Nothing depicts the spirit of Santa Fe more than the people with a competitive spirit, who also have brains, brawn, and talent that excel in sports. Until Santa Fe’s Capital High school opened in 1975, the on-going sports rivalry between St. Michael’s High School and Santa Fe High School dominated local sports for 86 years.
Santa Fe Sport’s Legends
Two basketball legends, Nick Pino and Toby Roybal, both of whom, caught the attention of professional leagues, are still remembered in Santa Fe. Toby Roybal was a four-sport letterman at Santa Fe High School who received a scholarship to play basketball at the University of New Mexico. Roybal received invitations from the NBA to play professional basketball but chose instead, to become a teacher in 1959 at B.F. Young Junior High in Santa Fe. He died prematurely at the age of 30 of lymphatic cancer. In 1977 Santa Fe High School named their new gymnasium in his honor. In 1984 Roybal was inducted into the Albuquerque Sports Hall of Fame and the UNM Hall of Honor. Nick Pino was a member of St. Michael’s High School’s undefeated basketball team in 1962 that was dubbed the “Mighty Midgets.” All of the team were under six feet tall, with the exception of Pino, who was a towering 6 ‘10. After graduation Pino received a basketball scholarship at Kansas State and in 1967 and 1968 was recruited to play basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers. Pino died in 2019.