2004

Sport fans in Albuquerque are grateful to the Pennsylvania city of DuBois for a couple of good reasons. The reasons are a pair of young athletes who had much to do with raising the athletic stature of the University of New Mexico.  Those two men are Sam Suplizio and Jim Bruening.  

A quote from Bruening taken from the Mirage “I wasn’t sure where New Mexico was located, but I knew that I could not afford to pass up that kind of a scholarship. Sam and I headed out to New Mexico for a great adventure in the Land of Enchantment.”  

Bruening lettered in football from 1951-53, and was elected captain as a senior.  He earned honorable mention All-American in 1952 and honorable mention All-Skyline Conference in 1953.  Because of Bruening and his stalwart teammates, the Lobos finished 7-2 and allowed just 46 points all season.

A student leader, Bruening was elected Student Body President in 1955.  He was named Outstanding Senior Man on Honor’s Day in 1955. That same year, he was appointed Assistant Dean of Men at UNM.  In 1957, Bruening was invited back to UNM to make a plea for funding of the proposed Alumni Memorial Chapel by President Tom Popejoy. The Alumni Memorial Chapel is in existence today because of Jim’s efforts.  Chuck Koskovich stated, “Not only did Jim direct his passion in the service of his football life as a member of the great 1952 football team, he subsequently directed his life-long passion in the service of God as a ordained Minister serving congregations in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. He did this with a passion that reflected his love for his fellow man.”

 “The university would be challenged to find any graduate in its history that has better represented the University of New Mexico, not only as an athlete, student leader, but as a contributing citizen to the community,” said former teammate Dave Matthews.  

Fellow teammate and Hall of Honor inductee Sam Suplizio said, “All of his teammates and classmates who know Jim Bruening from his years at UNM and who have followed his professional life as an exceptional minister, theologian, servant of god, and of people for over 40 years, know that he is a very special human being.”

With an arm like a rocket and a will to use it, Barbara Butler found a place to compete in track and field and throw the discus.

Born and raised in Portales, N.M., Butler traveled by bus to Albuquerque to work out and compete with Albuquerque Olympette Club while in high school.  The club had no practice facility so the women trained in a different city park every week.  Butler’s high school coach helped here find odd jobs like painting houses, mowing lawns and taking in ironing to earn money to buy the bus tickets.  Butler’s effort paid off in 1968 when she set a national high school discus record.

In 1969, Butler entered UNM and joined the women’s volleyball and basketball teams where she went on to play varsity for four years.  She participated in track and field and hardly noticed she was a one-person team since UNM did not officially fund women’s athletics at that time.

Throwing a discus in a public park was a little too dangerous.  Her solution was to wait until the men’s team finished practicing and climb over the fence to practice.  Most days she was caught by the security guard and could only negotiate 15 minutes on the field.  Despite her rather unusual attempt to practice, Butler became UNM’s first female track and field national champion in the discus as a freshman.  She placed second at the AAU Championships the following year.  In 1971 Butler was national champion again and went on to qualify for the 1972 Olympics.  She placed eighth in the trials.

In the early 1970s not only did women lack training facilities, they also did not have access to the athletic trainers.  As a result, women’s coaches acted as trainers and therapists taping, icing and heating up injuries.  Butler assumed this combination of coach and physical therapy was common.

Butler graduated from UNM in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education.  She became head track and field coach at West Mesa and Cibola High Schools and at UNM until 1978.

Butler joined the Army Reserves in 1979 and returned to UNM to earn another degree in physical therapy.  Upon graduation she joined the Navy full-time, working in hospitals around the country and in Japan.

Butler has broken down barriers to women by creating an experimental program in physical therapy to treat soldiers injured on the USS Constellation in 2001.  The program was successful and now all aircraft carriers have physical therapy clinics.  Butler was deployed in Operation Southern Watch and while on the Constellation, the attacks of Sept. 11 occurred.

While in the Navy, Butler coached at the Naval Academy, traveled to Viet Nam to train doctors in rehabilitating burn victims, earned a master’s degree in orthopedic physical therapy and planned to complete a doctoral degree in physical therapy.  At the time of her induction, Butler was one of only 300 board certified manual therapists in the country.

