Bill Knight: UTEP's 1988 football team banded together for unprecedented success

And it was beautiful.

It was one of those desert December days — cold but sun-kissed and the clear sky was spit-shined blue, stretching over the old Sun Bowl and far into forever.

The boys of ‘88 had one more chance to do something that had never been done before at UTEP. This band of brothers — banded together for a lifetime by blood and sweat and hard work and laughter and love — this 1988 Miner team had eyes laser-locked on a 10th win.

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Three hours or so later the celebration began, fans swarming the field, players laughing and relishing a most special moment. Wide receiver Ricki Lopez sat calmly on the goal post crossbar, taking it all in.

The Miners and their faithful fans, those long suffering, victory starved loyal, had emerged from the longest and darkest of tunnels in the annals of college football. It was 1988 — the blink of an eye ago, almost half a lifetime ago. UTEP had not had a winning season since 1970 and, to make that tunnel all the more dark and dank and dingy, they had gone 15-111 from 1975 to 1985.

There was never so much as a sliver of light at the end of that tunnel. Who could even dream where that end might await?

Certainly, there was no hint of light in the spring of 1986. UTEP had put the finishing touches on another one-win season. Bob Stull was introduced as the new head football coach. The reaction was unanimous.

Who? Who was Bob Stull?

No one was impressed that he had just led UMass to a winning season. But there was a tiny bit of foreshadowing buried in his resume. He came from the tree of one of the all-time great coaches in college football history. He was an assistant under the legendary Don James at Kent State and at Washington.

Stull quietly put together an amazing staff. Andy Reid, now the multiple Super Bowl winning coach at Kansas City, was the offensive line coach. Dirk Koetter, who would become the head coach at Tampa Bay, was the young offensive coordinator. Marty Mornhinweg, who would become the head coach of the Detroit Lions, was on the staff. Former Miner Dave Toub, now long considered the top special teams coach in the NFL (first in Chicago, now with Kansas City), was on the staff.

Stull and his staff began putting together a group of confident and talented young players and cultivated the talents of some who were already on the roster. By the time the fall of 1988 rolled around, the Miners had quarterback Pat Hegarty, running back John Harvey, offensive linemen Sean Kugler, Rob Pufahl and James Spady, wide receivers Reggie Barrett, Victor Bailey, Clarence Seay (out of Andress High) and tight ends Arnie Atkinson and Rob Howsler.

They could move the football on anyone. They had spunk, they had personality. They were somehow confident without being cocky — even in the darkness of that tunnel. Hegarty was intelligent, articulate, thoughtful … a leader. Kugler and Pufahl were the team comedians, breaking into their Hans and Franz routine from Saturday Night Live. They did a local television commercial promoting the 1988 spring game, imitating WWE characters. “We know who you are. We know where you live. So get your butts off the couch and come to the spring game.”

They posed for an iconic photograph on the front page of the El Paso Times sports section, a huge centerpiece close-up of them grabbing each other’s faces.

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Fun was in the air. Winning became a thing. But it was a process. There was still no light at the end of the tunnel in the fall of 1986. But there was a smidgen of enthusiasm when the team went 4-8. Hey, that was progress.

The 1987 season was the first time there was a glimpse of light at the end of that tunnel. That team went 7-4 and those guys were actually 7-2 until Hegarty suffered a broken jaw.

There was finally a genuine light at the end of that tunnel, not a false one. My father, a man of few words, always tried to temper his over-enthusiastic, over-confident son. “Dad, dad, I see it. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Shaking his head, my father would say, “Probably a gorilla with a flashlight. Get back to work.”

But this light in 1988 was very real. It was there. No gorillas. No flashlights. Football is a wonderful game, perhaps the ultimate team sport. But it is also unforgiving, forcing anyone who dares don a helmet to bring heart and grit. You get knocked down and you get back up – today, tomorrow, forever. Again and again and again.

Any successful sports team stands on shoulders. Those UTEP men all through the 1980s supplied shoulders. They brought heart and they brought grit. But they never got the wins, never saw the light. Still, they helped get through that tunnel, one stone at a time, never seeing the light.

Then came Stull. Then came 1986. Then came 1987. And then came 1988 — the Boys of 1988, the Band of Brothers. UTEP stumbled at the end of that ‘88 season, losing badly at Wyoming. But they fought right back and crushed San Diego State 58-7, improving that record to 9-2. That led them to that cold, clear December afternoon and a date with always tough Air Force, a 10th win dangling there as a prize for the record books. For the memory bouquet.

In 1988 there were only 17 bowl games, not 43 like there were last season. Still, the Independence Bowl looked possible. Then there was silence.

It inevitably seems that in this big, beautiful bustling musical we call life, there is always a plot twist or two. Wake Forest had offered the Independence Bowl a cash amount and famous alumni Arnold Palmer had offered to hold a golf clinic with all proceeds going to the Shreveport-based bowl game. Bowl gone.

But there was still that 10th win dangling there, a prize for a lifetime, a rich and bold and beautiful memory for everyone.

UTEP and Air Force dueled in a wonderful war, neither backing down. Air Force scored late. Harvey scored later. Tony Tolbert, a future standout for the Dallas Cowboys, made a huge fourth down stop. Enter yet another plot twist.

During the fourth quarter, word filtered in that Wake Forest had tied with Appalachian State. All of a sudden, victory meant a 10th win AND a bowl game.

There was no social media in 1988 but Twitter could not have spread the word through the old stadium any faster. And, all of a sudden, the crowd of 35,000 sounded like 70,000. The Miners made that final, clinching stop and the remaining seconds slipped magically off the scoreboard clock.

And, just like that, the Miners had pounded out those final boulders.

They not only saw the light, they stepped out into that bright sunlight. It was one of life’s enchanting moments. They took deep gulps of that clear air under the bright blue sky. They laughed and loved and celebrated. It was a special moment in the chapters of their lives.

And it was beautiful.

Bill Knight is a former sports reporter at the El Paso Times and covered UTEP athletics for many years. The 1988 team is a member of this year's UTEP Hall of Fame Class and will be honored on Friday, Sept. 1 and Saturday, Sept. 2 as part of the Hall of Fame Induction and Saturday's home football game vs. Incarnate Word.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Bill Knight: 1988 UTEP football team was a thing of beauty