ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Chuck Clausen, a big, friendly bear of a man who wrestled and played football at Highland High and the University of New Mexico, left Albuquerque in 1963 to begin a coaching career that took him all over the map.
But Clausen never lost his love for Albuquerque and his alma mater.
“I consider Albuquerque my hometown,” he wrote in a January 2015 post on The Red Menace, a UNM fan website. “… Would have loved to have coached the Lobos and retired in Albuquerque, but things have worked out just fine.”
Clausen, a longtime college and NFL assistant football coach who worked over the years for Marv Levy, Lou Holtz, Woody Hayes and Dick Vermeil, died on Christmas Eve in Gainesville, Ga.