 Don Haskins, November 29, 2005, upon the renaming of Glory Road, the street the Don Haskins Center is on, at the UTEP campus, El Paso, Texas | |
| Biographical details | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 14, 1930 Enid, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | September 7, 2008 (aged 78) El Paso, Texas, U.S. |
| Playing career | |
| 1949–1952 | Oklahoma A&M |
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
| 1955–1956 | Benjamin HS (TX) |
| 1956–1960 | Hedley HS (TX) |
| 1960–1961 | Dumas HS (TX) |
| 1961–1999 | Texas Western / UTEP |
| 1972 | United States (assistant) |
| Head coaching record | |
| Overall | 719–353 |
| Accomplishments and honors | |
| Championships | |
| NCAA University Division tournament (1966) 7 WAC regular season (1970, 1983–1987, 1992) 4 WAC tournament (1984, 1986, 1989, 1990) | |
| Awards | |
| 2x WAC Coach of the Year (1983, 1987) | |
| Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 1997 | |
| College Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2006 | |
Donald Lee Haskins (March 14, 1930 – September 7, 2008), nicknamed "The Bear", was an American basketball player and coach. He played college basketball for three years under coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University). He was the head coach at the University of Texas at El Paso from 1961 to 1999 (the school was known as Texas Western College until 1967). In 1966 his team won the NCAA tournament over the Wildcats of the University of Kentucky, coached by Adolph Rupp. The watershed game highlighted the end of racial segregation in college basketball.
In his time at Texas Western/UTEP, he compiled a 719–353 record, suffering only five losing seasons. His Miners won 14 Western Athletic Conference championships and four WAC tournament titles, had fourteen NCAA tournament berths and made seven trips to the NIT. Haskins led UTEP to 17 20-plus-win seasons and served as an assistant Olympic team coach in 1972.[1] He was admitted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997 as a basketball coach. His 1966 team was inducted in its entirety by the same Hall of Fame on September 7, 2007.