Duke City at Kirtland AFB. After retirement and a great second career at Indiana State, he returned to New Mexico to farm in the Los Lunas area. King’s legions paid a final tribute to him at his funeral service on the Bob King Court at the Pit. He was laid to rest at the Santa Fe National Cemetery with a simple headstone totally unrelated to basketball but to a separate, important and patriotic endeavor. The headstone reads: ROBERT L KING 2LT US ARMY WORLD WAR II .
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 02:18:23 +0000
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