Donald Lee Haskins (born March 14, 1930 in Enid, Oklahoma, died September 7, 2008 at his home in El Paso, Texas) is a former collegiate basketball coach and player. He played for three years under legendary coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University). He was the head coach at Texas Western College (renamed the University of Texas at El Paso in 1967) from 1961 to 1999, including the 1966 season when his team won the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship over the Wildcats of the University of Kentucky, coached by coaching great Adolph Rupp.
In his time at Texas Western, he compiled a 719-353 record, suffering only five losing seasons. He won 14 Western Athletic Conference championships, four WAC tournament titles, had fourteen NCAA tournament berths and made seven trips to the NIT. Haskins led UTEP to 17 20-plus win seasons and served as an assistant Olympic team coach in 1972.<1>
He was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997 as a basketball coach. The 1966 team was nominated in its entirety to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and was inducted to the Hall on September 7th, 2007.
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Although Haskins was never able to duplicate his 1966 success, he is nonetheless regarded as an important figure in basketball history. Among the players he coached at UTEP over the years were future NBA all-stars Nate Archibald, Tim Hardaway, and Antonio Davis. Other UTEP alums moving to the NBA included Marlon Maxey and Greg Foster. He was also a mentor for several future coaches, including Nolan Richardson and Tim Floyd. He served as an assistant coach under Hank Iba in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
A street is named after him in El Paso's East side.
Bob Knight, former head coach at Army, Texas Tech and Indiana , is Haskins' fishing partner, and one of his best friends. Another good friend, Norm Ellenberger, is former coach of the New Mexico Lobos.
Glory Road
Glory Road, a film by Walt Disney about the then-Western Texas 1966 championship season, was released on January 13, 2006. On November 29, 2005, the City of El Paso renamed the street between its two basketball arenas "Glory Road." Adolph Rupp, Jr., pointed out that his father had previously used the term "Glory Road" in his farewell speech to his fans and worried that his father would be villainized in the film. However Director Jim Gartner stated that Rupp Sr. would not be negatively portrayed in the film, claiming that Jon Voight, who played Rupp, was careful in his role, and sought not to mischaracterize Rupp as a racist.<10> Nevertheless, some dramatic license was taken such as a scene depicting Confederate flags being waved by UK fans. In fairness though, photographs exist of a number of UK fans in the upper bleachers waving a Confederate flag.<9>
Haskins stated his disappointment<11> at the cutting of the movie scenes of his one-on-one games with his boyhood friend Herman Carr, who is African-American. Carr was present in El Paso as a guest for the premiere screening, November 28, 2005. These scenes would have depicted a formative influence on Haskins' game of basketball. Haskins appeared in the movie as an "extra" by playing a gas station attendant.
Glory Road was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and was based upon Haskins' official autobiography written with Dan Wetzel, which was released by Hyperion Books in 2005. A national best seller, it was reprinted five times in its first four months of release and was selected as an "Editor's Choice" by the New York Times Book Review.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Haskins
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