Nolan Richardson inducted into Texas Sports Hall of Fame

After years of campaigning by the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame, Nolan Richardson is finally in the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.

Richardson and the rest of the 2015 class were inducted Thursday night.

Richardson played for Texas Western (now UTEP) under Don Haskins and started his coaching career at Bowie High School.

Richardson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in summer 2014 and is a member of about a dozen other halls of fame.

It’s all due to his grandmother, who gave him some incredible advice as a child.

“If there’s anything in your life that you want bad enough, it’s going to be left up to you. Not the guy next to you, not the coach, not the school teachers. No one can do for you what you can do for you. And I’ll never forget that,” Richardson said during his acceptance speech.

Richardson grew up in El Paso and had great success playing basketball at Texas Western College, coaching at Bowie High and then winning the national junior college championship at Western Texas in Snyder.

His greatest fame happened at Tulsa and Arkansas. He led the Razorbacks to a national championship and a runner-up finish.

He’s the only coach in history to win a national championship in junior college, the NIT and the NCAA.