ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The long list of awards and recognition keeps growing for University of New Mexico baseball coach Ray Birmingham as the 10th-year Lobo skipper will be inducted into the Western Junior College Athletic Conference Hall of Fame.
Birmingham earned the honor by building New Mexico Junior College baseball in his hometown of Hobbs from a first-year program in 1990 into a national powerhouse – culminating in an NJCAA national championship in 2005 and an NJCAA national runner-up finish in 2007. Birmingham guided the Thunderbirds to six WJCAC titles and seven WJCAC runner-up finishes.
“It’s an honor to be in the WJCAC Hall of Fame and represent the city and county that I grew up in,” Birmingham said. “NMJC and Lea County gave me the opportunity and I’ll never forget that. I will always be a Lea Countian until the day I die.”
Birmingham is also a member of the NJCAA Hall of Fame (2011), the Lea County Sports Hall of Fame (2012) and the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame (2015).
Birmingham finished his Thunderbird career with an eye-popping .750 winning percentage (765-255-2), including 17 consecutive winning season to finish his tenure at NMJC – which came to an end after the 2007 season when he accepted the head coaching position at New Mexico. Following the program’s first season, the T-Birds were at least 12 games over .500 in his final 17 seasons, including an incredible 378-88-2 (.810) from 2000-07.
Under Birmingham’s leadership, New Mexico Junior College became known for its hitting prowess with six former players leading the country in batting and six teams hitting above .400. The Thunderbirds hit .416 as a team in 2007. The 2005 NMJC national championship team hit .411 during the regular season and .400 in postseason play. In 2001, the Thunderbirds displayed one of the most impressive offensive machines in college baseball history, hitting .438 as a team. NMJC led the country in home runs (122) in 1998.
Despite national championships, international victories and jaw-dropping numbers on the diamond, Birmingham is most proud of his former players during his tenure with the T-Birds. NMJC closer Brendan Donnelly (1990-91) won Game 6 for the Anaheim Angels in the 2002 World Series, and became the first T-Bird with an MLB championship ring. A year later, Armando Almanza (1992-93) was a member of the World Champion Florida Marlins. In the summer of 2003, Donnelly was the winning pitcher in the MLB All-Star game in Chicago.
Birmingham also watched proudly as former NMJC players Jose Flores (1992-93) and Mike Vento (1997) participated in the MLB playoffs with Oakland and the New York Yankees, respectively. Johnny Lujan and David Carpenter are the most recent former NMJC players to be make noise with a big league organization.
Birmingham’s success has translated to The University of New Mexico. He guided the Lobos to their first NCAA postseason appearance in 48 years in 2010 – just his third season at the helm – and has since taken UNM to the NCAA postseason five of the last seven seasons. Birmingham guided the Lobos to Mountain West regular-season titles from 2011-14 and to Mountain West Tournament titles in 2011, 2012 and 2016. He was named Mountain West Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2013.
Overall Birmingham is the winningest coach in state history with 1,129 victories. All those victories have come as a head coach at the collegiate level with New Mexico schools College of the Southwest (53 wins), NMJC (765 wins) and UNM (311 wins).
Birmingham to be inducted into WJCAC Hall of Fame
