11/21/1999
By Matthew Aguilar
El Paso Times
A handful of fliers, a slippery floor and $1,000.
That's what the UTEP Miners women's basketball team started with back in 1973 when Don Lewis and Wayne Thornton decided the men's basketball team at the University of Texas at El Paso - already a powerful program that had netted a national championship seven years earlier - needed a complement. So Lewis and Thornton started a grassroots campaign to get the women on the court.
"I had just started college, and we started asking girls on campus (if they) wanted to play," Thornton said. "We had fliers, posters, and we got a good response from girls who wanted to get something going."
Twenty-five years later, the women's program compares favorably with the men's program, traveling extensively to big-time tournaments in places such as New York City, developing a core group of fans and regularly getting exposure and radio.
But back then, things were a little tougher for Lewis and Thornton, who was then barely out of Burges High School and only 17 years old. Thornton said he was painfully shy at the time and said Lewis was the guy who did a lot of the recruiting - working behind the scenes to get the program off the ground.
After scrambling to put a team together, the two arranged for a meeting with then-UTEP president Arleigh B. Templeton.
"He gave us $1,000 to start the program and we practiced in the old women's gym, which isn't even there anymore," Thornton said. "It had an ice skating rink for a floor and no nets, the walls were beaten up."
That first year, UTEP played New Mexico State, teams from Juàrez and Fort Bliss and even intramural teams on campus. The Lady Miners were 4-4 that season.
One of the team's first big breaks came when New Mexico State was put on the schedule. Thornton said then-head coach Karen Fey, now the Senior Woman's Administrator at NMSU, fearlessly scheduled the unproven Lady Miners even though the established Aggies had much more to lose.
"Her attitude was, `Let's play'," Thornton said. "You are our neighbors. It was the greatest thing in the world to walk on to that court and see something that started from scratch go against New Mexico State, which had uniforms, a sports information director and the works."
Thornton, who was assistant coach under Carol Ammerman for three years and head coach for one, stepped down after the 1978-79 season to take a job with the El Paso Parks and Recreation Department. He is now special promotions coordinator for the department.
He looks back at those early Lady Miner years fondly.
"My calling was with youth," he said. "That's what I was put on this Earth to do."
Gloria Estrada, who played guard for the Miners from 1974-78, said everything has changed since then, from facilities to scholarships.
"Back then we weren't on full scholarships so we had to struggle there," said Estrada, who is now an English teacher at Canutillo High School. "Some of us just played because we loved the game, not because we were on scholarship. Also, most of the people who played on the team were from the area. They didn't recruit from outside the area. I think maybe four people were out of the area."
Estrada said she still attends games when she gets the chance.
"Of course, we didn't have many fans when we were playing and now there are quite a few who follow the team," she said. "And, as far as the program, it has vastly improved."
Since Ammerman and Thornton, there have been four Miner basketball coaches: Janet Wood, Ken Weeks, Craig Roden and current coach Sandra Rushing, who took the job in 1990.
"I knew (then athletic director) Dr. Brad Hovious when I came out here, because I worked for him," Rushing said. "I knew about Coach (Don) Haskins because he's a legend; I knew about the Sun Bowl, but as far as the program itself ... I did a little research when the job came open, but I really wasn't too familiar with El Paso."
At the time, Rushing was 25 years old and fresh off a one-year stint as head coach at Millsaps College, a Division III school in Jackson, Miss.
She said the program has come a long way, even since then.
"I joke about it now, but I only had one assistant coach, and he was only getting paid $13,000 a year at the time," she said. "We had $5,000 in our recruiting budget when I came in."
Rushing said she saw a lot of potential for the program, but not a lot of money being put into it.
"I even remember saying to Dr. Hovious `I cannot put these kids in these uniforms,' " Rushing said with a laugh. " `And playing in Memorial Gym won't help recruiting'."
Hovious promised to move Rushing and her team into the Don Haskins Center (then the Special Events Center) after the first year, which she said was the longest of her life.
The team went 5-22.
"That first year, I cried. I really did," she said. "I was not used to losing. This was a big challenge for me."
Since then, Rushing has proven to be a winner for UTEP. She has compiled a 110-133 record at UTEP, her best coming in 1992-93, when her team went 18-10 and drew 7,000 people to a game against Brigham Young University in the Don Haskins Center.
The Miners went 13-12 in 1996-97 and 16-11 in 1997-98.
"I feel good about this year," Rushing said. "I see a turning point. My kids are great kids, enjoyable to coach and our recruiting class is doing well. I've talked to other coaches around the country, and it has taken them nine, 10 years.''
Other things have improved as well, such as recruiting budget, which is now $31,000 a year, and salaries. The assistant now gets $25,000 a year, while Rushing earns $54,000.
And with the new administration, Rushing is positive.
"I think all women's sports have improved since I've been here," she said. "I would like to really see a championship here, but who knows what the future holds."
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