Don Haskins (1930-2008)
Teams coached: Texas Western/UTEP Miners
Texas Western/UTEP record: 719-353 (.671)
Overall record: 719-353 (.671)
Career Accomplishments:
- NCAA National Championships: 1 (1966)
- NCAA Tournament Appearances: 14 (1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1975, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992)
- NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen: 4 (1964, 1966, 1967, 1992)
- NCAA Tournament Final Four: 1 (1966)
- NIT Championships: 0
- NIT Appearances: 6 (1965, 1972, 1980, 1981, 1993, 1995)
- WAC Regular Season Champion: 7 (1970, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1992)
- WAC Tournament Champion: 4 (1984, 1986, 1989, 1990)
- Helms Foundation National Championships: 1 (1966)
Awards:
- WAC Coach of the Year: 2 (1983, 1987)
- NABC Golden Anniversary Award (2004)
- Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted 1997)
- National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame (inducted 2006)
Coaching Career (head coach, unless noted):
1961-1999 | Texas Western/UTEP |
Don Haskins Facts
- Donald Lee Haskins
- Born March 14, 1930
- Died September 7, 2008
- Hometown: Enid, Oklahoma
- Alma Mater: Oklahoma A&M University (BA, 1952)
- Played at Oklahoma A&M (now State) under legendary head coach Henry Iba, helping lead the Cowboys to a 4th place finish in the 1951 NCAA Tournament
- Started coaching career in Texas high schools, including stints at Benjamin HS, Hedley HS and Dumas HS
- Became the head coach at Texas Western College in 1961, a position he would hold for the next thirty-eight seasons
- Texas Western was unique in that the previous coaching staff had recruited and played African-American players in a time where – especially in the South – major college teams were predominantly white
- By his third year, Haskins’ Miners team had won over 20 games and were poised to make a run in the NCAA Tournament
- The 1965-66 season was historic for the program and for college basketball overall, as Texas Western won the NCAA National Championship starting five African-American players
- The journey and season were later documented in Haskins’ autobiography Glory Road, written with Dan Wetzel and later made into a 2005 film by Disney
- The school was renamed the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 1967 and joined the WAC two years later in 1969
- Though the Miners never went further than the Sweet Sixteen during the rest of Haskins’ tenure, the team enjoyed much success – especially in the 1980s and early 1990s
- Haskins retired from coaching after the 1998-99 season, leaving with 719 career victories which makes him one of just 21 coaches (as of 2018) with over 700 wins at the Division I level
- El Paso renamed the street between its two basketball arenas “Glory Road” to honor the 1966 Miners victory
- UTEP renamed the men’s basketball arena as the Don Haskins Center in 1998, just before the coach’s retirement
- In addition to being a member of both the Naismith and College Basketball Halls of Fame (see above), Haskins was in 1997 inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame
- The 1965-66 Texas Western team was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball HOF in 2007
- Haskins passed away in 2008 in El Paso, survived by his wife, Mary, and three sons – had a fourth son that died in 1994
Don Haskins Coaching Tree
- Tim Floyd (UTEP, USC, New Orleans Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Iowa State, New Orleans, Idaho)
- Jerry Hale (Oral Roberts, Southern Idaho)
- Dick Hunsaker (Utah Valley, Utah, Manchester, Ball State)
- Gene Iba (Pittsburg State, Baylor, Houston Baptist)
- Moe Iba (TCU, Nebraska, Memphis)
- Nolan Richardson (Arkansas, Tulsa)
- Andy Stoglin (Jackson State, Southern)