ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 27, 1997 TAG: 9703270068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
When Pat Riley played at Kentucky, he wished Clem Haskins well in the 1967 NCAA Tournament.
Save everything. That's what Clem Haskins is telling his players this week. You never know which memory you might want to relive 30 years from now.
Like that letter Pat Riley wrote Haskins in 1967, when Riley was a senior at Kentucky and Haskins was a senior at Western Kentucky. The letter that helped take away just a sliver of the bitterness that welled in a talented young man whose skin color was the only reason he never got a chance to play for the home state's most popular team.
``It said he realized at the time that we were the best team in the state and he wished us the best of luck in the NCAA Tournament and hoped we could win it all,'' Haskins said. ``You get things when you're young like that and you throw it away. And I pass that on to my players, I tell them to keep everything. I wish I had kept that letter.''
Haskins, who will lead Minnesota against Kentucky in Saturday's second national semifinal, still has the memories. Many are painful, although the three decades between then and now make it easier to talk about that era without bitterness.
``Time heals old wounds,'' Haskins said.
But it can't erase the scars.
Haskins grew up on a farm in Campbellsville, Ky., a small town about 100 miles from Lexington. It might as well have been a million miles from the campus where Adolph Rupp had built a college basketball dynasty but refused, like many schools at that time, to recruit black players.
Haskins never had a chance to play for Rupp. Instead, he headed west to Bowling Green and, along with Dwight Smith, became the first black basketball players at Western Kentucky.
``A lot of people talked about waiting two years or three years, [Kentucky] may integrate,'' Haskins said. ``That was kind of a slap in the face and an insult. ... It was really hurting to think that you could not go and play at a university if you wanted to go in your own state.''
Haskins went on to score 1,680 points during his three-year career at Western (freshmen weren't eligible then). In his junior season, 1966, the Hilltoppers had one of the nation's best teams. They met Michigan in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, but Haskins admits he, Smith and Smith's younger brother, Greg, new to the team in '66, were looking beyond Michigan to the regional final, where Kentucky would be waiting.
Western lost to Michigan 80-79 when Cazzie Russell made two free throws with less than 10 seconds remaining after a call Haskins - and everyone at Western who remembers it - still refer to as ``the worst call in the history of basketball.''
The matchup against all-white Kentucky never happened; ``Rupp's Runts'' lost in the historic national championship game to Texas Western, which started five black players.
``I think - I know - Dwight Smith and myself and Greg, we dreamed of playing Kentucky,'' Haskins said. ``It probably beat us, because we were so worried about wanting to play Kentucky so bad that we probably overlooked Michigan.''
Haskins has relayed that story and many others from his playing days to his players.
``Coach was a pioneer,'' Eric Harris said. ``He paved the way for a lot of African-Americans today. It's great we don't have to go through that today.''
Haskins broke his right wrist during the 1966-67, season. He missed five games, and it was about that time that he got the letter from Riley, one of Rupp's stars.
``It was just one player at one college writing to another,'' Riley said through Miami Heat spokesman Tim Donovan.
``It meant a lot to me,'' Haskins said.
Haskins gets another shot at Kentucky on Saturday. He insists those old memories are not what will motivate him.
``I may have some personal grudges,'' he said, ``but they don't have anything to do with the players.''
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Haskins. color.by CNB