Stevens on Mike Roberts

[sandia mt]

The Trib is gone, but this article from a few years ago is even more relevant now.

http://web.archive.org/web/200410300...orts_eye.shtml

[Loboexpat]

I get an error message when I click on the link.

[Wolfen1]

Why not just take The Pit away, too?

Richard Stevens
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The brass at KKOB radio are shortsighted. They could have stabbed us deeper.

Why halt at booting one of the best Lobos ever, Mike Roberts, off "Lobo Talk" and replacing him with a New Mexico State Aggies graduate, Bob "Giggles" Clark?

Why stop at pulling the microphone away from an icon of University of New Mexico athletics and more or less suggesting the old boy shouldn't be up so late?

There are other ways in these patriotic times to rile the American listening public. KKOB ought to consider starting up campaigns to:

Take the turkey out of Thanksgiving.

Pull Santa Claus out of Christmas.

Stop kids from hunting for Easter eggs during a religious holiday.

Get the raisins out of Raisin Bran.

Wipe Bob King's name off The Pit's floor.

Pull a stripe off the American flag.

OK, we exaggerate a bit, but not that much when you consider what Mike Roberts, 70, means to Lobos athletics and Lobos fans.

He is a UNM symbol - like cherry and silver, like Tow Diehm, like the wolf emblem, like The Pit. The Pit opened in 1966. Roberts first pulled a KKOB mike in front of his face in 1966. Do you see the connection here, guys?

Roberts has given us Lobos teams led by Bob King, Norm Ellenberger, Rudy Feldman, Joe Morrison, Gary Colson, Joe Lee Dunn, Dennis Franchione, Fran Fraschilla, Dave Bliss and Rocky Long.

He has interviewed Lobos such as Mel Daniels, Greg "Stretch" Howard, Ron Nelson, Petie Gibson, Sam Scarber, Mike Williams, Terance Mathis, Rocky Long, Marvin Johnson, Michael Cooper, Kenny Thomas.

And you stab this five-decade Lobo guy in the back in favor of an Aggie?

The next thing you know KKOB will be wanting UNM to change its nickname to Cougars.

Sure, Roberts is a bit of a homer. Sure, his bias toward the Lobos has him seeing things on the athletic fields that nobody else sees except all the other Lobos fans that share this extreme prejudice.

Which, at times, appears to be most of them.

But that's Lobos athletics around here. The fans want hugs and reassurance more than they want the truth or realism, and Roberts' voice is a warm and cuddly hug of hope and great expectations.

He is part of Lobos fans' comfort zone.

His voice soothes and reassures Lobos fans in the same way that Larry Ahrens' voice does in the morning at KKOB. When you wake up to Ahrens, you know that everything is OK.

When you hear Roberts talking to or about the Lobos, you feel the same way.

Sure, Roberts isn't as witty, compelling or irreverent as drive-home guy Jim Villanucci. And Roberts probably doesn't spend as much time preparing as Giggles does.

But this is Mike Roberts.

This is the guy who has linked his heart and soul to Lobos athletics for almost 40 years.

Lobos fans have grown up on Roberts' song. They go to battle with Roberts. His booming voice is still a pillow Lobo fans clutch day and night when Lobos heroes are throwing up a desperation 3-pointer or driving for the winning touchdown.

Roberts didn't want to give up "Lobo Talk." It was taken away.

And that's a shame.

[Loboexpat]

Thanks for posting that Wolfen.

Unfortunately, it just reminded me why I don't miss the musings of Mr.Stevens.