True. Sports. Movies.

Movies that inspire and were inspired by sports.

Glory Road – Don Haskins’ Texas Western Miners

by · September 22, 2016


Glory Road is based on the true story of Don Haskins and his 1965-1966 Texas Western Miners basketball team that won the NCAA Championship title. The significance of the victory is that it was the first team in history to start 5 black players in a championship game and furthermore, the only 7 players who played for Texas Western in the entire game were all black – none of the white players on the team saw court time.

After the Miners’ all-black lineup upset the Wildcats all-white lineup, Haskins was credited for revolutionizing college basketball and breaking down segregation barriers. This article from 2003 describes how black players were perceived at that time and why every team needed at least one white player on the court in order to win. Perry Wallace, who became the first black basketball player in the SEC in 1966, had this to say:

“`Nigger ball’ they used to call it. Whites then thought that if you put five blacks on the court at the same time, they would somehow revert to their native impulses.”

In this chat session, Don Haskins answers questions about how he viewed the events leading up to, and after, that ’65-’66 Championship season. March 19, 2016 marked the 50th anniversary of Texas Western’s historically significant victory; author Michael Bohn recounts the details of that day and that season.

ESPN has compiled a nice collection of black and white photos from that game.

In addition to the movie “Glory Road”, there are a couple of student-made documentaries available. The first is a 10-minute documentary titled “The Emancipation Proclamation of 1966” and won the 2012 Maryland State History Day competition:


The second is a 50-minute documentary titled “And The Wheels Turned”, produced by a UTEP student in 2010 about the Championship game.

In 2010, UTEP officially created a website in honor of that 1965-66 team. The site is a collection of photos, stories, and interviews of the players and Coach Haskins. In the video below, the players on the team talk about one another, as teammates and as friends:

Watch the entire movie now on iTunes or Amazon

Real Life, Reel Differences

  • Texas Western was the real name of the college back in 1965. Officially, it was known as Texas Western College of the University of Texas. In 1966, the Board of Regents approved a temporary name change to Texas Western College of The University of Texas at El Paso and it officially became The University of Texas at El Paso, or UTEP, in 1967.
  • In the movie, coach Don Haskins is a girls high school basketball coach just before getting the job at Texas Western University (now Texas-El Paso or UTEP). In real life, Haskins not only coached girls’ hoops, but also football and boys’ basketball teams at a couple of small high schools in Texas in the mid-1950s.
  • In the movie, Haskins arrives at Texas Western at the start of the 1965-66 season. In real life, his first season at Texas Western was in 1961, where the team went 18-6.

    • »»» Read More «««

Where Are They Now?

Donald Lee Haskins (March 14, 1930 – September 7, 2008), nicknamed “The Bear”, was an American collegiate player and basketball coach. He played for three years under Coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University). He was the head coach at Texas Western College (renamed the University of Texas at El Paso in 1967) from 1961 to 1999, including the 1966 season when his team won the NCAA Tournament over the University of Kentucky Wildcats, coached by Adolph Rupp.

In his time at Texas Western/UTEP, he compiled a 719–353 record with only five losing seasons. He won 14 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) championships and four WAC tournament titles, had fourteen NCAA tournament berths and made seven trips to the NIT. Haskins led UTEP to 17 seasons with 20+ wins and served as an assistant coach under Hank Iba in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. He was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997 as a basketball coach. In 1997 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. His 1966 team was inducted in its entirety by the same Hall of Fame on September 7, 2007.

Although Haskins was never able to duplicate his 1966 success, he is nonetheless regarded as an important figure in basketball history. Among the players he coached at UTEP over the years were future NBA all-stars Nate Archibald, Tim Hardaway, and Antonio Davis. Other UTEP alums moving to the NBA included Marlon Maxey and Greg Foster. He was also a mentor for several future coaches, including Nolan Richardson and Tim Floyd. The LA Times published a nice article about Haskins upon his death on September 7, 2008. He is survived by his wife, Mary; three sons, Brent, David and Steve and three grandsons, John Paul, Cameron and Dominick. A fourth son, Mark, died in 1994. Haskins is buried at the Memory Gardens of the Valley in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. A street is named after him in El Paso’s East Side. The arena he coached in is now known as “The Don Haskins Center”.

Tyrone Bobby Joe Hill was one of the five black players that started in the Finals game against Kentucky. As Don Haskins revealed in an interview chat session, he was the 2nd Bobby Joe Hill that played for Haskins, but certainly the more accomplished one. Hill was a 5’10” point guard from Michigan whose highlight was the back-to-back steals which he converted into easy lay-ups to give Texas Western an early 14-9 lead in the finals.

