"The Don" | |
Former names | Special Events Center (1977–1998) |
---|---|
Location | 151 Glory Road El Paso, Texas 79968 |
Coordinates | 31°46′39″N106°30′21″W / 31.777608°N 106.505718°W |
Owner | University of Texas at El Paso |
Operator | University of Texas at El Paso |
Capacity | 11,892 (Basketball) [1] 12,567 (concerts) |
Surface | Hardwood |
Construction | |
Broke ground | January 13, 1975 [2] |
Opened | February 3, 1977 [3] |
Construction cost | $10 million [4] ($50.3 million in 2023 dollars [5] ) |
Architect | B. W. Crane Architects [3] |
Structural engineer | Walter P Moore [6] |
General contractor | Jordan Nobles Construction [7] |
Tenants | |
UTEP Miners (1977–present) |
The Don Haskins Center, formerly known as the Special Events Center, is the home of UTEP Miners men's and women's basketball. The venue is located in the heart of El Paso, Texas. In addition to hosting sporting events, the Don Haskins Center is also used by many area schools, such as El Paso Community College, for graduation and commencement ceremonies. [8] Due to its large seating capacity, the center is also the city's premier entertainment venue and has hosted big-name acts such as pop star Shakira's Tour of the Mongoose, Oral Fixation Tour and The Sun Comes Out World Tour, Britney Spears during her Circus Tour, [9] comedian George Lopez and rock band KISS. [10]
Built in 1977, as the Special Events Center, the venue replaced Memorial Gym. [11] The Special Events Center was renamed after UTEP's Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins (1930–2008) in 1998. Haskins, who is best known for starting five African-American players in the 1966 NCAA Championship game against Kentucky, [12] was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997 and retired from the university in 1999. The arena was the site of a milestone win during the 1997–1998 season, as coach Haskins notched his 700th career victory against SMU. [13] The arena was also the site of the 1984, 1985, and 1990 Western Athletic Conference men's basketball tournaments and the 2011 and 2014 Conference USA tournaments. It also hosted NCAA Men's Basketball tournament first- and second-round games in 1981. In September 2008 Don Haskins lay in state there for several days after dying of natural causes. [14]
The Haskins Center features a Robbins Bio-Channel Star maple floor, installed in the summer of 2002, as well as two modern locker rooms, training facilities and basketball coaches' offices. The game-day environment for basketball was enhanced in recent years with the addition of four new scoreboards and two video replay boards to the arena. The arena now has a total of seven electronic scoreboards.
While it had originally been built as an alternative to the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico, which at the time was the larger of the two arenas, today the Haskins Center is the dominant concert venue in the area. The Pan American Center was renovated in 2006 and has since been used as an alternative venue due to similar concert capacity. [15] It is also the regional stop for WWE when it visits the El Paso area. [16]
The Miner men's basketball team has posted a 476–140 (.773) record in 34 years at the arena. UTEP won 25 straight home games from January 23, 1987 to December 16, 1989. The Miners have posted undefeated home records in three seasons: 1983–1984 (21–0), 1985–1986 (19–0) and 1988–1989 (18–0). They also won the first 10 conference games they played there after joining Conference USA in 2005. UTEP has defeated many top-10 ranked teams in the Don Haskins Center over the years, including #10 Arizona (1977), #5 Georgetown (1985), #5 Wyoming (1988) and #9 Utah (1993), among others. [13]
UTEP has attracted 5,592,257 fans in 34 seasons at the arena. The 11,892-seat arena (formerly 12,222 due to the late El Paso Sports legend Paul Strelzin) has been sold out for UTEP basketball games 112 times. [13]
Shakira currently holds the record of having the most shows in the arena as a female artist, with 6 in total:
Depeche Mode were scheduled to perform during their Touring the Angel Tour on May 2, 2006, with She Wants Revenge as their opening act, but the show was cancelled, due to scheduling issues. [17]
New Kids on the Block were scheduled to perform during their Full Service Reunion Tour on July 13, 2009, but the show was cancelled.
The Cure played a memorable gig on May 17, 2016 for about three hours with 5 encores and 5 songs they hadn't played for at least nine years including "The Perfect Girl" which hadn't been played since 1990.[ citation needed ]
The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the second oldest academic component of the University of Texas System. Classified as a "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, UTEP is the largest and oldest top-tier Hispanic-serving research university in the United States, outside of Puerto Rico.
Donald Lee Haskins, nicknamed "The Bear", was an American basketball player and coach. He played college basketball for three years under coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M. He was the head coach at the University of Texas at El Paso from 1961 to 1999. In 1966 his team won the NCAA tournament over the Wildcats of the University of Kentucky, coached by Adolph Rupp. The watershed game highlighted the end of racial segregation in college basketball.
Glory Road is a 2006 American sports drama film directed by James Gartner, based on a true story surrounding the events leading to the 1966 NCAA University Division Basketball Championship. Don Haskins portrayed by Josh Lucas, head coach of Texas Western College, coached a team with an all-black starting lineup, a first in NCAA history. Glory Road explores racism, discrimination and student athletics. Supporting actors Derek Luke and Jon Voight also star in principal roles.
Memorial Gym is a 5,200-seat multi-purpose arena in El Paso, Texas. It opened in December 1961, replacing Holliday Hall, and was home to the Texas Western College Miners basketball teams, until the Don Haskins Center, then known as the Special Events Center, opened in 1977, by which time Texas Western had changed its name to the current University of Texas at El Paso. Memorial Gym was the home court of the 1966 Texas Western basketball team that won the NCAA title, using five black starters to defeat Adolph Rupp's all-white Kentucky squad. Since 1974 Memorial Gym has been home to UTEP women's volleyball. Memorial Gym hosted the first and second rounds of the 2011 Conference USA Women's basketball tournament.
