My turn: ENMU QB had golden arm

We could argue all day about who’s the greatest football player with ties to our region.

That conversation would certainly include pros Zach Thomas, Donny Anderson, Lawrence McCutcheon, Jerry Sisemore, Mercury Morris, Hank Baskett, Michael Sinclair, Kenny King and at least a half dozen more.

But don’t forget an Eastern New Mexico University quarterback whose passing records still stand after more than a quarter of a century.

Kevin Kott, now a branch manager for an investment firm in Carmel, Calif., never made the big time because he was slow afoot — but, oh, what a golden right arm.

Kott played two seasons for the Greyhounds — 1983-84 — and still has the school record for career passing yards (6,601), career touchdown passes (58) and most touchdown passes in a game (8).

He also engineered a 32-point come-from-behind win over East Central University on Sept. 15, 1984. That record may never be broken.

Kott was drafted in 1985 by the Arizona Wranglers of the United States Football League and signed a free-agent contract with the San Francisco 49ers prior to the 1986 National Football League season. But he never played a down with either team.

“I could probably throw it with them,” he joked, in a telephone interview on Monday, “but running away from them was another story.”