A walk down the crimson-and-white-tiled Hall of Legends in the Aggie Memorial Stadium complex in Las Cruces, N.M., makes for a revealing look at New Mexico State football history.

There, in a 12-foot high mural down one side of the corridor, the triumphs and memorable moments of Aggies football are proudly showcased while the opposite wall pays tribute to All-Americans and other stars.

What quickly jumps out amid the black-and white photos dotted with old-time helmets and long-ago jerseys is how little the Aggies have had to celebrate these lean last four-plus decades.

Of 120 Football Bowl Subdivision members, only one, Louisiana-Monroe, has a longer bowl drought than the Aggies, who haven’t seen the postseason since the 1960 Sun Bowl. Just managing a winning season, of which there have been four in the past 41 years, has been challenge enough.

So, the 3-3 record and two-game winning streak the Aggies bring to Aloha Stadium for Saturday’s University of Hawaii homecoming game are edging toward remarkable.

Not since 2006 had the Aggies won back-to-back games against FBS opponents, a rare workout for the campus’ storied Victory Bell. What’s more, in the Western Athletic Conference, where the Aggies have averaged one victory a season through six previous years of membership, they are already 1-1 with five contests remaining.

Those pass for significant accomplishments at a school where shoestring finances and difficulty in recruiting to a geographically isolated program with little history of recent success have taken a toll.

None of the eight previous head coaches has left with a winning record. Never (0-7) have they beaten UH.

“The glory days were the late 1950s and ’60s when we went to back-to-back bowls (1959 and ’60). I went to both bowl games as an 11- and 12-year-old,” said Tim Clifford, 63, whose accounting firm underwrote the Hall of Legends.

The biggest sign that third-year head coach

DeWayne Walker’s rebuilding might be beginning to pay off was the 28-21 victory at Minnesota last month. What was supposed to be another in a series of so-called “body-bag game” losses to Bowl

Championship Series conference opponents instead became a milestone first victory over a Big Ten team with former Leilehua High quarterback Andrew Manley at the controls.

“I think it is a better team than it has been the last couple of years, I really do,” Clifford said. “I definitely think it (the program) is trending up” despite the loss of Manley for the season to knee surgery.

But Aggies fans, for all their patience and enduring hope, have learned the hard way not to get carried away too early. The last two times the Aggies started out 3-3, they went no further in positive territory, finishing 3-10 (2009) and 3-9 (2008).

It has been nine years since Tony Samuels delivered the last (7-5) winning season for the Aggies. He was fired two years later following a 5-6 (in 2004) finish, the last time the Aggies won three games in a row.

“Heck, if a coach could win five games now, he could be elected mayor,” Clifford said.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.