I met Rocky Long in the late '90s when I was on the Athletic Council, a futile attempt on the part of the faculty to exercise some control over UNM athletics. Someone suggested we send a faculty liaison to each of the sports in order to, well, liaise with them. Why any student athletes, especially in football and basketball, would want to talk to some faculty member rather than their coaches was not immediately clear to me.
I was assigned to football and arranged to meet Long for lunch. He was, of course, suspicious of me, an understandable reaction since I had been publicly criticizing the University athletic establishment for a quarter century. But he warmed up to me since not only is he inherently a friendly guy, but as a University head coach, he understood fully that as a faculty member, I was absolutely no threat to him or his team. Indeed, in a very rare meeting of the full faculty several years earlier, it was voted to eliminate football and basketball at UNM, a vote that was ignored by everyone.
I did speak briefly to the team before a practice, and I can only wonder what the players made of the faculty bozo who stopped by that day. I, on the other hand, having observed for the first time the athletic complex and its rich appointments, was wondering if it was part of the same institution to which my department belonged. I subsequently got to know Long a bit better and had a beer with him on a couple of occasions.
What I discovered was a guy who was open and seemingly honest (or an Academy Award-winning actor) about his position and program. He actually appeared to care about his players as more than disposable football units and tried to make it clear to them that they had better be students and learn something because, Brian Urlacher notwithstanding, they sure as hell were not likely to make a living playing football. He also has a sense of humor, which I expect is a necessity for any football coach at UNM. When I complained about all the hate mail and death threats I received after my Sept. 11 remarks, he pointed out that he got the same thing every Monday after his team lost.
Long also appreciated something that many boosters have trouble understanding: UNM simply cannot afford a nationally ranked football program, even if we disposed of $3.4 million in vice presidents. UNM basketball, on the other hand, does have a realistic, even if thin, shot at a national title and consequently receives more attention.
Acting as the farm club for the NFL and the NBA is a sad but inescapable aspect of the American university, draining resources and inevitably corrupting the academic side of things. In a way, President David Schmidly's transformation of the athletics director into a vice president is a rare spot of honesty, inasmuch as athletic success is of at least as much importance to the powers that be as academic achievement.
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I have not met many coaches, but I have certainly read about plenty of them, and I judge Long to be far better than most. Perhaps in part, I felt some connection with Long because as the football coach, he always had to play second fiddle to the basketball program, a subordinate status well understood by most faculties. I was appalled by the staggering raise given to Long, but one must keep in mind how much Steve Alford and his main assistant make.
In any case, Long walked away from all that loot, which strikes me as astounding in the world of university fat cats. Remember that former president (and apparent failure) Louis Caldera was sent off with a $700,000 kiss by the regents and now teaches (what?) at UNM and enjoys a huge salary. Why exactly Long quit is known only to him, but the fact is, he could have easily gone through the motions for another couple of years and banked a hell of a lot of cash. The fact that he did not suggests a nobility I am extremely reluctant to assign to the other big salary characters at the University.
Sorry to see you go, Rocky.
Richard M. Berthold is a retired professor of classical history at UNM. He is the author of Rhodes in the Hellenistic Age.
