Don Haskins coached basketball at Texas Western University, now called Texas-El Paso for 38 years, posting 719 wins. But it is for one victory that he will forever be known.

	Don Haskins' 1966 Miners team stressed defense allowing just 62 points a game.

During the 1965-66 season, Haskins had become the first major college coach to start five black players, and he didn't change when his team reached the national title game opposite Adolph Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats. Rupp, who steadfastly refused to recruit black players, added fuel to the fire by reportedly telling Haskins before the championship game that there was no way five black kids could beat his team.

So it was that on March 19, 1966, during the heat of the Civil Rights movement, Haskins sent the first all-black starting five onto the court for the NCAA title game. Texas Western won 72-65, and college basketball never was the same.

"The game against Kentucky opened the eyes of the nation and the entire world," said Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson, who had played for Haskins at Texas Western earlier in the '60s.

Perry Wallace, who the next season became the first black player in the Southeastern Conference, watched the historic title game from his dorm room at Vanderbilt.

"That was one of the most riveting games I've ever seen," Wallace said in 1996. "For those of us in segregated areas, we spent a lot of our lives comparing ourselves in the abstract to the players across town. People who were interested in seeing how the races got along saw that game with a great deal of interest. They wanted to see if blacks could compete."

Don Haskins, born March 14, 1930, in Enid, Okla., retired at the end of the '98-99 season. His teams made 14 appearances in the NCAA tournament and won seven Western Athletic Conference championships. But he forever will be remembered for his role in breaking down the color barriers in college basketball.