Book Review: Glory Road

As a college basketball fan and a fan of sports/cultural/civil rights history, I was aware of Texas Western, Bobbie Joe Hill, Don Haskins in a very vague way. I knew that Haskins had lead Texas Western to a NCAA championship with Hill as his point guard, the first college team to win a national championship with a starting five composed of all black players. Beyond that, I couldn’t really tell you much about the story, but thankfully the recent release of the movie and accompanying book should bring this compelling story to the public’s attention.

Why has it taken this long to gain mainstream attention? You could point to the location of Texas Western (now UTEP)-tucked away in a part of the United States that’s easy to overlook. In addition, you can look to the humble Haskins who presented his co-author with quite a challenge in “Glory Road” since he didn’t want Wetzel to “brag him up”. As a result, the story’s remained tucked away itself.

As I read this book, I quickly became a fan of “The Bear”. I think I would have hated being one of his players, especially early on in his coaching career, as he incorporated some brutal practice habits into his regimen based on his playing days under Hank Iba at Oklahoma State. While Haskins lets the story unfold in an understated way, I really came to respect the man. He based his decision to go with the all-black starting lineup on the fact that they were his five best players; he first trotted out an all-black lineup in 1963, which happened to be the same year that Birmingham was exploding with racial strife and becoming the focus of the nation because of the fire hoses and police dogs turned on black non-violent demonstators. While Haskins attributes his ability to start an all-black lineup to the relative liberal climate towards race in the border town of El Paso, Nolan Richardson (one of his first players) recounts the time where Haskins brought him and another black player into his office and showed him the letters he was receiving, accusing him of being a “n. . . lover” and threatening his well being.

Haskins recalls how the actual championship game between Texas Western and Kentucky arrived without much attention; after winning the title, the attention arrived, and surprisingly it was largely negative, from all segments of the population. He received a great deal of criticism for exploiting his black players, even though the list of accomplishments for these men after graduating from college were lengthy and impressive. The irony of Haskins biggest triumph is that the championship opened up the landscape of college basketball deep into the south for black players and previously segregated teams in the SEC, SWC, and ACC. Black players no longer were relegated to northern universities and smaller schools, such as Texas Western, and as a result Haskins never returned to the heights achieved in 1966.

While the championship game is obviously the centerpiece of the book and the movie, there are several other little pieces within the book that I found incredibly entertaining. For instance, throughout the text we hear stories of Haskins’ abilities as a pool shark, and how in his early days out of college and just starting as a coach he would supplement his income and nearly drive his wife away while shooting stick.

Haskins is also able to paint a fascinating picture of what recruiting and scouting consisted of in the ’60s. His championship team was reliant upon a pipeline to New York, where three of his starters on the ’66 team hailed from. As for the scouting. . .well, perhaps my favorite story in the book is how in the championship game Haskins saw the 1-3-1 zone for the first time ever. They called a timeout, Haskins told Hill to flesh out things a bit, giving them enough time to evaluate what was going on, and then Haskins called another time out. He had diagrammed what Kentucky was up to, figured out it was the 1-3-1, and his players went on to render this new defense ineffective.

Wetzel begins each chapter in a unique style; he recounts an anecdote that is told by one of Haskins ex-players or assistant coaches. These little stories offset Haskins nature of stating that he did nothing extraordinary. As I read the book, the respect I developed for Haskins was immense, and a large part of it was due to his simple outlook on what he did-he started his five best players and he didn’t deserve any celebration for doing that. Men such as Haskins too often are overlooked in history because of such selfless, unpretentious attitudes. Thank goodness for “Glory Road” and Wetzel’s ability to coax the story from Haskins.

Glory Road=Willie Burton ranking

Ranking System:
Bobby Jackson-An incredible book. One of my all-time favorites.
Willie Burton-Just shy of legendary status. Top notch.
Townsend Orr-Enjoyable book, but erratic.
Dave Holmgren-Not very memorable.
Mitch Lee-An unmitigated disaster. Run away from this book!