Clem Haskins

Clem Haskins

No. 11, 14
Point guard
Personal information
Date of birth	July 11, 1943 (1943-07-11) (age 68)
Place of birth	Campbellsville, Kentucky
Nationality	American
High school	Taylor County (Kentucky)
Listed height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Listed weight	195 lb (88 kg)
Career information
College	Western Kentucky
NBA Draft	1967 / Round: 1 / Pick: 3rd overall
Selected by the Chicago Bulls
Pro career	1967–1976
League	NBA
Career history
1967–1970	Chicago Bulls
1970–1974	Phoenix Suns
1970–1976	Washington Bullets
Career highlights and awards
3× OVC Player of the Year (1965–1967) Consensus NCAA All-American First Team (1967)
Career NBA statistics
Points	8,743 (12.8 ppg)
Rebounds	2,087 (3.1 rpg)
Assists	2,382 (3.5 apg)
Stats at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Clem Smith Haskins (born August 11, 1943) is a retired American college and professional basketball player and college basketball coach. He and star player Dwight Smith became the first black athletes to integrate the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers basketball program in the fall of 1963.^[1] This put Western Kentucky at the forefront to integrate college basketball in the South.^[2] He served 13 years (1986–1999) as head coach of the University of Minnesota's men's basketball team, but was forced to resign due to one of the worst academic fraud scandals in the history of NCAA sports.^[3] He was effectively blackballed from coaching college basketball for seven years, one of the most severe penalties handed down by the NCAA to an individual.^[4]

Early life

Haskins was born in Campbellsville, Kentucky, the fifth of eleven children of Charles Columbus and Lucy Edna Haskins, who were sharecroppers. He spent his freshman and sophomore seasons at the all-black Durham High School, and in 1961 Haskins attended Taylor County High School, the first African American to do so.

College career

He was a teammate of star basketball player Dwight Smith on the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers team that won the Ohio Valley Conference two years in a row. Haskins was the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year in 1966. In the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, the Hilltoppers were 2 points away from defeating Michigan and meeting the University of Kentucky Wildcats in the Mideast regional final. A controversial foul called against Smith during a jump ball put Cazzie Russell on the free throw line for Michigan, where he scored the tying and winning baskets.^[5] In 1967, Haskins had broken his wrist in a game against Murray State on February 6. The team still won the Ohio Valley Conference again. In the 1967 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, the #3 ranked Hilltoppers lost to eventual national runner-up Dayton in overtime in the Mideast quarterfinals.

NBA career

After a successful college career, Haskins was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 1967 NBA Draft and by the Kentucky Colonels in the American Basketball Association draft.^[6] Haskins went on to play nine years in the NBA with three teams (the Bulls, the Phoenix Suns, and the Washington Bullets). He retired in 1976 due to knee injuries, having tallied 6,743 career points.

Coaching career

After his NBA career, Haskins returned to Western Kentucky University, first as an assistant coach and then as head coach. In 1986, Haskins was hired by the University of Minnesota to rebuild the school's men's basketball program.^[7] He led the Gophers to a school-record 31 wins and the Final Four in 1997, winning the Clair Bee Coach of the Year Award in the same year. He also led Minnesota to National Invitation Tournament titles in 1993 and 1998. Haskins was known for sitting on a four-legged stool at Minnesota home games. Williams Arena has a raised floor which was hard on Haskins' knees, and ordinarily the team sits off the floor. He joined Lenny Wilkens' staff to coach "Dream Team III" to the gold medal in Basketball at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Minnesota academic scandal

However, his legacy will be forever tarnished by a scandal involving academic fraud, which broke on the day before the 1999 NCAA Tournament. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported allegations by Jan Gangelhoff, the manager of the school's academic counseling office, that she had written more than 400 pieces of coursework (including theme papers, homework assignments and take-home tests) for 18 Golden Gophers players from 1994 to 1998, including the Gophers' run to the Final Four. The Gophers suspended four then-current players, including two starters, for the school's first-round game against Gonzaga (which the Gophers lost). At the time, it was not known whether Haskins was involved, and the Pioneer Press was harshly criticized for the story's timing.^[8] However, Haskins was forced to resign after the season. Minnesota also withdrew from postseason consideration for the 1999-2000 season, docked itself 11 scholarships from 2000 to 2004, and imposed other sanctions on the basketball program. Despite the serious NCAA violations on his watch, Haskins pocketed $1.5 million as a settlement and buyout of his contract.

During a school investigation, it emerged that Haskins paid Gangelhoff $3,000 to write papers for the players. Haskins had initially denied making the payment during his interview in June 1999, only to admit it a month later. In October 2000, the Golden Gophers program was placed on four years' probation by the NCAA, and stripped of its wins in the 1994, 1995 and 1997 NCAA tournaments, as well as its NIT wins in 1996 and 1998.^[9] A few days later, the Big Ten Conference stripped Minnesota of the 1997 conference title and forced it to vacate every regular season game it played from 1993-94 to 1998-99. Officially, Minnesota's record for those years is 0-0. If not for these vacated games, Haskins' 242 wins would place him second on the Golden Gophers' wins list.

