(Editor’s note: In anticipation of the 50th Belen-Los Lunas high school football game next Friday night, the News-Bulletin features two names from the past. In this edition, we spotlight former Belen coach Evisalio “Bull” Padilla. In Wednesday’s edition, we will feature Leo Apodaca, who scored the first-ever touchdown for the Tigers in the traditional series.)
He’s been around Belen High School football long enough to write a book about it. Evisalio “Bull” Padilla started coaching for the Eagles in 1956 and was head football coach from 1962-72.
Padilla, 70, who received the nickname “Bull” from his Belen High School coach, has seen so many Belen-Los Lunas games that “they all pretty much run together,” he said. “We had some good victories, and they had some good victories.”
From 1947-49, Padilla suited up for Belen as a tackle. “We had a good club my junior and senior years,” he said.
As a coach, Padilla did not like to make a big deal out of the cross-town rivalry with the Tigers. One reason for his low-key approach might have been that many of the Los Lunas coaches at that time were the same ones who tutored Padilla.
“I had a lot of close friends on the Los Lunas staff who were very good to me when I first started coaching,” Padilla said.
While Padilla remembered the coaches who helped him, his players would get stirred up by the cross-town talk.
“The kids would listen to people downtown,” Padilla said.
And with all the talking going on, Padilla didn’t have to make the rivalry any bigger than it already was.
“I always tried to downplay the Los Lunas game when I was coaching,” Padilla said. “We had a lot of rough games with Aztec and Grants. My philosophy was not to focus on one game.
“My attitude was I’d rather be 9-1 and lose the Los Lunas game than be 1-9 and beat Los Lunas,” Padilla said.
In his 16 years of coaching and 10 years as Belen’s athletic director, from 1972-82, it was tough for him to single out any one game against Los Lunas. However, one game was definitely unforgettable.
“There was one game that stood out, that we played in the mud. It was around 1960,” Padilla said. “We should have never played it.”
Actually it was 1959. Belen won in a rainstorm, 6-0.
Oh yes, there was another game that the “Bull” still recalls. “In the fall of 1967, Los Lunas had a real good ball club, and they scored right at the very end to beat us,” Padilla said.
When it comes to players, the “Bull” coached hundreds, and, out of fairness, he did not want to single out any particular player. He runs into a lot of former players at the post office or store but said many don’t live here anymore.
When pressed to recall “the game,” or “the play,” Padilla thought about it for awhile and then talked about tailback Larry Trepland from Boys Ranch.
“We were just running some straight power plays, and he broke one for some 70 yards,” Padilla recalled. “I remember saying, ‘It’s guys like that who make us coaches look good.'”
Padilla’s been away from coaching for some time now. He’s had plenty of time to get over the “I miss coaching” blues.
“At one time, I missed it,” Padilla said. “My last season was 1972, so I’ve been away quite awhile.”
But the “Bull” has never really been that far away. He had two sons, Mario and Armando, who both played guard for the Eagles. When Mario graduated in 1992, that was the last family connection with Belen football games. Yet the “Bull” will probably attend this year’s game against Los Lunas.
“More than likely, I’ll go,” he said.
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April 19, 2024
