New Houston AD Eddie Nuñez can inspire beyond sports

Eddie Nuñez had just graduated from college in 1998 when his father Fausto succumbed to cancer. The man who taught him to lead by example, a mantra Nuñez repeats often, left behind a widow and two sons. 

Nuñez felt a tug to remain in his hometown of Miami, where his parents Fausto and Carolina had settled after Fidel Castro took over Cuba. Ultimately, though, Nuñez left his hometown with his mother’s blessings to become a graduate assistant for University of Florida men’s basketball coach Billy Donovan. Thus began a journey that has brought him to the University of Houston as the Cougars’ vice president of intercollegiate athletics.

“It was hard for me to make a decision to go back to work for Billy Donovan because I didn’t know if I needed to be there for my mom, my brother,” Nuñez recalled. “And my uncles and my mom and everybody,  because it’s such a close-knit family, they said, ‘you have to go do this. You have to go work.’

“I always look back and say thank you because that’s what made me who I am, allowing me to take that leap of faith.”

Eddie Nuñez, proven leader

Nuñez, who was on Our Esquina’s inaugural list of Top 60 Latino leaders in sports, has an impressive resume of doing more with less. He was highly respected during the previous seven years as director of athletics at the University of New Mexico.

Under Nuñez’s leadership, the Lobos won a cross country national title and 22 Mountain West titles. Off the field, the Lobos also led the Mountain West in All-Academic and Scholar Athlete award winners. 

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At a time when raising funds is as important to winning titles at Power 4 universities, Nuñez also excelled at helping New Mexico court boosters and secure pivotal donations. 

As an added boost in a city like Houston, Nuñez’s story will resonate with the majority of UH’s student body and the city it represents. He began his college experience as a basketball player at Miami-Dade Community College before transferring to Florida, where he was first a walk-on basketball player.

In a city where 45 percent of the population identifies as Latino, according to the latest census information, a Cuban American now holds one of the most important roles at UH.

Proud Cuban

At UH, 23.5 percent of the student body identifies as Latino. Nuñez has left one Hispanic-Serving Institution for another. Nuñez is a proud Cuban, proud Latino and willing to serve as an example of what Latinos can achieve through hard work and education.

“My heritage is who I am,” Nuñez said. “It’s what makes me. My parents, being Cuban American, the resilience that they’ve had to endure, growing up, moving to a new country, teaching my brother and I the foundations, … nothing was given to us. 

“We had to work hard for it. Those foundational tenets that they taught us, it was leading by example. My dad led by example.”

Nuñez gets emotional when he thinks about his late father Fausto, who was a pharmaceutical rep. His mother Carolina was an educator who also had a catering business for a time in Miami. 

Carolina Nuñez had planned to join Eddie’s wife and two daughters at his introductory press conference at UH on Wednesday. She couldn’t attend, though. Nonetheless, she was definitely there in spirit. His late father was there too in his heart.

‘A place for them’

“He was an unbelievable person,” Eddie Nuñez said of his father. “He did everything for his family, even in the toughest times when he was fighting cancer. Those traits made me who I am. Made me. 

“Our family is very proud of working hard and getting after it.”

With Eddie Nuñez, UH has hired a winner who can speak to the Latino community well in their native tongue and in English. As Tilman Fertitta reiterated on Wednesday, UH needs Houstonians to adopt the university’s sports teams as either their first team or their second favorite if they’re Aggies, Longhorns or LSU Tigers.

The potential is there for Houston to be great. Eddie Nuñez is ready to lead the Cougars with the work ethic he developed in Miami watching his Cuban parents.

” Coming from Miami, Fla, a very Hispanic-oriented city going all the way to New Mexico and serving at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, and now here,” he said. “It’s part of who I am, and I want to embrace it.”

“And I want to make sure that the Hispanic community knows that this is a place for them to come and enjoy and be a part of as well.”