Eagles basketball players inducted into Hall of Fame
Levi Hill/News-Sun
Two prodigies of the Ralph Tasker era of Hobbs Eagles basketball were inducted into the Lea County Sports Hall of Fame Friday.
Both men were honored not just for their prowess on the court, but their service to the community outside the arena and both were long-overdue additions to the ranks of sports greats honored by the Lea County Museum.
“You guys are entitled to say, ‘What took you so long,’” said David Finger, hall of fame board member and emcee for the night. “These are two of the greatest athletes produced here in Lea County.”
Those men — Max Proctor and Ronald Ross, who follows his younger sister Adrianne Ross, who was inducted into the hall of fame three years ago.
Many stood to speak about the legendary skills of Max Proctor, who passed away in 2022, both his on the court skills and in the court skills.
Finger, a former attorney and current district court judge, never saw Proctor play basketball, but lost to him in the courtroom. Proctor was a long-time attorney in Hobbs.
“I’m not sure what I thought when I first saw him in the courtroom,” Finger said, “but I know I thought he didn’t look like a basketball player. Max was a bulldog in the courtroom and on the court. When I saw his name on a case, I sunk in my chair. I knew I was in for a dog fight.”
Proctor wrote the book “The Hobbs Eagle Press” to honor Ralph Tasker and later, went on to offer advice to many Eagles greats, including Ross.
“It is awesome to be inducted tonight with Max,” Ross said during his speech. “He took the time to come talk to me and so many who did and they didn’t have to do that. Our children are blank canvasses and be mindful of what you teach them. Max was one of the many Eagles I looked up to.”
Proctor’s daughter Haley Carr, accepted the award on behalf of her father.
“He took great pride in being from Hobbs and being a Hobbs Eagle,” Carr said. “He idolized coach Tasker. Basketball was his first love. Tasker was his mentor and his team was his first band of brothers.”
Carr said her father had three nuggets of basketball wisdom to share: one, being a good basketball player starts with good legs, so run bleachers. Two, you have to make 100 percent of your free throws. And three, and most importantly, always run the press.
“If you aren’t pressing, are you really playing basketball,” Carr said, quoting Proctor’s old adage.
Ross, who had a successful basketball career in the European leagues for 13 years, where, Finger said, he apparently also had a short-lived Rap Music career in Serbia.
Ross was once named USA Today’s State Player of the Year in 2001, played for Bob Knight at Texas Tech where he averaged 8.9 points a game over the the course of his career and scored a total 1,174 points, breaking a Tech record for most points in a tournament game.
Former Lady Eagle and Hall of Fame inductee Adrianne Ross introduced her brother at the event, calling him a leader and a someone she thinks really highly of.
Ross shared some highlights of his career with the audience and discussed the lessons he’d learned that helped him achieve his level of success — it all stemmed back to hard work and being grateful.
“You can’t pick and choose when you want to be grateful, you have to be grateful at all times,” Ross said.
He recounted watching his mother work hard to raise the children and being humble while doing it and said she taught him patience and kindness.
He talked about the time the family moved to Midland and he knew he wouldn’t be able to play basketball as a Hobbs Eagle. He said he prayed daily for a year and then his prayers were answered and the family moved back to Hobbs.
“The Eagles were everything,” he said, shortly before acknowledging Jitter Mason, who has been working with the Eagles 52 years.
He spoke of playing for Bob Knight at Tech and how his drive to improve eventually lead him to the title of team captain.
And he spoke about his years in Europe.
“America is the greatest place to live ever,” he said, stating during his time oversees he was treated well, but learned how great Americans have it.
He left the audience with some of his wisdom garnered from his long basketball career.
“You want to make something great, make it great. No excuses,” he said. “Take ownership of everything you do.”
And holding up his plaque of induction he added, “This means the world to me.”
