Only on ABC-7: Bob Stull talks about turning 70

UTEP’s athletic director, Bob Stull, is celebrating a milestone birthday, turning 70 on Nov. 21.

“I didn’t know I could live that long,” said Stull, laughing. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”

Stull sat down with ABC-7 to talk sports, life and his legacy.

His career in football didn’t begin at UTEP.

He attended Kansas State University on a football scholarship, then worked as an assistant coach at the high school and college level, including at Kent State University in Ohio and the University of Washington in Seattle. With the University of Washington as an assistant, he went to the Rose Bowl three times, and won twice.

It was when he was the head coach at University of Massachusetts in 1985 that he learned about a head coach opening.

“I happened to be talking to Jim Paul (a friend from Kent State and former owner of the El Paso Diablos baseball team) on the phone and he said, ‘You ought to come here and take this job.’ I said, ‘No, I don’t think so,’ because they’d never won,” said Stull. “In fact, the most games they had won from 1970 was two, and that was the big year. Mostly they were 0 and 1.”

But he took a trip to the Sun City that December — mostly to escape the frigid New England winter, said Stull. The change in climate ended up being one deciding factor. The other was his family.

“The fact that our children were a long way from grandma, who lived in Los Angeles,” said Stull. “We decided to go ahead and take the risk.”

Stull recalled an El Paso newspaper front-page article that announced his hiring at UTEP.

“In that article there were tombstones with the coaches and the dates they were hired and fired,” said Stull. “And there was a big one with my name with a date of hire and a question mark. My wife said, ‘This seems so final.'”

The expectations for success were low.

“People would always tell me, ‘Win three games,'” Stull said. “Win against NMSU and two other games, and people will put a statue of you downtown and elect you mayor.'”

In three years, Stull turned the Division I chump into champs. The Miners won four games his first year, seven his second and a record-setting 10 games in 1988, earning an invitation to the Independence Bowl. It was the team’s first invite in more than 20 years.

“It was a special year,” said Stull. “Everyone was great. The players and staff have gone on to do great things. It was a good time, it really was.”

The following season, Stull left UTEP for a head coaching job at the University of Missouri. His stint was memorialized in 1990 with what has become known as the Fifth Down Game — when referees accidentally allowed the eventual national champion Colorado a game-winning fifth down, instead of four.

“That’s one way to get into ESPN Classic, is to have something like this happen,” said Stull, adding that his wife tends to get more upset about it now than he does.

Video of the game shows an agitated Stull pacing the sidelines, arms crossed, talking to refs after the game clock ran out as commentators discussed the commotion and confusion on the field.

“After the game, it took (officials) an hour an a half to figure it out,” Stull told ABC-7, adding, “Our chains guy — when he heard what happened, he pulled over and threw up, he was so upset.”

Ten years after leaving on a high note, Stull returned to UTEP in 1998 in a higher position — director of athletics.

“The biggest thing I wanted to do was make us a viably recognized Division I athletic department,” he said.

Stull had quite a few hurdles to overcome.

“We didn’t have any of the facilities, we didn’t have good attendance, and our academics were not strong at all,” he said. “We tried to address all the issues we needed to address: facilities, coaches, budgeting, and we addressed them, one at a time.”

Stull came up with a five-year strategic plan, outlining the methods UTEP needed to use to grow.

The Larry K. Durham Center was the first facility built during Stull’s tenure. The 65,000-square-foot center opened in 2002. According to the UTEP Athletic Department website, it features a strength and conditioning center, a sports medicine center, a student-athlete lounge and computer center, a football locker room, football coaches’ offices, football positional meeting rooms, and a Hall of Champions, which is utilized for numerous athletic department functions.

The Helen of Troy Softball Complex was finished in 2005. The facility is composed of a field, coaches’ offices and locker rooms for softball and soccer.

The Foster Stevens Basketball Center is the newest facility on the UTEP campus. It opened in 2009. The athletic department website states that the 43,000-square-foot facility features two practice courts, a strength and conditioning center, sports medicine center, academic/film room, coaches’ offices, locker rooms, equipment room, and lounges for the UTEP men’s and women’s basketball programs.

“We went from the very worst facilities in the conference to the very best,” said Stull, adding that it was all made possible through community support. “If you have something you can show enthusiastic fans and donors where you can make progress, then you can buy into it.”

What UTEP has to show right now: an injury-riddled football team with a losing record and a young basketball team attempting a rebound after a sluggish 2014-15 season.

But Stull brushes off criticism.

“Because our arenas are so big, people think we should be selling them out,” he said. “We do sell out if we’re playing for a championship or if we’re playing big teams like Texas or Arizona.

“We’ve been No. 1 in attendance in our conference. We’re always No. 1 in attendance,” he added.

Stull chose to focus on the long-term goal for UTEP athletics.

“What we’ve done is built facilities, hired coaches and made progress to — at some point — win that championship and stay at the very, very top,” he said. “But it’s a process we have to go through.”

As for the successes experienced by the UTEP Athletic Department, Stull credits his quality staff, as well as the university president, Dr. Diana Natalicio.

“Her vision for the campus has been tremendous,” he said. “We couldn’t have built the facilities we have here and be competitive without her help.”

Stull smiled when he talked about the other people he credits with his professional achievement: his wife and his children, who were under the age of 3 when he signed on to coach the Miners in 1986.

“(I was) working 7 a.m. to 10 at night during the week, then there’s the recruiting, and on weekends you bring recruits (to the house),” said Stull, recounting how his wife stepped up to care for the kids so he would work. “(Being married to a head coach) is hard on women. The combination of all the being on your own, raising the children — she’s been a tremendous wife, and we’ve been together for 34 years.”

Stull attributes one piece of the success to El Paso’s UTEP fans.

“What really makes a strong program is the support of the community,” he said.

At 70, Stull continues to be active, hitting the gym every day for a cardio workout and weight training five times a week. He said he feels as old as the company he keeps.

“My wife calls me a frat boy sometimes,” Stull said, laughing. “We’re always around the student-athletes. It keeps you young, because of how they think and their energy.”

Stull is still having fun and not ready to slow down.