UTEP Hopes for Historical Outing : A Victory Tonight Would Be the Miners’ First at SDSU

Texas El Paso, known as the College of Mines and Metallurgy when it was founded in 1913, established its football program in 1914. It didn’t take the Miners long to discover this wasn’t their sport.

They won their first two games, then went five years without a victory. Among their defeats were three losses to El Paso High School, including a 79-19 rout in 1916.

The Miners pressed forward.

The school’s name was changed to Texas Western College in 1949 and, finally, to Texas El Paso in 1967.

Seventy-three years, 267 victories, 343 loses and 28 ties after they began their football tradition with a one-point victory over the El Paso YMCA, the Miners are out to do what no UTEP team has done since the school began competing in the Western Athletic Conference title in 1968: win their first three conference games.

They will try to make modest history tonight when they play San Diego State in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. The Miners have never beaten the Aztecs in San Diego, having lost six times by a combined score of 266-59.

It hasn’t mattered where the teams have played. The Aztecs have won seven in a row and 11 of 12 games in the series, which began in 1974. But this year, it is the Aztecs who are looking up at UTEP.

The Miners (2-0 in conference play, 3-1 overall) are tied with Wyoming for first place in the WAC and are off to their best start since 1965, when they opened with four victories on the way to an 8-3 record. The Miners had a chance to match that ’65 start before a 35-16 loss to Arizona State last Saturday, which snapped a five-game victory streak spanning two seasons. The Miners had matched that streak in 1970-71.

SDSU (1-2, 1-4) is off to its worst start since 1980, when it lost eight of its first nine games before winning its last three to finish 4-8. The Aztecs are hoping to turn around their season with three consecutive home games against UTEP, Stanford and Cal State Long Beach. SDSU lost all four of its road games, including three in a row.

SDSU officials are expecting a crowd of about 20,000 tonight.

“It will help to be back at home,” said cornerback Clarence Nunn. “We might not have the biggest crowd cheering for us, but at least we won’t have a crowd cheering against us.”

In the Sun Bowl, the Miners have had consecutive school-record home-game crowds of 45,819 for a season-opening 31-0 victory over New Mexico State, and 46,921 two weeks later for a 37-13 conference victory over Hawaii. In between, the Miners had their first victory at Colorado State, 45-6.

“Even when the team was having its troubles, the town supported football,” Coach Bob Stull said in a telephone interview. “This is Texas, and Texas is a football state.”

Stull, 40, is in his second season at UTEP after two seasons at Massachusetts, where he had records of 3-8 and 7-4. He took over a program that had won only 15 of 126 games in the previous 11 seasons, and he led the Miners to a 4-8 record last year. It was the first time they had won more than two games in a season since they finished 4-7 in 1974.

“I looked over the situation real carefully,” Stoll said. “I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t think I could make a winner.”

Maybe no one understood the potential at UTEP better than the players who grew up in El Paso. Jason Swaney, a reserve offensive guard for the Aztecs, spent all but three years of his life in El Paso, graduated from El Paso’s Coronado High School in 1986 and regularly attended the Miners’ games.

He can remember seeing only two UTEP victories.

“I saw them beat Brigham Young, and I saw them beat Wyoming,” Swaney said. “I remember leaving (and) always saying if the Miners could have done this right or if the Miners could have done that right, they might have won. They always were so close.”

Swaney said few of the better football players in El Paso ever considered attending UTEP. He gave it only casual thought.

“It was hard looking at going there because they were so bad,” Swaney said. “No one wanted to go there and lose every game. They wanted to go to a winning program. But it was fun just hoping they would eventually do well.

“Everybody is really excited about the Miners this year,” Swaney said. “They’ve been waiting for this for years. Everyone in the city always knew they had great talent and ability, they just never put it together.”

The Miners have done it with balance. Their quarterback is Pat Hegarty, a junior transfer from Saddleback College. Hegarty has completed 74 of 134 passes for 935 yards and six touchdowns. He has thrown seven interceptions. Their running game is led by John Harvey, a senior who averages 83 rushing yards per game, which is third in the WAC.

“They are without a doubt the most balanced team in the WAC offensively,” SDSU Coach Denny Stolz said.

Their defense isn’t bad, either. They lead the WAC in rushing defense (106.3 yards per game) and scoring defense (13.5 points per game). The defense is led by Doug Morgan, a redshirt sophomore linebacker. Morgan, who walked on two seasons ago as a 180-pound defensive back from Pittsburgh, has grown to 203 pounds and leads UTEP with 40 tackles (21 unassisted) and 3 sacks.

“There is no question,” Stolz said, “they are for real.”

Stolz is looking for a victory against the Miners to help propel his team back on a winning course. The Aztecs have shown little of the spark that carried them to the WAC championship last season, and coaches and players have questioned the team’s will to win.

Stolz took what he hopes will be more than a symbolic gesture this week by asking the players to elect four captains. It was the first time in 20 years as a head coach that he has held a midseason vote.

“Eventually we’re going to be a good football team. I’ve said that since last spring,” Stolz said. “I wish it would have happened quicker. I wish we had a great performance earlier. We haven’t. But nothing has changed my mind about this team. Hopefully, it will come together Saturday.”

Aztec Notes Tommy Booker, a freshman from Vista High School, will make his second start at tailback, Coach Denny Stolz said. Booker gained 8 yards in 10 carries in his first start against Wyoming last Saturday. . . . Mike Hooper will start at defensive end, his first start since the opener against UCLA. Hooper, who has been slowed by knee and toe injuries, has been moved back to defensive end, where he played last season, after starting the season at defensive tackle. . . . James Spady will start at center for UTEP despite having broken his right (snapping) hand Saturday against Arizona State, Coach Bob Stull said. For SDSU, Kevin Maultsby, a junior transfer who made his first start at defensive end last Saturday, should be fit to play today, trainer Don Kaverman said. Maultsby had been listed as questionable with a neck strain Thursday.