RIP Don Haskins

Saddest of all possible news.
RIP to a Hall of Fame coach and an even better man.

Just fired up "Glory Road" for the night ...

 

I hope that as people like Don Haskins pass from this place, that the lessons they emblazoned upon society aren't taken with them.

RIP, coach.

 

To UTEP's credit, I think they totally re-did Haskin's retirement when they found out the guy was basically staring down being flat broke when he did officially hang it up. That said, no way should he have been one of the WAC's lowest paid coaches.

 

As expected, the El Paso Times is already doing a phenomenal job on Haskins coverage.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/haskins/

Included: most of a 25-part series written in 1986 for Haskins' 25th anniversary at UTEP. In addition to all the usual retrospectives, of course. Great stuff.

Can't WAIT to see what the Times has in store for tomorrow.

 

Actually, it was Loyola's second win in the tournament ... it thumped Tennessee Tech in its opener then faced Miss. State, which had a first-round bye. That game just recently had a documentary made about it ... "Game of Change"

 

Everywhere you go in El Paso, there's a story from an ordinary person who Haskins made time for, whether it was shooting pool with him in some dive, picking up the tab for a bunch of college kids at a bar near campus or stopping to talk basketball with a fan in the middle of the street. In addition to Haskins' intelligence, humor and gruffness, his greatest attributes were his humility and his generosity.

Here's my brush with Haskins: As the sports editor of The Prospector, the UTEP student paper, I went over to practice to talk with Haskins after Henry Iba, his mentor, had passed away. Practice went long, as it so often did, and Haskins was in a hurry because he had to get to his radio show. But he had trouble denying anyone, so he had me follow him into the locker room, where he talked to me about "Mr. Iba" as he pulled off his shirt, washed his hair in a sink and got ready for his show.

The world became a poorer place Sunday when Haskins left it, but Heaven just got a lot more interesting.

UTEP is hosting a public memorial service Thursday night at the arena that bears Haskins' name. The building holds about 12,000, and if everyone whose life Haskins has touched shows up, there won't be nearly enough room.

A couple other good reads about Haskins:

ESPN's Andy Katz: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=3574928

Fox Sports' Randy Hill: http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/8537484/

The Dallas Morning News' Kevin Sherrington: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/colleges/topstories/stories/090808dnspoqtsherrington.19cc295.html

And some older ones:

SI's story on the Texas Western-Kentucky game: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1078335/index.htm

And one from Haskins' last season: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1015191/index.htm

 

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_10457434

pretty good column also

 

Muench is almost as much of an El Paso legend.

 

agreed.