900 with Nixon

Tonight's game will be Jack Nixon's 900th radio broadcast as the voice of the Aggies.
Nixon said he had aspirations of working for a college, a MLB franchise, a NBA franchise and an NFL team. Instead, he settled in Las Cruces, starting his career in November of 1976, and except for a four-year period between 1982-86, has been a fixture.

"I didn't envision being somewhere, or at a college job for so long but it's been nice," Nixon said.

It seems like at some towns, the college is known by its announcer and vice versa.

"Guys hang onto jobs for a long time. It's rare for someone to leave a position and come back to it. I think it's kind of a community thing and there is more of a connection," Nixon said.

I asked Nixon to remember the eight previous games where he topped 100, 200 and so forth and here is what he came up with.

Game 100 Dec. 29, 1980
The Aggies blew out Texas 77-61 at the Pan Am, where Nixon said Longhorns coach Abe Lemons was a tough postgame interview to put it nicely

Game 200 Jan. 24, 1987
An 85-58 loss at UNLV. "The Aggies lost but it was my first trip to Vegas as a play-by-play guy so that was exciting."

Game 300 Feb. 29, 1990
A win against San Jose State, but it came during Neil McCarthy's first NCAA tournament year

Game 400 March 19, 1993
Nixon remembers the Aggies kicking around Nebraska 93-79 in the first round of the NCAA tournament. They lost to Cincy in the second round

Game 500 Dec. 27, 1996
The Aggies beat Texas Tech 122-105 in overtime during the Wyoming shootout, won by the Aggies after they beat S. Illinois the next day. "The game was exciting but the wind never stopped blowing but the people in Casper made it sound like it was never cold there."

Game 600 Jan. 6 2000
A 74-73 win at UTEP sealed when Mikko Noopila makes a pair of free throws with three seconds left after not having made a free throw all season.

Game 700 Feb. 22, 2003
A win at Arkansas State, where the most interesting play by play happened behind the scenes. The NMSU women were hosting Arkansas State on the same day, so the men's staff was listening to the broadcast, where the Arkansas State broadcaster was mispronouncing Mari Sanchez's name. Current NMSU SID Tyler Dunkel made some calls and the problem was fixed, but not before the broadcaster made some jokes about SIDs on the air.

Game 800 Dec. 2, 2006
Aggies beat San Francisco 89-78

The Aggies are 8-1 if you lost track.

"Hopefully that winning tradition continues tonight," Nixon said.