Mateo Sandoval

Off the Court

New Mexico alumni, as Mateo Sandoval tells it on the shows. Each story was checked against its source.

• Joy Harjoformer U.S. Poet Laureate

  Joy Harjo, class of 1976. Writer, musician, activist, and Poet Laureate of the United States. The whole country's poet, and she's a Lobo. Say it loud.

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• Kathy Luedersled NASA human spaceflight

  Kathy Lueders, class of 1986, became the first woman to head NASA's human spaceflight program. When people leave the planet, a Lobo has been the one in charge. Let that sink in.

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• Raven ChaconPulitzer Prize-winning composer

  Raven Chacon, class of 2001, musician and composer, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2022. The Pit is loud, sure. But a Lobo wrote the sound that won the Pulitzer.

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• Robert Mercerhedge fund co-CEO

  Robert Mercer got his physics and math degree here, then became co-CEO of a hedge fund. In 2021 he was involved in possibly the largest tax settlement in American history. He also once sued his model railroad designer. Okay, Lobos. We claim him. Quietly.

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• Penny Marshallactress and film director

  Penny Marshall studied math and psychology here for two and a half years. Then in 1988 she directed Big, the first film directed by a woman to gross over a hundred million dollars in the U.S. The math worked out.

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