El Paso Times
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Heriberto Pérez Lara sat on the bed in his home in Juárez, meticulously lacing his brown dress shoes. His mother, Anayensi Lara Ruíz, smoothed an ironed white button-down shirt on its hanger.
She grabbed his graduation cap and tassel off the bedspread.
“Apart from these, what else do you need to take with you?” she asked. His black gown hung downstairs in the living room, draped with the orange stole of the University of Texas at El Paso.
“That’s everything,” he said, looking up at the mother who raised him on her own.
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Fernie Mabini has never been in the spotlight, much less sung a tune on stage or shot a three-pointer for a basketball team.
But anyone who has ever gone to a UTEP basketball game, a concert at the Don Haskins Center, a show at Sun Bowl or a student performance at the Magoffin Auditorium, should know he was instrumental in its success.
For at least 40 years, Mabini, an unassuming man with a ponytail who often stands surveying the work with his hands behind his back, has worked behind the scenes making sure the sound, lighting and stage is just right for any sport or entertainment event at the University of Texas at El Paso.
LAKE FOREST, Ill. It’s not an overstatement to call quarterback Justin Fields’ arrival in Chicago the city’s most celebrated sports moment since the Cubs won the World Series in 2016.
The Bears almost universally panned for their spotty Day 1 draft record over the past decade administered a shot of adrenaline to the fan base when they pulled off a draft-night blockbuster trade with the New York Giants in order to move up nine spots and select Fields 11th overall.
Fields is no Mitchell Trubisky, who sat on the bench at North Carolina for years until a very good junior season (the 8-5 Tar Heels lost the Sun Bowl to Stanford in Trubisky’s final collegiate game) convinced the Bears to take him with the second pick in 2017.
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Everyone gets nervous when Bears general manager Ryan Pace takes a big swing in the draft, and rightfully so. But this one is different.
Pace gave up a lot, including the Bears’ first-round pick next year, but he’s also getting a lot in Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields. This is much different than when he bet the franchise’s future on Mitch Trubisky four years ago.
Fields fits every part of the criteria to be the Bears’ long-term answer at quarterback in a way Trubisky never did. There’s far more certainty and far less projection after he dominated college football the last two seasons.