Former UTEP coach Don Haskins, 78, died Sunday. Most of his memorials focused on the 1966 NCAA champion Miners, who have been the subject of several books and the Disney movie “Glory Road.” That road passed briefly through Wichita, where UTEP (then Texas Western) played Oklahoma City at the Roundhouse on March 7, 1966 in a first-round NCAA Tournament game.
In Wichita, Haskins started a lineup of five blacks, just as he famously did in the championship game against Kentucky. Star guard Bobby Joe Hill did not start as punishment for missing bed check (according to “And the Walls Came Tumbling Down” by Frank Fitzpatrick, an excellent book on the season). Harry Flournoy, David Lattin, Nevil Shed, Orsten Artis and Willie Worsley (in place of Hill) started. Hill came off the bench to lead the Miners with 24 points in the 89-74 win over Oklahoma City. Houston (with Elvin Hayes and Don Chaney) beat Colorado State 82-76 in the first game of the doubleheader.
Mike Kennedy, now radio voice of Wichita State athletics, was a student at Southeast High and attended the UTEP-Oklahoma City game. In 1966, Wichitans were quite accustomed to multiple blacks in the starting lineup, both with the home and visiting teams. Missouri Valley Conference teams regularly brought in stars such as Oscar Robertson and Chet Walker. Loyola (Chicago), the 1963 NCAA champions, started four blacks and played in Wichita. WSU started three that same season. Three seasons later, an all-black lineup caused little stir in the Field House. Articles in The Wichita Eagle made a two-sentence mention in post-game coverage.
“They stood out for their athletic ability and the way they played defense,” Kennedy said. “I don’t remember there being much played up about the racial composition of the team.”
The dunk was legal in 1966 (it would be banned before the 1967-68 season) and pre-game provided Kennedy’s biggest memory of that night.
“Warming up, everybody on Texas Western could dunk, including Willie Worsley, and he was 5-foot-6,” Kennedy said. “That was a big deal. Everybody was cheering during warmups.”
UTEP went from WIchita to Lubbock, Texas, where it defeated MVC champion Cincinnati and Kansas (in the Jo Jo White game still lamented by Jayhawk fans). The Miners defeated Utah (coached by former Kansas State coach Jack Gardner) in the national semifinal. Against Kentucky, Haskins started Lattin, FLournoy, Hill, Artis and Worsley.
Haskins coached the Miners from 1961-99 and played five games against the Shockers, four in the early 1960s when both schools were national powers.
- In 1963, the Shockers won 60-58 at El Paso when a goal-tending coach on Miners center Jim Barnes in the final seconds gave Wayne Durham the winning basket. Fans stormed the court and WU coach Ralph Miller “hustled his players into the dressing room just as soon as the ruling was made official,” according the Eagle. Dave Stallworth scored 31 points for the Shockers. The Shockers held the ball for most of the game’s final four minutes after Texas Western’s Nolan Richardson (the future Arkansas coach) tied the game 58-all with two free throws. After calling timeout with nine seconds to play, the Shockers worked the ball to Durham for an eight-foot shot.
- Next December, the Miners came to Wichita and knocked off No. 5 WU 75-74. Barnes scored 32 points. WU’s Nate Bowman missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw with four seconds to play. Stallworth scored 37.
- Early in the 1964-65 season, the Miners returned to the Roundhouse. WU’s fastbreak got rolling in the second half and the second-ranked Shockers won 73-55. Stallworth led the Shockers with 27, 19 in the second half. Shed scored 21 for the Miners.
- After a year off, the teams met again in El Paso during the 1966-67 season. UTEP, the defending NCAA champs, routed the Shockers 77-60. Melvin Reed led WSU with 22. Lattin led the Miners with 18.
- Haskins did not return to Wichita until the 1980 NIT. The Miners won 58-56 to end the freshman season for WSU’s Antoine Carr and Cliff Levingston. Levingston led WSU with 24.