Remembering "The Bear"

Mention should be made of Don Haskins’ passing.

When the Texas Western coach sent an all-black starting lineup against Kentucky’s all-white team in the 1966 NCAA basketball final, even a 15-year-old watching on a fuzzy Zenith could tell the game’s stakes had just been raised.

The Miners’ 72-65 victory spurred the desegregation of sports in the South and the end to unofficial “quotas” in other parts of the country.

Still, Haskins apparently thought of himself not as any kind of a civil-rights pioneer but as a basketball coach, period.

Bob Knight said his friend “got more out of his teams and players than any coach who has ever coached college basketball.” High praise, indeed.

And Haskins, known as “The Bear,” remained sharp in retirement.

Doc Sadler, a former Miners coach who moved to Nebraska, said he spoke with Haskins after Cornhusker games last season, particularly those that were on TV.

"He would see things in a game that I had just coached that I never realized," Sadler said.

Yet, for all of his basketball acumen — and he won 719 games — Haskins will be remembered most for the simple act of putting his best five players on the floor, regardless of their color.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=3574928&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab6pos1

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-haskins8-2008sep08,0,2284797.story