Frank Maestas
Born: October 6, 1935 Las Vegas, New Mexico
Died: March 8, 2006, Albuquerque, NM
High School: West Las Vegas High School 1955
College: New Mexico Highlands University Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science & Journalism 1959
High School:
• First four sport letterman – Football, Basketball, Baseball & Track – in history of West Las Vegas High School
• Attended Robertson High School as a sophomore and junior when West Las Vegas was closed.
• Salutatorian, received college scholarship
College accomplishments
• Frank became the first in his family to achieve a college degree, which has achieved 14 graduate and post-graduate degrees since then.
Professional:
Frank Maestas was a pioneer for Hispanics in Journalism in general and Sports Journalism as he was one of the first Latino sports writers in the nation back in the 1960’s. He was a sportswriter for the Albuquerque Journal for 28 years. Many of his feature articles brought tremendous pride and sense of accomplishment to numerous New Mexico families and communities. Through hard work and dedication Frank became one of the most respected sportswriters to ever cover events in the State of New Mexico and was always very proud to be a New Mexican. He managed to do all of this while befriending virtually everyone he dealt with and built a legacy for being a creative, adventurous character that will always dwell in the folklore of sports in New Mexico.
• 1960 Worked for a year as a sportswriter for the Albuquerque Journal
• 1961 Sports editor at the Santa Fe New Mexican.
• 1961-1962 History teacher at Pojoaque High School
• 1962 Returned to work at Albuquerque Journal where he worked until 1990.
• Covered virtually all sports in New Mexico including UNM Lobo football and basketball, and Albuquerque Dukes baseball
• Covered the Albuquerque Dodgers, Albuquerque Dukes and many Los Angeles Dodgers spring training camps.
• Known for his “Let’s Be Frank” opinion articles.
• Devoted the majority of his career to promoting New Mexico high school athletics. Frank wrote feature articles about high school teams, athletes, and coaches. Frank built relationships with coachers and encouraged them to calling in the scores after each game. Frank would then compile high school box scores from throughout the state for the morning’s paper. The first high school box scores, weekly statistics and top-ten rankings (which are now common-place) can all be attributed to Frank.
• 2014 Hosted Annual WAC skywriters tour
• National Host for the 1983 NCAA Final Four Sports Journalists
• Associated Press Top 20 voter for college football and basketball
• Heisman Trophy voter annually during 28-year career.
Honors:
• New Mexico Sportswriter of the Year, 1966, 1968 & 1970.
• Honored with New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame “Award of Distinction” for his long-time contributions to New Mexico athletics.
Family:
• Married Emma Duran of Las Vegas in 1960 and had two sons;
o Miguel Maestas, an educator who lives in Seattle
o Antonio “Moe” Maestas, State Representative from Albuquerque
• Later married Lydia Aragon of Tucumcari in 1985 who had five children;
o Angela Speight, Roland Aragon, Ron Aragon, Sabina Vitelo & Lorenzo Aragon