Western Athletic Conference
They sing a different tune in Texas today, especially at the University of Texas. Glory Road in 2006 retold the story of Don Haskins and Texas Western. Josh Lucas played the role of Don Haskins, Derek Luke played Bobby Joe Hill and John Voight played Adolph Rupp. Glory Road is not one of the best movies ever made, but the story of Texas Western is on par with other great victories in sports history, including the 1980 u. S. Hockey team winning the Gold Medal in the Olympics. Contrary to the movie version, the title game was not as big an upset as was depicted. Texas Western had an excellent team, as dejarlas by its no.
3 ranking the final polls that year. Haskins was not the first coach to play Texas Western, African Americans had African American players on its roster before Haskins arrived. Haskins was the first to start an all-African American lineup in the NCAA title game, and it is also true that Texas Western was the first college in a Southern state to integrate its athletic teams. Good for Texas Western. Glory Road had a good message of hope for African Americans. At least one coach had the backbone to play the best. Do not think for a moment that this was Don Haskins one moment of glory, and that he was courageous but not an excellent basketball coach.
Since Glory Road was not as much about Don Haskins as some very talented, very tolerant and very brave Texas Western players, let it be known that Don Haskins: 1) Played three years at Oklahoma A & M under Hall of Fame coach Hank Iba and was Team Captain. (2) Was tied for 4th place among the NCAA s most winning active coaches when I retired with 719 wins and 353 losses. (3) Had 33 winning seasons at UTEP in 38 years of coaching. (4) Led UTEP to no less than 17 20-win-seasons, an NCAA title in 1966, 7 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) championships, 4 WAC tournament titles, and 21 postseason trips (14 to the NCAA playoffs and 7 NIT-National Invitational Tournament-appearances). (5) Changed college basketball forever by an all-African American starting team against an all-white Kentucky team in the NCAA tournament and winning the title. 6) Coached Hall of Fame Nate Tiny Archibald, NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway and Antonio Davis, and mentored future coaches Nolan Richardson and Tim Floyd. Glory Road is a film for every basketball enthusiast. It has a great message and represents a great moment in the evolution of basketball as we know and enjoy it today.