Don Haskins opened door to racial reform in athletics

Don Haskins died Sunday afternoon in El Paso. He was 78. In recent years he had struggled with several health problems, including diabetes. He died, according to one report, of congestive heart failure.

But I don’t believe it. Except in a literal way. His heart stopped Sunday, but it never failed, for it always resided in the right place.

As Haskins said in his book, Glory Road, which became a movie two years ago, he didn’t set out to be "some racial pioneer," and he certainly didn’t nurture any illusions about changing the world, for such illusions inevitably become pursuits of glory. His heart, though, told him what was right, and he knew his job, and so The Bear, as he was known, just set out to win basketball games accordingly.

And one of those games, played within the swirling turbulence of the time, just happened to be fraught with social and cultural significance. In 1966, Haskins sent five African-Americans onto the floor to face Adolph Rupp’s powerful Kentucky team for the NCAA championship. Led by sharpshooting Louie Dampier and by Pat Riley, Kentucky was the No. 1 team in the country. And it was all white.

Texas Western, on the other hand, seemed to be a team of upstarts. But Bobby Joe Hill scored 20 for the Miners, and Texas Western, which would soon become UTEP, led throughout and beat Kentucky 72-65, finishing the year with a 28-1 record.

The next two weeks, Haskins would recall in his book, were the worst of his life. He received hundreds and hundreds of letters, many of them virulent. Many African-Americans wrote, he remembered, and denounced him for exploiting the black players.

Until then, Haskins said in a 2003 interview, he wasn’t "thinking black or white." He just thought of getting the best players on the floor. During a troubled period that often seemed preoccupied with race, Haskins tended to ignore it. But by following his heart, he nevertheless significantly influenced racial reform.

But even with the advantage offered by history, it’s hard to say just how significant that game was. Loyola had won the NCAA title in 1963 with four African-Americans. In 1965, Jerry Levias became the first African-American awarded an SWC football scholarship when he signed with SMU: and James Cash the first in basketball when he signed with TCU.

But Haskins, with considerable help from Hill and the other starters on that team — David Lattin, Orsten Artis, Willie Worsley and Harry Flournoy — showed Kentucky and the SEC, which was most recalcitrant regarding integration, that they were flatly and clearly wrong. And not only were the wrong, but they erred in such a way that lost basketball games.

Haskins coached 38 years, until 1999, winning 719 games and losing just 353 in his career. He repeatedly turned down offers to coach elsewhere so that he might remain in El Paso. He coached such players at Nate Archibald, Nolan Richardson, Tim Hardaway and Antonio Davis. His teams won seven WAC titles and went to the NCAA tournament 14 times.

But he’ll always be remembered for following his heart in 1966.