‘Bad News’ good for Miners

Tuckerman native Jim Barnes starred for Texas Western under Don Haskins, helped the U.S. win basketball gold in the 1964 Olympics and spent seven seasons in the NBA.
Tuckerman native Jim Barnes starred for Texas Western under Don Haskins, helped the U.S. win basketball gold in the 1964 Olympics and spent seven seasons in the NBA.

Second in a series previewing members of the 2014 class who will be inducted Feb. 28 into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.

The 2006 Disney movie Glory Road chronicled Texas Western’s 1966 run to a national championship, a season in which the Miners became the first college basketball team to start five black players and win a national title.

The film was a success by most measures. It received favorable reviews - the late Roger Ebert, noted movie critic for the Chicago Sun Times - gave it three out of four stars, and it grossed more than $40 million.

It might have sold Jim “Bad News” Barnes a bit short.

“He really got them going,” said Nolan Richardson, the former Arkansas Razorbacks basketball coach who played one season (1962-1963) at Texas Western with Barnes, who will be inducted posthumously into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame on Feb. 28.

The movie portrayed Coach Don Haskins’ national title-winning season as his first season in El Paso, Texas. In reality, Barnes and Richardson spent four seasons helping lay the foundation for that run, which ended with Texas Western defeating an all-white Kentucky team led by Adolph Rupp for the national title.

Barnes, who was born in Tuckerman, averaged 24.2 points in two seasons at what is now Texas-El Paso, and averaged 29.1 as a senior in 1964. He still holds the school’s single-game scoring record with 51. He had at least 10 points and at least 10 rebounds in 48games, and six times he had 20 points and 20 rebounds.

Barnes also helped the United States win a gold medal in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, and was the No. 1 overall draft pick by the New York Knicks in 1964. He died in 2002 at age 61 in Silver Springs, Md., after suffering three heart attacks and three strokes.

Barnes will to into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame as one of state’s most accomplished basketball players, six decades after helping lay the groundwork for what ended up becoming one of college basketball’s landmark teams. Barnes played at Texas Western in 1962-1964, and two years later the Miners beat Kentucky in a game that is credited for accelerating the integration of college basketball.

“They came to play with him,” Richardson said of the players who made up the 1966 team. “Bad News had a lot to do with leading up to that.”

Barnes, a 6-8 center, arrived in El Paso in 1962 after attending at least four high schools and an Oklahoma junior college. Barnes was physically imposing for his era and was given the nickname “Bad News” by a Texas Western staff member because playing against him was “bad news for you,” as Richardson recalled.

Richardson had already been on campus, having played two seasons, the second for Haskins, and the Miners consistently drew crowds of about 2,000. But Richardson said fan interest picked up after Barnes arrived, with crowds of approximately 6,000 showing up.

Barnes was used to the attention by that time.

He grew up in Tuckerman, just north of Newport in Jackson County, and started playing basketball because of his height. His family was too poor to supply him with basketball shoes, so he played in his socks.

A coach at Branch High School told Barnes he would get him some shoes if he played basketball there, so Barnes transferred. He also played at Poplar Bluff High School in Missouri and Stillwater High School in Oklahoma.

“I was glad to be out because I thought I would have a better opportunity at an integrated school,” Barnes told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 2001. “In Tuckerman, I spent all my free time picking and chopping cotton.”

Barnes was ruled ineligible at Poplar Bluff and Stillwater because of improper recruiting and he eventually ended up at Cameron Junior College in Lawton Okla., where he scored 40 or more points at least five times.

Haskins took note and recruited him to Texas Western, which Richardson said might have been the best fit for Barnes during the height of the civil rights movement. Richardson, an El Paso native, said the town that sits on the border that separates Texas and Mexico was already diverse, and so was the Texas Western basketball team.

“It wasn’t like the South at all,” Richardson said. “He really loved being there and going to school. He got away from the everyday grind.”

Barnes’ first season under Haskins was Richardson’s last. The two helped the Miners to their first NCAA Tournament appearance, where they lost 65-47 to Texas.

The next season the Miners went 25-3 and beat Texas A&M in the first round of the NCAA Tournament when Barnes scored 42 points and pulled down 19 rebounds before losing to Kansas State. Barnes was held to four points and nine rebounds in that game before fouling out.

“We could have won it that year,” Haskins told the Democrat-Gazette in 2001.

Richardson and Barnes remained friends after leaving El Paso. Richardson went into coaching, Barnes spent seven seasons with the Knicks, Baltimore Bullets, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics. He averaged 15.5 points per game as a rookie for the Knicks and 8.8 points for his career.

Even today, four decades after Barnes finished playing, Richardson still remembers the footwork that helped Barnes do things Richardson said he rarely saw again over his lengthy coaching career.

“He was smooth as silk,” Richardson said. “That’s a gift, my man. We can all get out and dance, but we couldn’t dance like he did.”

Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame at a glance

NAME Jim Barnes BORN April 13, 1941 DIED Sept. 14, 2002

HOMETOWN Tuckerman HIGH SCHOOLS Tuckerman, Branch, Poplar Bluff (Mo.), Stillwater (Okla.) COLLEGE Cameron Junior College (1960-1962), Texas Western (1962-1964) PROFESSIONAL New York Knicks (1964-1965), Knicks/Baltimore Bullets (1965-1966), Los Angeles Lakers (1966-1967), Lakers/Chicago Bulls (1967-1968), Bulls/ Boston Celtics (1968-1969), Celtics (1969-1970), Bullets (1970-1971)

HIGHLIGHTS Once scored 64 points and pulled down 38 rebounds in a game at Tuckerman High School. … Holds Texas-El Paso record with a career scoring average of 24.2 points per game. … Scored 51 points on Jan. 4, 1964, against Western New Mexico, which remains a UTEP record. … Picked No. 1, ahead of Willis Reed and Paul Silas, by the Knicks in the 1964 NBA draft. … Averaged 15.5 points a game as a rookie and 8.8 points and 6.5 rebounds over his seven-year career. … Teamed with Bill Bradley and Larry Brown to help the United States win the 1964 Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.

Sports, Pages 18 on 02/19/2014

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