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Best Things in Life, Death Are Free
Published: 9/10/2008 11:51 AM
Last Modified: 9/10/2008 11:51 AM

This ranks very high on the cool meter:
An El Paso movie theather has a neat tribute planned for legendary coach Don Haskins, who died Sunday.
Haskins, an Enid native and former Oklahoma State basketball player, is the most socially significant coach in the history of college basketball. Using an all-black lineup, he coached UTEP (then Texas Western) to an NCAA championship in 1966. Haskins, who got death threats because he was bold enough to play his best players, regardless of skin color, ushered college hoops into an age of racial acceptance.
A book -- "Road to Glory" -- was written about the '66 team. The book became the source material for a 2006 movie.
Here's the cool tribute: The Plaza Theater in El Paso will show free screenings of "Glory Road" at 4 p.m., 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Friday. Expect the crowd to go nuts when Haskins makes a brief cameo appearance as a service station employee and expect hearts to swell when the Miners win the championship on screen all over again.
It sort of makes a person wish he could be in El Paso to join in on the cheering.





Reader Comments 2 Total
Tom (4 years ago)
Graduating the last year of segregation in small town Oklahoma my roundball buddies always marveled at the ability of the few all-black schools we played and wondered at the wisdom of "the greatest generation" that worked so hard to keep us from playing on the same team. I don't believe any of us wanted things that way. It was the educators, administrators, school boards, legislators that kept things that way. I don't remember a single authoritarian agency (NCAA, High School athletic assoc., etc) that ever demanded this travesty should end. Haskins, to his credit, said he was just starting the best team. That is precisely the point. I know lots of 18-20 year old Oklahomans who were rooting for the best team that year.
Kerry Hoff (4 years ago)
I remember 1966 quite well. As a 16 year old point guard, I always thought Haskins team was the best. I also attended OSU while Mr. Iba was still coaching and then found out that Haskins played for the Coach. If you are going to El Paso, send and e-mail. I would go just to hear the cheers.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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