Roy Gene Skinner (April 17, 1930 – October 25, 2010) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach who was best known for his time as head coach of

Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball The Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball team represents Vanderbilt University in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The Commodores have won three SEC regular-season titles (1965, 1974 and 1993) and two SEC Tournament championships ( 1951 and ...

. Skinner helped break the racial barrier by recruiting the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

athlete to play varsity ball for a team in the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

. He has the second-most wins in program history, behind

Kevin Stallings Kevin E. Stallings (born October 1, 1960) is a former American basketball coach, who formerly served as the head coach at Illinois State University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Pittsburgh. He was an assistant coach at Purdue Univ ...

Life and career

Skinner was born in 1930 in

Paducah, Kentucky Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Missour ...

. He played basketball as a

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

in high school, at Paducah Junior College, and at

Presbyterian College Presbyterian College (PC) is a private Presbyterian liberal arts college in Clinton, South Carolina. History Presbyterian College was founded in 1880 by the William Plumer Jacobs. He had served as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Cl ...

, where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1952. His first basketball coaching job was in 1955 at his alma mater Paducah Junior College in 1955 (now part of West Kentucky Community and Technical College). He was hired by head coach

Bob Polk James Robert Polk (February 28, 1915 – March 18, 1986) was an American basketball coach. Polk coached the Vanderbilt Commodores, the Trinity Tigers, the Saint Louis Billikens and Rice University. He began his college coaching career as an ass ...

at Vanderbilt as an assistant coach two years later after Skinner led his Paducah team to a win against Vanderbilt's freshman squad. He spent the 1958-59 season as the acting head coach in Polk's absence, and led the team to an overall record of 14-10.Slotnick, Daniel E
"Roy Skinner, Who Recruited First Black Basketball Player in SEC, Dies at 80"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', October 30, 2010. Accessed October 31, 2010. Skinner succeeded Polk as head coach in the 1960-61 season. With the support of

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

chancellor G. Alexander Heard, he pursued the recruitment of African American players for the basketball team. The first player to make the team was

Perry Wallace Perry Eugene Wallace Jr. (February 19, 1948 – December 1, 2017) was an American lawyer who was a professor of law at Washington College of Law. He was the first African-American varsity athlete to play basketball under an athletic scholarship in ...

, a local schoolboy star at Nashville's Pearl High School, who enrolled at Vanderbilt in 1966 and first started playing for the team in 1967, becoming the Southeastern Conference's first African American varsity player. Skinner faced opposition from alumni who were opposed to integrating the team; Skinner was primarily looking at recruiting Wallace as someone who would be "a great player, and also a great student, a valedictorian" and that the fact that he was making history was a secondary aspect of the choice. Wallace recalled in a 2009 interview that Skinner practically lived at his house from the time he started trying to recruit him while he was a high school junior. Skinner led the team to the Elite Eight in the

1965 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 1965 NCAA University Division basketball tournament involved 23 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 8, 1965, and ended with the champi ...

behind a 24–4 record that season, losing to the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

by two points. Skinner was chosen as coach of the year in the SEC in 1974 by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

after leading the team to a 23–3 season record, with Skinner receiving seven votes from the 10-member board that selected the winner. Saying that "I don't want to get old being basketball coach", Skinner announced in March 1976 that he would be stepping down as head coach after 16 years and turning the reins over to assistant head coach

Wayne Dobbs Wayne Dobbs (June 12, 1939 – February 10, 2015) was an American college basketball and baseball coach. He served as head basketball coach at Belmont University, George Washington University and Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University ( ...

. Skinner led the Commodores to a 278-135 record during his tenure, the most in school history until

passed him during the 2013-14 season. He was named SEC coach of the year in 1965, 1967, 1974 and 1976.Mullen, Bryan
"Vanderbilt Commodores pay tribute to Roy Skinner: Vanderbilt Commodores fans, players remember former coach"
''

The Tennessean ''The Tennessean'' (known until 1972 as ''The Nashville Tennessean'') is a daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee. Its circulation area covers 39 counties in Middle Tennessee and eight counties in southern Kentucky. It is owned by Gannett, ...

'', October 31, 2010. Accessed October 31, 2010. In 2009, Skinner was inducted into the Vanderbilt Sports Hall of Fame.Lockridge, Jeff
"Vanderbilt Commodores legend Roy Skinner dies: Skinner was Vanderbilt Commodores' winningest basketball coach"
''

'', October 26, 2010. Accessed October 31, 2010.

Death

Skinner died in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

at the age of 80 on October 25, 2010, due to

respiratory failure Respiratory failure results from inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system, meaning that the arterial oxygen, carbon dioxide, or both cannot be kept at normal levels. A drop in the oxygen carried in the blood is known as hypoxemia; a rise ...

. He was survived by his third wife, Nathleene, as well as by two daughters, three sons and eight grandchildren, all from his first marriage.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skinner, Roy 1930 births 2010 deaths American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Kentucky Basketball players from Kentucky Deaths from respiratory failure Junior college men's basketball coaches in the United States Junior college men's basketball players in the United States Presbyterian Blue Hose men's basketball players Sportspeople from Paducah, Kentucky Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball coaches Point guards