Down in the West Texas town of El Paso, I fell into a six-foot hole

(Props to Phil)
Don Haskins, who gave up a promising college coaching career and ended up in the Basketball Hall of Fame anyway, has died at the age of 78. In 1966, as head coach of Texas Western in the thriving metropolis of El Paso, Texas, Haskins rode an all-black starting 5 all the way to the NCAA Championship Game, where he defeated the all-white University of Kentucky squad coached by the legendary Adolph Rupp. While the enlightened media and bitter honky Rupp characterized Haskins’ squad as a bunch of thugs, 4 of 5 starters (and 10 of the 12 overall) (earned their degrees, and all were successful in their careers, compared to only 1 of Rupp’s starting squad, which included noted miscreant Pat Riley. The victory opened the doors to scholarships for blacks at colleges throughout the South. The doors were closed to Haskins however, and he got blacklisted from other potential jobs, instead spending 38 years at the University of Texas – El Paso, as the history conscious Texans later renamed the school, winning 719 games, 13 more trips to the Big Dance and 7 trips to the little one.