Hall of Fame Basketball Coach. A respected leader who spent his entire career at Texas Western College, he is remembered for guiding the Miners to the 1966 NCAA Championship. Raised in central Oklahoma, he was a star athlete in high school, played for three years under the legendary coach Hank Iba at Oklahoma A&M (now, Oklahoma State), then after some time with the Artesia Travelers of the AAU began his coaching career at the Texas high school level. In 1961, he accepted a position at Texas Western College (now, the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)). Haskins had some success in his first years and fielded a 1964 squad that had a legitimate shot at the title, then in the 1965-1966 season saw his team finish 23-1 and ranked 3rd in the national standings. After winning four tournament games the Miners faced top-ranked and heavily favored Kentucky in the finals at College Park, Maryland; starting five black players, the first time such had ever been done in an NCAA tournament, Texas Western, sparked by Bobby Joe Hill, beat Adolph Rupp's Wildcats 72-65. Afterwards, Haskins, downplaying any social significance to his line-up, said simply "I just wanted to win the game". Coach Haskins was to remain at UTEP thru 1999, finishing 719-354, appearing 14 times in the NCAA tournament and seven in the NIT, capturing seven Western Athletic Conference (WAC) crowns, and coaching several future NBA players and successful coaches. In 2005 he published a best-selling autobiography entitled "Glory Road" which was brought to the silver screen by Disney in 2006. Josh Lucas played Haskins, the coach himself had a cameo, and while the Rupp family feared that Mr. Rupp would be depicted as a racist, Jon Voight was careful to portray him in a sympathetic light. In the film's aftermath, however, Disney was forced to apologize for fabricating some racial incidents in the movie. Coach Haskins was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997, to the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1999, and to the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. He died of heart failure after years of declining health and today a street in El Paso carries his name while UTEP plays its games in the Don Haskins Center. Looking back at his greatest season he said: "I certainly did not expect to be some racial pioneer or change the world".