RIP Don Haskins

[Da Schwab]

If you saw the movie Glory Road, you should know who this is. He was the coach of Texas Western from 1961 to 1999, and led the TWC Miners (now UTEP) to the 1966 NCAA Championship over Adolph Rupp's Kentucky team.

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. He was 78.

Haskins, who had been struggling with congestive heart failure, died at his home in El Paso about 4:30 p.m. Sunday, his physician, Dr. Dwayne Aboud, told reporters, according to the Associated Press. He was surrounded by friends and relatives, Aboud said.

"I wasn't out to be a pioneer when we played Kentucky," Haskins told The Times later in his career. "I was simply playing the best players on the team, and they happened to be black."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printeditio ... 4797.story

RIP to a pioneer.

[Polynice4Pippen]

The significance of what Haskins and Texas Western accomplished in 1966 can never be overstated. R.I.P. Don Haskins.

[Atlanta Hawk Fan]

Haskins definitely deserves everyone's respect. He was a very good coach who accomplished a watershed moment in NCAA history. He took a team whose leading 7 players were all African-American up against the winner of all-white Kentucky or all-white Duke. UK beat Duke and then Texas Western won the NCAA title, opening a lot of doors for African-American athletes throughout the country. That game involved some bigtime personalities (including NBA HOFer Pat Riley who played on the UK squad) and remains one of the most historically significant games in NCAA history. Haskins will be missed.

[CoachK]

The significance of what Haskins and Texas Western accomplished in 1966 can never be overstated. R.I.P. Don Haskins.

No one could say it any better than you just did.