EL PASO - Don Haskins, the beloved El Paso icon who helped transform collegiate basketball with the landmark championship run in 1966 with Texas Western College, died Sunday afternoon of cardiac congestive heart failure, according to his physician. He was 78.

Haskins' physician, Dr. Dwayne Aboud, said the coach known as "the Bear" died about 4:30 p.m.

He is survived by his wife, Mary; three sons - Brent, David and Steve; and three grandsons. A fourth son, Mark, passed away in 1994.

A public memorial is tentatively planned for later in the week, with arrangements pending.

Haskins had several other physical ailments that affected him in recent years. He had heart surgery and surgery on his foot because of diabetes. In 2006, he had cancerous polyps removed from his colon.

Haskins' coaching career took him from Enid, Okla. to basketball immortality with an NCAA championship and enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997.

During his 38-year reign at Texas Western and UTEP, Haskins became one of the winningest coaches in NCAA history with a 719-353 record, 32 winning seasons, seven Western Athletic Conference championships and 21 postseason trips (14 NCAA, seven NIT).

Haskins played for Hall of Fame coach Henry "Hank" Iba at Oklahoma State, back when the school was still Oklahoma A&M. Haskins was later an assistant under Iba for the 1972 U.S. Olympic team in Munich.

"The word unique does not begin to describe Don Haskins,"

former Texas Tech coach Bob Knight said. "There is no one who has ever coached that I respected and admired more than Don Haskins. I've had no better friend that I enjoyed more than Don Haskins."

Haskins was an old-time coach who believed in hard work and was known for his gruff demeanor. That attitude was portrayed in the 2006 movie "Glory Road," the Disney film that chronicled Haskins' improbable rise to national fame in the 1966 championship game against Kentucky. The movie, which was preceded by a book of the same title, also sparked renewed interest in Haskins' career.

"The myth that surrounds Don Haskins in the movie 'Glory Road' and what he did for black players is better said that he cared like that for all his players. To me that tells me more about the man than anything," Knight said. "There was never anyone like him before and there will never be one like him again."

Former Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton said Haskins "had a tremendous impact on the college game. Anybody who's been around college basketball dating back to those days, they've seen how it changed after Texas Western won the national championship."

Sutton said he hadn't talked to Haskins for at least six weeks.

"Don had not been in good health and was having a hard time," Sutton said. "He'll be dearly missed. He was a great basketball coach."

CBS Sportsline.com named him the greatest Division I men's basketball coach of all time in July, 2001.

"UTEP - with no recruiting base, no media attention and substandard budgets - had no business winning much of anything," sports columnist Dan Wetzel said. "No coach did more with less, maximized his talent and made strange parts fit better than 'The Bear.'"

UTEP Athletic Director Bob Stull said Haskins had a huge impact on the city and UTEP.

"It is a very sad time for all of us," Stull said. "Don is an icon of El Paso. He has had a huge impact on the city and the University of Texas at El Paso. Since his retirement, he has remained very interested in our entire athletic program and supportive of all of our coaches. He has been an invaluable resource to everybody in the athletic department. He remains one of the most revered and honored coaches in basketball history. His decision to start five black players in the 1966 national championship game, as chronicled in the movie 'Glory Road,' changed college basketball and the sports world. He will always be remembered for that."

As a coach, Haskins became a star early in his career by leading his Miners to the 1966 NCAA championship game, then making the controversial decision to start five blacks against all-white, heavily favored Kentucky, coached by Adolph Rupp. The Miners won, and shortly after that many schools began recruiting black players.

"He took a school that had no reason to be a basketball giant and made it into one," Knight said.

Haskins said he wasn't trying to make a social statement with his lineup; he was simply starting his best players. The move, however, raised the ire of some who sent Haskins hate mail and even death threats during the racially charged era.

"When they won the national championship against the University of Kentucky, that changed college basketball," Sutton said. "At that time, there weren't many teams in the South or Southwest that had African-Americans playing. There was a change in the recruiting of the black athlete. It really changed after that. They've had a great impact on the game."

UTEP Men's Basketball Coach Tony Barbee called Haskins "a national treasure."

"My thoughts and prayers go out to Mary and the Haskins family," Barbee said. "We are losing a national treasure. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to get to know him over the last two years. The information he shared with me was invaluable to a first-time head coach. He is a Hall of Fame coach and a Hall of Fame person. It's sad to think that we're losing someone so special to this community and this university, and a national hero at the same time."

Although Haskins was one of the winningest coaches in college basketball, he will always be remembered most for the 1966 NCAA championship game.

Actor Josh Lucas was profoundly affected by portraying Haskins in "Glory Road."

"I took pretty substantial life lessons from playing him," Lucas said in a 2005 El Paso Times interview. "I actually sometimes will sit, going through something in my life since the year and a half since we stopped filming, and saying, 'What would Haskins do?' It's been a deeply important movie for me."

Lucas said he felt immense pressure from the role because of how much Haskins and the '66 team mean to El Paso.

"Meeting Haskins, honestly realizing how incredibly important it was to El Paso, this town, was when I started to get a bit nervous, to be honest," Lucas said of his role in "Glory Road."

Jerry Bruckheimer, one of the producers of "Glory Road," said Pat Riley told him about the historic game which led to Bruckheimer producing the film.

Riley, who coached the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat to NBA championships, was a player on the Kentucky squad that lost to Texas Western in the '66 championship game.

"Pat Riley told me this great story that Magic Johnson came into his office when he was coach of the Lakers and said, 'Had not David Lattin dunked that ball over you, I wouldn't be in here.' So he's aware of it, but a lot of the kids aren't aware of it. So the best way to educate people is to entertain them at the same time," Bruckheimer said in a 2005 El Paso Times