As accolades, memories and admiration pour in, the New Mexico Highlands University community remembers coach Jim Marshall as a legendary Cowboy. Marshall, who passed away at the age of 86 in Hobbs, NM on Sept. 18, led the NMHU baseball team to the NAIA national championship in 1967 as the coach. He was a professor and Athletic Director at Highlands for more than 25 years.
Before coming to Las Vegas in 1965, Marshall served in the Korean War, played football alongside future NFL Hall-of-Famer Gale Sayers at Kansas, and married his wife Carolyn in 1964 -- a partnership of 55 years. Together, he and Carolyn had two children, Jim Bob and Tammy Sue, who became fixtures at HU practices and games. They were outstanding athletes through their high school and college careers. Marshall was inducted into both the HU Hall of Honor and the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame for his outstanding record as both a coach and an educator.
"Coach Marshall was a pretty amazing guy, " recalled current Highlands cross country and track coach
Bob DeVries, "He could be rough on you--tough love--but he had a great sense of humor too. We played together in a golf tournament a couple years ago and he told me 'DeVries, I can't believe you're still hanging around Highlands', that was just before he told me I was driving the golf cart too fast," added DeVries, who was a student-athlete when Marshall served as AD at Highlands. He also took classes taught by Marshall in the late '70's. While Marshall is remembered as a legendary coach, he was just as proud of his accomplishments as a teacher and an instructor.
"Just coach baseball?" Marshall once said, "There was no such thing." His teams often had the highest graduation rates on the HU campus, and his classes, from coaching theory to swimming, filled up fast.
"He taught us about life," remembered former student Joann Moore.
But it was always baseball to which Marshall returned. His 1967 championship team may have been the crowning achievement in a life dedicated to the sport. But even then, Marshall refused to take credit for the only team to win a national championship at NMHU. He once told Albuquerque Journal writer Ken Sickenger, "That team had talent. You could have coached that team and won a national title."
After leaving Highlands, Marshall relocated to Hobbs, NM, where he took over a struggling program at the College of the Southwest, building it into a conference contender while also constructing a baseball complex, complete with a press box and bleachers that drew teams from around the region for playoffs and tournaments.
Former athletes, coaching colleagues, and fellow Hall-of-Famers have contributed their loving memories of the NMHU legend.
"One of the most outstanding people I've ever met."
---Current HU Baseball coach
Shannon Hunt
"He knew how to treat people and persevere."
---Las Vegas Robertson coach Leroy Gonzales
"Thank you for teaching us about life."
---former player Dwain Martinez
"A legendary figure in northern New Mexico."
---Santa New Mexican sports reporter James Barron
"A great man and leader."
---NMHU Hall-of-Famer Steve Sanchez
Former student and player, Dr. Sylvester Perez, who went on to be the Superintendent of the San Antonio School District, and is now the President of the NMHU H Club, had this to say about coach Marshall:
"Coach made sure we went to class, and there are many successful people out there because of him. He served Highlands in so many capacities, not just baseball. He took great pride in being a professor and worked tirelessly on the HU baseball field, making it the best in the region. Coach Marshall will never be forgotten by anyone who knew him."
And this, from a 2017 Albuquerque Journal interview with Phil Shroer, who played on Marshall's '67 championship team, and later became a basketball coach and athletic director at Cibola High School in Albuquerque:
"I played sports all my life and I coached sports. There was no bigger thrill. After that championship game, going back to the hotel we were staying at in St. Joseph's, Missouri, the whole team jumping in the pool with our uniforms on. It was something else. I remember it like it was yesterday."
Remember it like it was yesterday...
James Harley Marshall 1935-2021.
"We Ride Together"
