Sports Beyond Race

Glory Road: My story of the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship and how one team triumphed against the odds and changed America forever

By Don Haskins with Dan Wetzel

           

            In the novel Glory Road, Don Haskins tells the story of how he coached the 1966, first all black men's basketball team to win the NCAA Championship. With the help of Dan Wetzel, Don Haskins expresses his own opinions and struggles about the road to changing American sports as we know it.             

Don Haskins coached at Texas Western University, now known as the University of Texas at El Paso. Coach Haskins and his team of all African American starters face many of college basketball's power house teams, including the University of Kentucky and Duke University. The small team from Texas stunned the nation in beating such teams. How did they accomplish this? Coach Haskins was not afraid to recruit these African American players during that dark period in American history. The book also describes the grueling hours of practice the team suffered late into the night.                                                     

 Don Haskins’ witty remarks and brutal honesty make this book well worth reading. His opinion of the players and interviews with the players themselves also make the book a great read. If you like sports, a great story line, and reading about events that forever changed American sports, then this book is for you.

By: Alex Biggerstaff