In all, Hill played in 63 games in his college career; unfortunately, he only played in eight games his Senior year (1966-67) due to a leg injury. Hill never completed his eligibility at Texas Western, choosing to go to work instead. He stayed in El Paso, married his college sweetheart, and worked for El Paso Natural Gas Company for 30 years. In 1996, he retired as an Executive Senior Buyer after 30 years. He died in 2002 of a myocardial infarction at age 59; he was the first player from that team to pass away.

The video clip below contains a quick interview with Haskins in which the coach believes Hill could have played in the NBA if he wanted to, as well as with Bobby Joe who confirmed that basketball was not all-consuming to him.


David Lattin, was known as “Bid Daddy” or “Daddy D”, was listed as 6’6″ and 225 pounds during his playing days. He was also one of the five black players that started in the Finals. Lattin actually started his collegiate career at Tennessee State in 1964 before transferring, citing the lack of basketball competition. He received a full scholarship to attend Texas Western College in 1965 and played for Haskins until the 1967 season.

He was selected by the San Francisco Warriors 10th overall in the 1967 NBA draft. After one year, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns. He also played for the Pittsburgh Condors and the Memphis Tams, before ending his career with the Harlem Globetrotters from 1973 to 1976.

Returning to school, Lattin earned his B.S. degree in Business Administration and started several successful business ventures. Lattin lives in Houston, Texas, working for Republic Beverage. He has several other ongoing projects, including real estate, pharmacy, car rental, and home health businesses. Still a tremendous athlete, David bikes 100 miles a week and participates in a 200-mile bike ride from Houston to Austin every year.

In 2007, he published a book titled Slam Dunk to Glory which details the 1966 Miners and his life.

Orsten Artis is the third black player who started against Kentucky in the Finals. He was a 6-foot-1, 175-pound senior from Gary, Indiana, scored 15 points and pulled down eight rebounds in the championship game. Artis retired after a long career as a detective with the Gary, Indiana police department. He was elected into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.

flournoy-riley-si-coverHarry Flournoy, like Orsten, was also from Gary, Indiana. He was the fourth black player who started in the championship game, but only played for six minutes because he twisted his left knee. Despite playing only a short amount of time, he is forever remembered on the cover of Sports Illustrated, grabbing a rebound over Pat Riley. Here is a much higher resolution of that picture.

After Texas Western, Flournoy became a teacher and basketball coach at an elementary school in El Paso, Texas. He went into business after that and was in sales for more than 30 years for companies like Hostess Bakeries and Bimbo Bakeries USA. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015. Flournoy and his wife Sukari have been married 25 years and have eight children between them and 24 grandchildren. They live in the Atlanta suburb of McDonough, Ga.

Willie Worsley was the fifth starting black player, and was surprised by the coach’s decision to start him over Willie Cager. Haskins wanted to employ a 3-guard lineup to combat the quickness of “Rupp’s Runts”, so the 5’6″ Worsley was inserted into the lineup as the third guard, alongside Orsten and Bobby Hill. He scored 8 points and pulled down 4 rebounds in the game. The NY Daily News published this interview with Worsley on the 50th anniversary of that historic season, in which he reveals a lot about his upbringing.

Although he was a solid contributer on the Miners team, Willie had a much more decorated high school career. He played for DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, leading them to a New York City Championship in 1963 and winning the tournament MVP. While at DeWitt, he also lead the team on a 38-game winning streak. Nate “Tiny” Archibald, who went on to have a very successful NBA career, was two years his junior at DeWitt and looked up to Worsely. The two played together in the backcourt for one season at UTEP in 1967-1968.

After Texas Western, Worsley returned to New York and enjoyed a brief career playing 24 games for the ABA’s New York Nets during the 1968-69 season. After that, he oversaw the shelter’s athletic program at the now-defunct children’s shelter Woodycrest, in the High Bridge neighborhood of the Bronx. The shelter merged with another home in Pomona, NY, and Worsley become a director until the organization became bankrupt.

Today, Worsley is the head coach of Spring Valley High School’s basketball team in Spring Valley, New York. He does a lot of community service work with underprivileged kids, including basketball clinics and summer camps. He also provides social counseling, human services for young adults. He and his wife Claudia have two daughters and six grandchildren.

Click on the links below for updates on the other players from the 1975-1966 Texas Western Miners.

Nevil Shed

Willie Cager

Dick Myers

Jerry Armstrong

Louis Baudoin

David Palacio

Togo Railey

(Visited 824 times, 1 visits today, 1,339,174 total visits overall)

Tags:

%d bloggers like this: