ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — University of New Mexico Athletics earned a number of honors at the 43rd Annual New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame Banquet on Sunday, April 3, including three Hall of Fame inductees and numerous superlative awards.
Among the eight new Hall of Fame inductees, three have ties with the New Mexico Athletics in head baseball coach Ray Birmingham, strength & conditioning coach Carla Garrett and men’s basketball alum Luc Longley.
New Mexico coaches, teams and commits also received five superlative awards at the banquet at the Albuquerque Convention Center, including collegiate coach of the year and collegiate team of the year.
Birmingham, in his ninth year coaching Lobo baseball, was honored for his three-plus decades of work in the Land of Enchantment. This is the third hall of fame into which the Hobbs, N.M., native has been inducted, including the the National Junior College Athletic Association Hall of Fame and the Lea County Hall of Fame.
During his 29-year career as a head coach, Birmingham has coached at the College of the Southwest in Hobbs and New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs before starting his current stint at UNM.
Over his nine years as the head coach of the Lobos, Birmingham has led New Mexico to four NCAA Tournament appearances, the first for the program since 1962. He has guided the Lobos to 291 wins during his tenure and has compiled over 1100 wins in his career.
Garrett, a Santa Fe native and the strength & conditioning coach of New Mexico women’s basketball, softball and women’s tennis, has had a decorated career in track & field and weightlifting.
She was a 10-time NCAA All-American in the shot put and discus for the University of Arizona, winning three individual titles during her time in Tucson.
She went on to compete for the United States Olympic Track and Field team and participated in national and world weightlifting competitions. She was a silver medalist at the World Weightlifting Championships in 1991 and 1993, and won a silver medal in the discus at the 1992 Olympic Games.
Longley, hailing from Melbourne, Australia, was a staple inside for the Lobo men’s basketball team during his four-year career at UNM (1987-1991).
With Longley in the paint, the Lobos won at least 20 games all four years of his career and advanced to the postseason every season. Overall, he owns the career records for blocks (336) and is second all-time in rebounds (992).
The No. 7 pick in the 1991 NBA Draft by Minnesota, Longley also represented Australia at the 1992 Olympics Games. After being traded to the Chicago Bulls in 1994, he went on to win three-straight NBA Championships from 1996 to 1998 alongside Michael Jordan.
In the yearly awards presented by the NMSHOF, New Mexico women’s cross country team earned Collegiate Team of the Year honors and Lobo head cross country coach Joe Franklin claimed Collegiate Coach of the Year honors.
Franklin, in his eighth year at the helm of the New Mexico cross country/track & field program, coached the Lobo women’s cross country team to its first NCAA title in November. He was was also named the 2015 USTFCCCA National Women’s Coach of the Year.
As a team, New Mexico women’s cross country recorded the best team score at the NCAA meet since 1982, and five Lobos claimed All-American status at the meet, the most by a single school since 2009.
Also earning honors were current softball assistant coach Shelby Pendley, who was named the Collegiate Female Athlete of the Year for her career at Oklahoma. Pendley, a New Mexico native, was a two-time Big 12 Player of the Year for Oklahoma.
A pair of Lobo commits also earned accolades for their high school careers. The NMSHOF named Cleveland High School senior and UNM football commit Marcus Williams High School Male Athlete of the Year and Volcano Vista HS senior and UNM softball commit Lauren Wilmert High School Female Athlete of the Year.
(4/4/2016) 2016 New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame