Tony Valdez

At Cimarron, N.M., High School, Tony Valdez was a multi-sport letterman and excelled as a lightweight boxer. He also became a skilled ranch-hand and cowboy. After surviving the Great Depression, Valdez enrolled at UNM and became one of the school’s top boxers. He won the 1938 Border Conference championship with “one arm,” said coach Willis Barnes. Plagued by a dislocated shoulder, Valdez held his arm against his torso, jabbing his way to victory with the other. Valdez earned his degree from UNM in 1939.

In 1943, Valdez began his coaching profession at Albuquerque High. Over the next 35 years, Valdez’s teams won 61 individual and state championships in seven different sports, including boxing, gymnastics, swimming, golf and tennis. His golf teams won five state titles in a 12-year span while his tennis players captured five straight doubles titles. He also teamed with former UNM athletic director Pete McDavid and the venerable Jack Rushing to produce a football dynasty at AHS.

Perhaps his greatest educational legacy was the statewide and national model that he developed for training future physical education teachers.

A highly-skilled craftsman, Valdez made his own hardwood furniture, built his own houses, invested in land, became a realtor and developed the Rebonito Addition residential housing unit in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights. At the age of 78, Valdez won the U.S. National Senior Open golf championship for his age group in Palm Springs, Calif.

Valdez died in 1994 at the age of 83.