The NCAA also slapped Haskins with a seven-year "show-cause" order, meaning that Haskins would have to accept sanctions from the NCAA if he ever wanted to coach again, unless his new employer could convince the NCAA that he'd served his punishment. The penalty, the harshest that can be imposed on a coach, came because the committee found Haskins had lied about making the $3,000 payment, and—more seriously—he'd told several of the players involved to lie to the NCAA. Since most schools will not even consider hiring a coach with an outstanding "show-cause" on his record, Haskins was effectively blackballed from coaching until 2007.

After coaching

As of March 2008, Clem is no longer coaching basketball. He has a 750-acre (3.0 km²) ranch near Campbellsville, Kentucky where he raises cattle. He also does color commentary for Western Kentucky basketball home games.^[3]

Awards

• High School Scholastic All-American, 1963
• Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, 1966
• Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, 1967
• First team All-American, 1967
• Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year, 1982
• Associated Press Coach of the Year, 1997

Head coaching record

Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Western Kentucky (OVC) (1980–1982)
1980-1981	Western Kentucky	21-8	12-2	1st	NCAA 1st round
1981-1982	Western Kentucky	19-10	13-3	T-1st	NIT 1st round
Western Kentucky (Sun Belt) (1982–1986)
1982-1983	Western Kentucky	12-16	4-10	7th
1983-1984	Western Kentucky	12-17	5-9	6th
1984-1985	Western Kentucky	14-14	5-9	7th
1985-1986	Western Kentucky	23-8	10-4	2nd	NCAA 1st round
Western Kentucky:		101-73	49-37
Minnesota (Big 10) (1986–1999)
1986-1987	Minnesota	9-19	2-16	9th
1987-1988	Minnesota	10-18	4-14	9th
1988-1989	Minnesota	19-12	9-9	5th	NCAA 2nd Round
1989-1990	Minnesota	23-9	11-7	4th	NCAA Elite 8
1990-1991	Minnesota	12-16	5-13	9th
1991-1992	Minnesota	16-16	8-10	6th	NIT 1st Round
1992-1993	Minnesota	23-9	11-7	4th	NIT Champions
1993-1994	Minnesota	21-12%	10-8%	4th	NCAA 2nd Round%
1994-1995	Minnesota	19-12%	10-8%	4th	NCAA 1st Round%
1995-1996	Minnesota	19-11%	10-8%	4th	NIT 2nd Round%
1996-1997	Minnesota	31-4%	16-2%	1st	NCAA Final Four%
1997-1998	Minnesota	20-15%	6-10%	8th	NIT Champions%
1998-1999	Minnesota	20-15%	10-8%	6th	NCAA 1st Round%
Minnesota:		242-168	119-120
Total:		343-241
National Champion         Conference Regular Season Champion         Conference Tournament Champion       Conference Regular Season & Conference Tournament Champion       Conference Division Champion

% Entire seasons, including tournament appearances, vacated due to an academic fraud scandal.
&Official record at Minnesota is 111-100 (42-76 Big 10) not including vacated games.

See also

• List of National Basketball Association players with most assists in a game

References

1. ^ Hilltopper Legend Dwight Smith Hilltopper Haven
2. ^ Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem - My thoughts on UCLA in the Final Four Los Angeles Times, March 31, 2008. Western Kentucky was the forefront of the fight to integrate college basketball in the 1960s and early 1970s.
3. ^ ^{a b} Thamal, Pete - Catching Up With Clem New York Times, March 27, 2008.
4. ^ PLUS: COLLEGE BASKETBALL; N.C.A.A. Upholds Haskins Penalties. The New York Times, April 7, 2001.
5. ^ O'Donnell, Chuck - Cazzie Russell: converting two free throws with no time left advanced Michigan in the 1966 NCAA Tournament - The Game I'll Never Forget - University of Michigan versus Western Kentucky University. Basketball Digest, January/February 2004 issue
6. ^ BasketballReference.com Clem Haskins page
7. ^ Weiner, Jay - COLLEGE BASKETBALL '87: CLEM HASKINS; FRESH START FOR HASKINS AND MINNESOTA. New York Times, February 1, 1987
8. ^ Robertson, Lori - Body Slam - American Journalism Review, May 1999
9. ^ UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, TWIN CITIES PUBLIC INFRACTIONS REPORT NCAA, October 24, 2000.

External links

• NBA Stats @ basketball-reference.com
• The Clem Haskins Story @ Minnesota Public Radio
• Brief 6-30-1999 from the University of Minnesota
• NCAA panel to decide on basketball team sanctions from The Minnesota Daily; includes admission of payments

Persondata
Name	Haskins, Clem
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 11, 1943
Place of birth	Campbellsville, Kentucky
Date of death
Place of death