UTEP Has Opened Eyes and So Has Haskins : Midwest: Miner coach made history by starting five black players against all-white Kentucky in ’66.

Coach Don Haskins of Texas El Paso was so nervous that he couldn’t bear to watch the closing seconds of a second-round NCAA tournament game against Kansas last Sunday.

Haskins buried his head in his hands when Miner guard Johnny Melvin went to the free-throw line with four seconds left. Melvin made two free throws, clinching a 66-60 victory over second-ranked Kansas.

“I had visions that something weird was going to happen to us,” Haskins said. “I was watching when (BYU guard Kevin Nixon) threw in a 54-foot shot to beat us in the conference tournament final and I was watching earlier in the year when Utah banked in a shot from half-court to beat us. Those are things that will stop you from watching.”

The victory over top-seeded Kansas propelled Texas El Paso to the round of 16 for the first time since 1966, when, as Texas Western, it won the NCAA title. The Miners (27-6) face fourth-seeded Cincinnati (27-4) in a Midwest Regional semifinal tonight at the Kemper Arena. Georgia Tech (23-11) plays Memphis State (22-10) in the other Midwest semifinal.

Haskins changed the face of college basketball 26 years ago by starting five black players against Kentucky, an all-white team, in the NCAA title game. Integration came more quickly to college basketball after his team defeated Kentucky, 72-65.

“I wasn’t trying to be a pioneer,” Haskins said. “I was starting the five best players and they happened to be black. There was no problem during the game. All the hullabaloo started afterward. A lot of people want to think there were players (making racial slurs) during the game, but guys were there to play ball.”

Haskins stopped counting after getting 40,000 pieces of hate mail afterward. There was so much that it was delivered in trash cans.

“I was called a . . . lover,” Haskins said. “But some of the letters that irritated me the most came from black leaders who said I was exploiting black athletes.”

During the the 25th-anniversary celebration of the 1966 championship team last year, Haskins told his former players: “You got a lot of black kids scholarships. You can be proud of that. I guess you helped change the world a little bit.”

Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson, who played on Haskins’ first two teams at Texas Western in 1961-62, said Haskins opened the door for black players and coaches in college basketball.

“He was a pioneer,” Richardson said. “(The 1966 NCAA championship game) was the turning point of black kids having an opportunity to play on the major college level. He had more to do with it than anyone else.

“He didn’t see color. I remember him calling me into his office and telling me that he wasn’t going to start me because he didn’t want to offend people in El Paso (by starting all black players), but an hour before the game he told me, ‘Get ready. You’re going to start. I’m playing my best players. I don’t care what they think.’

“From that point, I had the utmost respect for him. A lot of guys would just be out to please people, but he wasn’t in a pleasing mood. He wanted the best players for his basketball team. A lot of times politics get in the way of the game, but politics never entered into it. Whether it was five blacks or five whites or three and two, it didn’t make any difference.”

The second-winningest active coach in college basketball behind Dean Smith of North Carolina, Haskins has compiled a 606-262 record in 31 seasons at Texas El Paso and has led the Miners to the NCAA tournament 14 times.

In his fourth decade of coaching, Haskins is a master at improvising. With one day to prepare before playing Kansas last week, Haskins installed a four-corners offense that caught the Jayhawks off guard.

“Coach Haskins is no secret among the basketball coaches in the tournament,” Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins said. “He might be a secret in the press, but all the coaches know him. He’s a great coach.”

Haskins is successful because he emphasizes defense, as did the coach he played for in college, the legendary Henry Iba of Oklahoma State.

“If you couldn’t play defense, you didn’t get on the floor for Mr. Iba,” Haskins said. “And defense comes first at our place, too. If you can’t guard anyone, you don’t get to play too much and the players all know that, too. We still do the same (defensive) drills that I did when I played for Mr. Iba.”

Haskins is also as tough on his players as was Iba, a legendary disciplinarian.

“Bobby Knight would be Cinderella compared to Haskins in his prime,” Richardson said. “Coach Haskins treated everybody the same, bad. He was a product of Mr. Iba and Mr. Iba was a disciplinarian. I think he’s mellowed in his time and they do a lot of things differently. But I don’t think his mannerisms have changed.”

Maybe, but Haskins hasn’t stopped screaming at his players.

“You’ve got to get used to Coach Haskins,” UTEP guard Prince Stewart said. “He’ll yell at you, but he’s like a father to us.”

Considering their similarities, it should come as no surprise that Haskins and Knight are close friends and fishing buddies.

“No one has a better understanding of basketball and how it should be played than Don Haskins,” Knight said. “He has been as good as anybody who’s ever coached in getting the most out of his players.”

Knight and Haskins love to trade insults over the fax machine.

After Knight, who disdains zone defenses, employed a two-three zone in an 89-79 second-round victory over Louisiana State last week, Knight sarcastically told reporters that he played a man-to-man defense with zone principles.

“I sent him a fax after the game saying, ‘That was a great man-to-man defense with zone principles,’ ” Haskins said.

Nicknamed “the Bear” because of the ample belly and gruff manner, Haskins is a throwback to an era when coaches didn’t wear expensive, designer suits during games. His trademark is a flannel shirt, he usually doesn’t wear a tie during games and his clothes are so wrinkled that it appears as if he slept in them.

Haskins, 61, who has spent his entire college coaching career at UTEP, almost took a job at the University of Detroit in the late 1960s.

“I took it for one day,” Haskins said. “It was all money. Dollar signs got in my eyes. They were going to pay me triple what I made here and it got in the way of being rational.

“It was like a rushed wedding. All of a sudden I was at the altar and I changed my mind. I can’t imagine coaching anywhere else now and I plan on finishing here.

“I haven’t taken care of myself very well financially and if I retired next year, I’d just have to go and get another job, so there isn’t any sense in doing it.”