Haskins, the Hall of Fame coach credited with helping break color barriers in college sports in 1966 when he used five black starters to win a national basketball title for Texas Western, died Sunday. He was 78 of congestive heart failure.
He was the subject of the Disney movie “Glory Road”.
“The word unique does not begin to describe Don Haskins,” Bobby Knight, the winningest men’s coach in the sport’s history, said Sunday. “There is no one who has ever coached that I respected and admired more than Don Haskins. I’ve had no better friend that I enjoyed more than Don Haskins.”
“The myth that surrounds Don Haskins in the movie ‘Glory Road’ and what he did for black players is better said that he cared like that for all his players,” Knight added. “To me that tells me more about the man than anything. … There was never anyone like him before and there will never be one like him again.”
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