Hudson Mayes' family legacy, ties to Lobo legend Mel Daniels make his UNM journey special
Dear Uncle Mel,My mom told me that you are in the hospital. I hope you feel better. I will be coming to Indy in a couple of weeks. I hope I see you so I can give you a big hug. If you feel better, I can come to see your horses. I'm starting basketball back up. I hope you get to see me play someday.Love Hudson On a stage full of basketball royalty, 8-year-old Hudson Mayes stood behind a podium and began to speak.With hundreds of fans, family and well-wishers staring back at him from the seats in a basketball arena in downtown Indianapolis, the young man in a gray suit read a letter he had written a few weeks earlier when he was told Uncle Mel had fallen ill.On this day Nov. 5, 2015 the arena that serves as home to the NBAs Indiana Pacers was the site of a memorial service for Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Mel Daniels, the gentle giant of a man who, after becoming an All-American forward with the University of New Mexico Lobos in the 1960s, helped lead the Pacers to three American Basketball Association championships.I asked (Hudson) to read that letter he had written when Mel got sick, said Cecilia CeCe Daniels, the wife of Mel Daniels and a UNM graduate herself. He was a little kid, but he was very poised.Mel Daniels was a dear friend and former Pacers teammate with the boys grandfather, Roger Brown. Both men are in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, have had their jerseys retired by the Pacers and are considered among the best players of their era, if not any era.Brown died in 1997 at the age of 54, long before Mayes was born. Daniels stayed close with his friends family, including the grandson Brown never knew.CeCe Daniels felt her husbands memorial just wouldnt be right without someone from Browns family being a part of it.Gayle (Hudsons mom) was a nervous wreck, I remember, CeCe Daniels said with a light chuckle. But he did really well.Just last week, CeCe Daniels learned that Mayes that poised 8-year-old boy is now a Lobo basketball player himself, about to play in the same iconic arena where her husband played in fact, Mel Daniels played in the first-ever game in the Pit 60 years ago this December.Oh my God, its perfect, said the 80-year-old CeCe Daniels. Really, I think this is just so perfect.A hot mess togetherMel Daniels is, to many, the greatest Lobo. But to the basketball world beyond the Land of Enchantment, his legend grew once he and Roger Brown teamed up to lead the ABAs Indiana Pacers in 1968.The two hit it off as friends immediately.Oh those two were a hot mess together, laughed Jeannie Brown, Rogers wife and Mayes grandmother. One of my favorite things was when the Pacers would be 20 points ahead, and theyd take Roger and Mel out and put them on the bench. Those two would have to cover their faces with towels when they were laughing and talking.As chronicled in the 2013 documentary Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story, Daniels new teammate wasnt just a good player he was one of the greatest ever.As a freshman at the University of Dayton in 1960 before the NCAA allowed freshmen to play on the varsity team Brown and fellow New York high school star Connie Hawkins were banned from playing in college and the NBA when it was said they were associated with a known gambler back in New York, though neither was accused of gambling (the NBA later acknowledged neither should have been banned).It wasnt until 1967 after working years at General Motors and playing for nonprofessional regional teams that Brown got a chance to play in the ABA. The following year, he met and teamed up with Daniels.The Pacers were the class of the league. And Roger was the class of the class, Julius Erving said about Roger Brown in the documentary.Looking over themAfter Brown died in 1997, the families remained close.Gayle, Rogers daughter, recalled having a discussion with her then-fianc Derrick Mayes ahead of their wedding.When we were getting married, Derrick and I talked about it a while, and then it was just so natural, she said. Uncle Mel will walk me down the aisle.And he did.Years later, young Hudson came along and got to know and love Uncle Mel.But that wasnt what brought him to UNM.UNM mens basketball coach Eric Olen, then coaching UC San Diego, tried recruiting the 6-foot-5 Mayes out of high school in Los Angeles.Our ideal recruiting class for that season what we were really hoping to do was have Uriah (Tenette), Jake (Hall) and Hudson, Olen said.Instead, Mayes committed to Central Michigan before a coaching change there led him back to UC San Diego. But by then, Olen had accepted the UNM job and Tenette and Hall followed and were star freshmen last season for the Lobos.After a strong freshman season at UCSD, Mayes decided to transfer.He took a recruiting visit to UNM one that went so well that Mayes and his parents told Olen on the spot that he wanted to be a Lobo.And then something happened.We walked out from the office where Huddy (had just committed) and I looked up and I kind of said, Oh my God, Uncle Mel went here, Gayle Brown-Mayes recalls.In the lobby just outside the mens basketball offices is a large mural of Lobo greats Daniels included.That was the first time it hit me. I just felt at that moment, I was like, ah, hes looking down, she said.Carrying a legacyWhile the connections be it coincidence or fate that drove Hudson Mayes to UNM certainly make for an interesting story, Gayle Brown-Mayes doesnt want them to become a burden on the young man who has already spent a lifetime knowing he is the grandson of a basketball Hall of Famer.I know he carries that weight of legacy, she said. But it did not come from us. Derrick and I were always very purposeful and mindful that he is the driver of his own destiny.Hudson says he is embracing the opportunity this year to honor his grandfather, who never got to play college basketball, and the uncle who helped build the program.In my mind, the entire time Im here, knowing that he (Mel Daniels) went here and holds a legacy at the school, I feel like I have the obligation to kind of do the same and kind of honor that legacy, Mayes said. I feel like every time I step on the court, I represent him and my grandfather, who never got to do any of this (in college).So, yeah. Definitely before every game Im going to pray for them, pray for them every night. And definitely in my mind, I'll be thinking of them.Geoff Grammer is a sports writer and podcaster for the Albuquerque Journal who covers UNM Lobo basketball and writes a front page column each Monday aimed at telling interesting stories about the people he comes across as a reporter, a dad, a husband and a native New Mexican. If you have any suggestions or feedback, reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.
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