It is all a numbers game in Las Vegas. Sometimes it is not your day, but other times, you hit big and the payoff is immense. For Jay Lewis, his collegiate career with the New Mexico Highlands University football team was more of the latter during his time in Las Vegas, N.M. After helping the Cowboys to their first and only conference football championship in program history, the Corrales, N.M., native will be inducted into the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Hall of Fame as part of the 2022 class.
Lewis closed out a highly-decorated career with the Cowboys, which began in the 1978 season. He stepped onto the NMHU campus and immediately brought an intensity and energy to the Cowboys’ football team, which was contagious.
“He had a combination of quickness and savvy football ability and a motor that ran,” said friend and former NMHU teammate Von Evans. “He was the nicest guy in the world off the field, but on the field, there was like a change. I mean, it was all business, football, and he was much more engaged and intense when it came to football.”
Lewis used that motor and focus throughout his collegiate career to haunt offenses and stack accolades at the conference and national levels. He was quick to put the RMAC on notice and earned an all-conference second team nod in his freshman season. That was just a start, however, as he continued to gain experience and notoriety as an AP and Kodak All-American in each of his final two seasons with the Cowboys.
During his senior season, he was paramount in helping New Mexico Highlands knock off Colorado Mesa to earn the RMAC regular-season football title with a 7-3 record. That finish had been four years in the making for Lewis and the Cowboys. During his freshman campaign, New Mexico Highlands closed the year with a 1-9 record. In his sophomore year, the squad improved to a 3-7 record and then a 4-6 record in his junior campaign.
Throughout his four-year career at New Mexico Highlands, whether he knew it or not, Lewis was the glue of a scrappy team that flourished through its team chemistry. More than 40 years after his playing career, there is still a core group of teammates from that NMHU squad that get together on an annual basis. Right in the center of the Cowboys’ camaraderie from the gridiron to today is Lewis.
“Jay was a critical part of a team that came together and meshed at the right time, and it was like a perfect storm almost, the way everything came together with everybody,” said Evans.
Lewis and a core group of the 1981 RMAC Championship New Mexico Highlands team maintain a strong friendship to this day. A native of New Mexico, Lewis currently resides in Los Lunas, N.M.