1966 NCAA Basketball National Championship team. (UTEP Special Collections Libraries)
Coach Don Haskins (UTEP Communications)
Team members Togo Railey and Willie Cager.
In 1966 at Texas Western College, now the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Don Haskins became the first coach ever to start a squad of five African American players in a championship basketball game. The team beat the University of Kentucky in College Park, Maryland, to win the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball championship, and the event is credited with breaking the color barrier in college sports. Haskins described it further in his autobiography, Glory Road, which later was produced into a film of the same name that focused on the game. The school’s basketball teams no longer play their home games at Memorial Gymnasium, but basketball fans can plan ahead to see the UTEP Miners play at the Don Haskins Center, built in 1976.
Memorial Gymnasium at UTEP
- Hours: Open for UTEP student use Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
- Robinson and Oregon streets, El Paso, TX
- 915-747-5103
