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“I always felt he was one of the great coaches,” said Richardson, who credits Haskins in part for the emphasis on defense and conditioning that came to be known as “40 minutes of hell” at Arkansas. Nolan Richardson, who would go on to win the 1994 NCAA basketball title as coach at Arkansas, was a senior on Haskins’ first team. Haskins’ team took the lead midway in the first half and never fell behind, winning 72-65. They finished the regular season with a 23-1 record and were ranked third in the nation when they entered the NCAA tournament.Īfter defeating Oklahoma City in the first round of the playoffs, Cincinnati by two points in overtime in the second round, Kansas in double overtime in the Midwest Regional Finals and Utah in the national semifinals, they faced top-ranked Kentucky, coached by the legendary Adolf Rupp, in the finals at College Park, Md. But his 1965-66 team was something special. He coached boys and girls basketball teams at several Texas high schools before making the jump to head coach at Texas Western in 1961.Ĭontrary to the movie’s story, Haskins did not guide the team to the national title in his first year as coach, nor was he the first at the school to recruit black players. “Don got more out of his teams and players than any coach who has ever coached college basketball,” Knight told the Associated Press on Sunday.īorn March 14, 1930, in Enid, Okla., Haskins played for legendary coach Hank Iba at Oklahoma A&M, now Oklahoma State, graduating in 1953.
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His admirers include former Indiana University and Texas Tech University basketball coach Bob Knight, a longtime hunting buddy and close friend - enough so that when Indiana played at El Paso in 1989, the two spoofed each other by emerging before the game with Knight wearing a cowboy hat and Haskins wearing Knight’s trademark red sweater. Haskins also served as an assistant coach on the 1972 Olympic basketball team. tournament title, Haskins’ teams played in 13 other NCAA tournaments, and in 1992 advanced to the Sweet 16 after upsetting No. In addition to winning the 1966 National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Seventeen of his teams won at least 20 games, and he had only five losing records in his 38-year career at Texas Western, now known as the University of Texas, El Paso. Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997, Haskins was fourth in victories among active coaches when he retired in 1999 with a 719-353 record. “I traveled a great deal with Coach Haskins, and there weren’t many black men in the country who wouldn’t stop him in the airport, come over and say, ‘I loved your win against Kentucky,’ ” USC basketball Coach Tim Floyd, a former assistant under Haskins who was a consultant on the movie, told The Times in 2006. Remember, society wasn’t ready for that.”Īs the years passed - and particularly with the success of the 2006 Disney film “Glory Road,” which was based on the coach’s bestselling autobiography - Haskins became well-known for the changes he implemented at a time when there were no black players at many colleges and universities. “He was walking around with another brand on him for allowing these players to play. “We were walking around with the medal indicating we were the 1966 NCAA champions,” said Nevil Shed, one of seven African American players on the team. Haskins’ decision inspired hate mail at the time - tens of thousands of letters, he said - but his players didn’t learn of that level of opposition until later. “I was simply playing the best players on the team, and they happened to be black.” “I wasn’t out to be a pioneer when we played Kentucky,” Haskins told The Times later in his career.
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He was surrounded by friends and relatives, Aboud said. Dwayne Aboud, told reporters, according to the Associated Press. Haskins, who had been struggling with congestive heart failure, died at his home in El Paso about 4:30 p.m.
Uk basketball roster 1966 full#
Don Haskins, the coach who hastened the full integration of college basketball when he started five black players for Texas Western College against an all-white University of Kentucky team and won the 1966 national NCAA championship, died Sunday.