ALBUQUERQUE — Normalcy, or what passes for it these days, started for Louis Trujillo when he arrived around 6 a.m. on Thursday to tailgate at the University of New Mexico. Ordinary came for Yolanda Sanchez when she began her shift in a stadium parking lot at 7 a.m., and for Andrew Erickson, a Lobos wide receiver, as he warmed up in sight of the Sandia Mountains about 10 hours later.
But it was not until shadows fully stretched between the sidelines that the Lobos and their fans saw a rite they had not witnessed in 642 days because of the coronavirus pandemic: a football game at University Stadium.