Former UNM QB Jim Cromartie excelled at football, and at the game of life

Aug. 27—How much did Jim Cromartie love football?

Years after his retirement as a high school football coach, said his wife, Pam, the former University of New Mexico quarterback was still diagramming plays. He and 1960s Lobo teammates Jim Ottmann and Bobby Santiago, the closest of friends, were regulars at UNM games and practices.

"He was really a student of the game," Pam Cromartie said in a phone interview.

And yet, for Cromartie, football — playing the game or coaching it — was always a means to a greater end: making life better for the people around him.

Cromartie, a Texas native who quarterbacked the Lobos to an Aviation Bowl victory in 1961 and to the first of three consecutive Western Athletic Conference championships the following year, died on Aug. 5. He was 82.

Since her father's death, Tiffany Cromartie said, social media has been flooded with tributes and fond memories from his former players at Bloomfield High School. Cromartie took the Bobcats to a pair of state title games during his 12-year tenure there, but his daughter said his lasting influence was not about wins and losses.

"Football was our life," she said, "but his impact transcended football.

"Which is a nice thing to know about your father. It gives us a little bit of peace."

Cromartie came to UNM as a freshman in 1959, having led Quanah High School to eight victories the previous fall. He starred in basketball and track and field for the Indians as well.

Freshmen were ineligible for varsity competition at the time, but Cromartie stepped into the starting lineup as a sophomore.

"He was just a very talented kid," said Ottmann, a teammate and later a coaching contemporary. "Somebody who wanted to do well and would put in the effort to do that. That's just the kind of kid he was."

The Lobos went 5-5 in 1960, coach Bill Weeks' first season at the helm, then were 7-4 in '61 — punctuated by a snowy, frigid 28-12 victory over Western Michigan in the first and last Aviation Bowl in Dayton, Ohio. Cromartie rushed for 49 yards and scored UNM's first touchdown that afternoon.

As a senior, Cromartie led UNM to its first conference championship since 1938. Though he didn't throw many passes in Weeks' run-oriented offense, built around the talents of halfback Santiago and fullback Bucky Stallings, he nonetheless finished his career as the program's leader in passes completed (89) and passing yardage (1,459).

His 18 victories as a Lobo quarterback remained a program record until Casey Kelly quarterbacked his 19th victory in 2003. As a defensive back, Cromartie twice led the team in interceptions.

In their steady banter over the decades, Ottmann said, he repeatedly reminded Cromartie that his passes "never spiraled; they always wobbled."

Nor did Ottmann let Cromartie forget that, as the quarterback, he called Santiago's number far more often than he did Ottmann's.

"Bobby got most of the carries, and I did most of the blocking," said Ottmann, who coached Sandia to a big-school state title in 1976. "I've been on him for 40 years about how many times he let me carry the ball.

"That's just how we went back and forth for the past 40 years."

After his playing days, Cromartie spent a year as a graduate assistant under Weeks, then took a job at Altus (Oklahoma) High School as head track coach and a football assistant. He returned to UNM as a full-time assistant and stayed until Weeks stepped down in 1968.

It was during his time as a Lobos assistant that he met Pamela Lynn Fink, a UNM student from Columbus, Montana. The two married in January 1968.

"He was just a really caring person," Pam Cromartie said. "He was very passionate about football, and I liked football. Being married to a football coach just seemed like the perfect thing.

"And he was very much a gentleman, 'til the day he died."

In 1969, Cromartie returned to Altus and was named head football coach. He took the Bulldogs to a Class 3A state championship in 1971.

From there: Hobbs, 1976-79; Bloomfield, 1980-91.

"Football is a family affair," Tiffany Cromartie said. "It's the family business. I saw my first football game when I was a week old.

"The week before, Mom left the game to have the baby. Dad looked in the end zone and saw she wasn't there, like she always was at the end of a game, and went right to the hospital."

Cromartie stepped down as coach at Bloomfield in 1991 and spent a better part of a decade as a high school principal. But he returned to coaching at Red Rock High School in Sedona, Arizona, earning Coach of the Year honors in 2002.

The Cromarties returned to New Mexico circa 2005, settling down in Rio Rancho.

In recent years, each last Friday of each month, Cromartie, Ottmann and fellow teammates would gather at Barelas Coffee House to swap jibes and stories.

Cromartie, Ottmann said, had always remained the signal caller of the group — just as he'd been on the field. The organizer; the guy who stayed in touch.

"He was just the captain, you might say, of the old guys," Ottmann said.

And that's why, Ottmann said, "He was my best friend."

Cromartie is survived by his wife, Pam; daughters Tiffany and Tannah; and a son, Stan, from a previous marriage.

No funeral services will be held, Pam Cromartie said, at her husband's request.