@carpeline
UNM alumnus and former Lobo basketball player Michael Cooper received the Living Legend award from the University’s Black Alumni Chapter Friday night at the Centennial Engineering Auditorium.
After playing for UNM from 1976 to 1978, Cooper was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers where he started his path to become a legend. He won five championship rings with the Lakers in 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988.
He received the award from Barbara Brown-Simmons, a 1974 graduate of UNM’s Law School, the former president of the UNM Black Alumni Chapter and Sam William D. Johnson, the former vice president who earned a J.D. from UNM in 1976.
According to speakers at the event, one of the aims of the Black Alumni Chapter is to raise funds for the Josephus (Joe) Long Scholarship that helps African American students from both high school and college reach their higher-education goals.
Cooper signed a Lakers T-shirt and two caps that were used for a silent auction at the event benefiting the scholarship.
When the Lobo-turned-Laker was asked if he was “once a Lobo always a Lobo,” he answered “Definitely, yes.”