Velvet James Barnes, also known as Jim "Bad News" Barnes, was an American basketball player, who was an Olympic Gold Medalist and the No. 1 overall pick of the 1964 NBA draft. He played college basketball at Texas Western College.
The UTEP Miners is the name given to the sports teams of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). They are informally referred to as the Miners, UTEP, or Texas–El Paso. UTEP was a member of the Western Athletic Conference from 1967 to 2005, when they joined Rice, Tulsa, and SMU in leaving the WAC for Conference USA. The UTEP Miners are best known as the first team in Texas to win an NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. UTEP's colors are orange and blue and the mascot is a miner named Paydirt Pete.
The UTEP Miners men's basketball team plays for the University of Texas at El Paso in El Paso, Texas. The team is an NCAA Division I men's college basketball team competing in the Conference USA. Home games are played at Don Haskins Center.
The 2009–10 UTEP Miners men's basketball team represented the University of Texas at El Paso in the 2009–10 college basketball season. This was head coach Tony Barbee's fourth season at UTEP. The Miners competed in Conference USA and played their home games at the Don Haskins Center. They finished the season 26–7, 15–1 in CUSA play to win the regular season championship. They advanced to the championship game of the 2010 Conference USA men's basketball tournament before losing to Houston. They received and at–large bid to the 2010 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, earning a 12 seed in the west region, where they would lose to 5 seed and AP #11 Butler in the first round. UTEP averaged 8,697 fans per game, ranking 58th nationally.
The 2013–14 UTEP Miners basketball team represented the University of Texas at El Paso during the 2013–14 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Miners, led by fourth year head coach Tim Floyd, played their home games at the Don Haskins Center and were members of Conference USA. They finished the season 23–11, 12–4 in C-USA play to finish in fifth place. They advanced to the quarterfinals of the C-USA tournament where they lost to Southern Miss. They were invited to the College Basketball Invitational where they lost in the first round to Fresno State. UTEP averaged 8,088 fans per game, ranking 58th nationally.
The 2014 Women's National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 64 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2014 Women's NCAA tournament. The annual tournament began on March 19 and ended on April 5. All games were played on the campus sites of participating schools. The Tournament was won by the Rutgers Scarlet Knights who defeated the UTEP Miners, 56–54, in the championship game before a sellout crowd of 12,222 at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas.
The 2014–15 UTEP Miners basketball team represented the University of Texas at El Paso during the 2014–15 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Miners, led by fifth year head coach Tim Floyd, played their home games at the Don Haskins Center and were members of Conference USA. They finished the season 22–11, 13–5 in C-USA play to finish in a tie for the second place. They advanced to the semifinals of the C-USA tournament where they lost to Middle Tennessee. They were invited to the National Invitation Tournament where they lost in the first round to Murray State. UTEP averaged 8,458 fans per game, ranking 53rd nationally.
The 2014–15 UTEP Miners women's basketball team represented the University of Texas at El Paso during the 2014–15 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Miners, led by 14th year head coach Keitha Adams, played their home games at the Don Haskins Center and were members of Conference USA. They finished the season 12–16, 7–11 in C-USA play to finish in a tie for tenth place. They lost in the first round of the C-USA women's tournament to UAB.
The 2015–16 UTEP Miners women's basketball team represented the University of Texas at El Paso during the 2015–16 NCAA Division I women's basketball season.
The 2016–16 UTEP Miners basketball team represented the University of Texas at El Paso during the 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Miners, led by seventh-year head coach Tim Floyd, played their home games at the Don Haskins Center as members of Conference USA. They finished the season 15–17, 12–6 in C-USA play to finish in a tie for third place. In the C-USA tournament, they defeated Rice in the quarterfinals before losing to top-seeded Middle Tennessee in the semifinals. UTEP averaged 6,400 fans per game, ranking 83rd nationally.
The 2016–17 UTEP Miners women's basketball team represented the University of Texas at El Paso during the 2016–17 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Lady Miners, led by sixteenth year head coach Keitha Adams, played their home games at Don Haskins Center and were members of Conference USA. They finished the season 8–23, 5–13 for in C-USA play to finish in a tie for eleventh place. They lost in the first round of the C-USA women's tournament to Old Dominion.
The 2018–19 UTEP Miners basketball team represented the University of Texas at El Paso during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Miners, led by first year head coach Rodney Terry, played their home games at the Don Haskins Center as members of Conference USA. UTEP finished the season 8–21, 3–15 in C-USA play to finish in last place. They failed to qualify for the C-USA Tournament. UTEP averaged 4,677 fans per game.
The 2019–20 UTEP Miners basketball team represented the University of Texas at El Paso during the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Miners, led by second-year head coach Rodney Terry, played their home games at the Don Haskins Center as members of Conference USA. UTEP averaged 5,311 fans per game.
The 2020–21 UTEP Miners men's basketball team represented the University of Texas at El Paso during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team was led by third-year head coach Rodney Terry, and played their home games at Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas as members of Conference USA.
The 2021–22 UTEP Miners men's basketball team represented the University of Texas at El Paso during the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team was led by first-year head coach Joe Golding, and played their home games at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas as a member of Conference USA.
The 2010–11 UTEP Miners men's basketball team represented the University of Texas at El Paso in the 2010–11 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Miners, led by head coach Tim Floyd, played their home games at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas, as members of Conference USA. The Miners finished in a tie for 2nd in Conference USA, eventually advancing to the championship game of the Conference USA tournament, where they were defeated by Memphis.