Don Haskins Dies

Parent Cafe
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<p>I’d like to acknowledge the passing of Don Haskins, HOF basketball coach from Univ. Texas-El Paso and the subject of the movie, “Glory Road”. He was, by all accounts, a great man as well as an awesome coach. He did the right thing when it wasn’t always the easy thing. Whatever you think of Bob Knight, he wrote some very kind words about Haskins in an editorial found in the latest issue of Time. (i’m unable to find a link to that article, but have included a Sports Illustrated link.) </p>

<p>The winningest coach in Div. I basketball (Knight) and the only Texas basketball coach to win a national title (Haskins) were good friends. </p>

<p>Here’s a link: [Hall</a> of Fame coach Don Haskins dies at 78 - NCAA Basketball - SI.com](<a href=“http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/basketball/ncaa/09/07/haskins.obit.ap/index.html]Hall”>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/basketball/ncaa/09/07/haskins.obit.ap/index.html)</p>

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<p>What Don Haskins did was overlooked by time until the movie came out, but you have to realize the magnitude of those events as they occurred. Haskins’s constrast with the iconic (and bigoted) Adolph Rupp was very dramatic. Even future NBA player and star coach Pat Riley said that he knew something special was happening at the tip-off of the championship game. Through the years, Haskins had a sort-of “all shucks” attitude about the historical perspecitve, insisting that simply let his 5 best players play, regardless of race. Aside from the ballgame itself, the best thing about that event is that all of his players had successful lives and careers following college. What a guy! And a great coach. Incidentally, people forget that a Haskins’s team upset and defeated Bob Knight’s previously undefeated Indiana team in the first round of the 1975 NCAA tournament.</p>