In my lifetime, there was once upon a time in this country where if you were African American, there were many universities that you could not attend well into the mid 1960’s. And even once African Americans were allowed to be students, the athletic teams for American Football and basketball would not recruit you. This was particularly true in schools in the Southeastern and Southwest Conferences. Don Haskins was hired to coach basketball at what used to be Texas Western University in El Paso Texas as an unknown back in 1961.
If you ever get a chance to rent the movie Glory Road, it’s worth the rental because it tells the story of how Don Haskins ended up bringing an NCAA basketball title to the dusty border city in far west Texas back in 1965-66 using an all black starting lineup to upset heavily favored-and all-white University of Kentucky lead by Adophe Rupp.
Haskins, by his own admission, was not trying to make any racial or political statements, he was just trying to win ball games to keep his job. He was after the best basketball players and kids who he could get to come out to West Texas to play basketball. He had a reputation of being a very tough taskmaster who pushed his young charges hard. All of his starting players on his NCAA championship team got their diplomas, and he would coach future NBA stars like Tim Hardway and Nate Archibald.
Don Haskins’ willingness to take a chance on kids who never would have a had a chance to play division I basketball forever changed the face of the game in The United States. It’s a safe bet that Coach Haskins would have loved the team play, team speed and smothering team defense that made turnovers that were converted into points by the “Redeem Team”, the USA Men’s Basketball team displayed in winning the gold medal at the recent Olympic games in Beijing. This was a team that showed the same winning formula that Texas Western displayed in beating Kentucky. (Poor Kentucky guard Louie Dampier spent that game getting his pocket picked more than Iowa tourist in New York City)
When Don Haskins retired after the 1999 season because of health reasons, he had accrued a record of 719-353 and 7 Western Athletic Conference titles with his 1965-66 NCAA title.
It says a lot about Coach Haskins that he could have taken more money to coach elsewhere-for a long time he was the lowest paid coach in the WAC-but he loved the city of El Paso and he felt a strong bound with UTEP. In a turbulent time in American history, Coach Haskins was the right man in the right place, at the right time to teach Americans a thing or two about doing the right thing and putting his best 5 out on the basketball floor-irregardless of skin color.
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