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Haskins: The Bear Facts

1987

Synopsis

A SPORTS MILESTONEDON HASKINS is one of the greatest coaches in the history of college basketball. He won 719 games, seven conference championships and earned a trip to 14 NCAA Tournaments. His biggest feat, however, was coaching Texas Western College to a stunning 72-65 upset victory over University of Kentucky in the finals of the NCAA Tournament in 1966. His decision to start five black players against the all-white Kentucky team changed the sport forever. It disproved the theory of some that blacks could not function as a team and soon previously segregated colleges throughout the South began recruiting black players. Several books have been written about the game, and a movie, "Glory Road," has been made of the unforgettable season. Don Haskins wrote his biography in 1987. This is a reprint of it with an addendum by Ray Sanchez, who cooperated in writing his biography. Sanchez continues Haskins' remarkable coaching career through his retirement in 1999. Here is the Haskins story in his own words.

Suggested Reading

The Baron and the Bear: Rupp's Runts, Haskins's Miners, and the Season That Changed Basketball Forever

In the 1966 NCAA basketball championship game, an all-white University of Kentucky team was beaten by a team from Texas Western College (now UTEP) that fielded only black players. The game, played in the middle of the racially turbulent 1960s—part David and Goliath in short pants, part emancipation ...

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Glory Road: My Story of the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship and How One Team Triumphed Against the Odds and Changed America Forever

In 1966, college basketball was almost completely segregated. In the championship game for the NCAA title that year, Don Haskins, coach of the then little-known Texas Western College, did something that had never been done before in the history of college basketball. He started five black players, a...

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Latest News

February 14th, 2021

What Texas Western's Black players and white coach did in 1966 continues to ripple

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