Did you hear the one about when Tony Sanchez as football coach at Bishop Gorman High was afraid of an opposing local team? No, there isn’t a punchline.
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How ironic, and absolutely fitting, that on the day family and friends and fans and former players gathered to say a final goodbye to Jerry Tarkanian, it was a person with no UNLV ties that offered the most poignant and memorable tribute.
Jim Fassel is the experience in this equation. The one whose credentials wouldn’t be scrutinized. His is a name that has been widely associated with the coaching job at UNLV, vacant since Bobby Hauck announced his resignation Friday.
Bob Davie gave the Lobos an identity. Which begs a question: Does UNLV have one, and if so, what in the world is it besides losing?
The first tear slid slowly down his right cheek, unhurried in its progress as if every speck of skin should absorb its purpose. The connection between losing and UNLV football was accepted for so long, unfeigned emotion following a defeat had over time become indiscernible.
The rain clouds have moved away from those storms of disaster that were road losses to Fresno State and Air Force, and light appears to be shining through the mist upon UNLV’s basketball team.
The history of a college basketball program is not unlike the roads and highways and bridges that join towns from one part of the country to the next. Each link serves its own essential purpose, and often many of the more significant ones are overlooked as time passes.
Well, we know this: The suit jacket experiment lasted 20 minutes.
It’s not about talent. Wisconsin always was going to be a much better football team than UNLV on Thursday night. Bigger. Stronger. Faster. Better in every imaginable way.
The first part everyone needs to get over is the denial, the pledges to remain in Las Vegas, to finish his coaching career at UNLV.