Thanks to the United States Air Force, Illinois’ loss was New Mexico’s gain, and long-time Lobo fans have been forever grateful for the gift – Larry Tuttle.

The former Decatur, Ill., all-around athlete was drafted by the Air Force following high school graduation in 1947 and was assigned to Kirtland Air Force Base.  Thereafter, Albuquerque became his home.

Tuttle was assigned to the Kirtland Field Air Base in mid-1947.  He started playing basketball with the base team, the Kirtland Flyers.  That he got the attention of the cross-town UNM coaching staff is an understatement.  He scored 34 points against UNM’s freshmen and came back with 24 points against Woody Clements’ varsity.

He was offered a scholarship at UNM while still commissioned at Kirtland.

While at Kirtland, Tuttle also displayed his baseball talents, compiling a 4-1 pitching mark, hitting an impressive .400 and delivering a bonus to the Lobos – basketball in the winter, baseball in the spring.

The first baseman teamed with outfielder Sam Suplizio to give UNM the finest 1-2 batting duo in the Skyline Conference.  Upon graduation, both signed bonus contracts – Suplizio with the Yankees, Tuttle with the Phillies.  Ironically, both suffered injuries in the minors, ending major league dreams.

Tuttle’s accomplishments as a starter in both Lobo basketball (a forward) and baseball (first base and pitcher) shine like a beacon in UNM sports annals:  all-conference first team selection in both sports in the Border Conference and later the Skyline Conference.

Tuttle returned to Albuquerque in 1955 after his brief sojourn in pro baseball to begin a teaching career at APS, both as class instructor and basketball coach. After teaching and coaching at Garfield High, he was named Rio Grande High’s first basketball mentor and brought the team from the lowest level to the 1968 state tournament with a 19-6 record.

In a 1946 UNM Daily Lobo article, Lou Cullen was described as “a cross between a gazelle and a Brahma bull.”  Cullen’s speed and 6-foot-1, 220-pound frame also earned him nicknames “Meadville Meteor” and “The Bruiser.”

Cullen ran the 100-yard dash in 9.6 seconds – the world record was 9.4.  He played fullback from 1945-48, and was described in newspaper articles as “twisting, crashing, plowing, leaping, lugging and grabbing his way to touchdowns.”  He was first team all-Border Conference in 1946, was also a great punter and played in three bowl games.

Born in Meadville, Pa., Cullen set his sights on playing college football and began his career at Western Kentucky State in 1941.  In 1942, he was drafted into service for World War II, but never served overseas.  He eventually landed at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.  Cullen and his bride, Joan, like the Southwest and stayed in the Albuquerque where he attended UNM on the GI Bill.

Cullen earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UNM.  He was head football and track coach at Farmington from 1948-54; assistant football coach at UNM from 1954-1959 under Bob Titchenal, Dick Clausen and Marv Levy; and assistant coach under Levy at California from 1960-63.  He was the coach at Ft. Lewis College in Durango, Colo., from 1963-70.

Cullen passed away on January 3, 2000.

• 1995 UNM graduate and four-year football lettermen from 1988-89 and 1991-92

• Owner of Graphic Connection, a screen-printing company

• Sole sponsor of the UNM Student Lettermen Run for Relief fundraiser

• Past president of the UNM Alumni Lettermen’s Board of Directors

• UNM Lobo Club Board of Directors

• Owner of Baldridge Lumber Company, an Albuquerque family-run business that has supported the UNM ski team for many years

• Founding member (1968-70) of the UNM varsity ski team that became the Central Intercollegiate Alpine League team champs seven straight years

• Director of the board of the UNM Corporate Cup since 1985…the Corporate Cup has been instrumental in providing direct assistance to the Lobo ski team

• Has also held board positions in the UNM Alumni Lettermen’s Association and the UNM Lobo Club

Tennis

• 2004 Mountain West Conference and ITA Region VII Player of the Year

• Set UNM season record with 37 singles wins and tied career record with 96 victories

• Three-time participant at the NCAA Championships

• Obtained master’s degree in finance