Roy Gene Skinner (April 17, 1930 – October 25, 2010) was an American basketball coach who was best known for his time as head coach of Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball. Skinner helped break the racial barrier by recruiting the first African American athlete to play varsity ball for a team in the Southeastern Conference. He has the second-most wins in program history, behind Kevin Stallings.
Skinner was born in 1930 in Paducah, Kentucky. He played basketball as a point guard in high school, at Paducah Junior College, and at Presbyterian College, 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).[1]
He was hired by head coach Bob Polk at Vanderbilt as an assistant coach two years later after Skinner led his Paducah team to a win against Vanderbilt's freshman squad.[2] 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.[3]
Skinner succeeded Polk as head coach in the 1960-61 season. With the support of Vanderbilt University 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, 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.[3] 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.[4]
Skinner led the team to the Elite Eight in the 1965 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament behind a 24–4 record that season, losing to the University of Michigan by two points.[2] Skinner was chosen as coach of the year in the SEC in 1974 by the Associated Press after leading the team to a 23–3 season record, with Skinner receiving seven votes from the 10-member board th
at selected the winner.[3][5] 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.[6] Skinner led the Commodores to a 278-135 record during his tenure, the most in school history until Kevin Stallings passed him during the 2013-14 season. He was named SEC coach of the year in 1965, 1967, 1974 and 1976.[7] In 2009, Skinner was inducted into the Vanderbilt Sports Hall of Fame.[2]
Skinner died in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 80 on October 25, 2010, due to respiratory failure. He was survived by his third wife, Nathleene, as well as by two daughters, three sons and eight grandchildren, all from his first marriage.[3]
Roy Skinner, Who Recruited First Black Basketball Player in SEC, Dies at 80
Roy Skinner, the Vanderbilt University coach who recruited the first black athlete to play varsity basketball in the Southeastern Conference and who led the Commodores to more victories than any other coach, died Monday in Nashville. He was 80.
The cause was respiratory failure, Mr. Skinner’s daughter Chris said.
When Vanderbilt’s chancellor, Alexander Heard, encouraged Mr. Skinner to recruit black players in the mid-1960s, Mr. Skinner immediately began to search for suitable players and eventually recruited Perry Wallace, a high school star in Nashville.
“I don’t think Skinner was looking to make history, but he was aware of it,” said Andrew Maraniss, a Vanderbilt alumnus who is writing a biography of Mr. Wallace. “I think the most important thing to Skinner would be that Wallace was a great player, and also a great student, a valedictorian.”
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Mr. Wallace, 63, said that although Mr. Skinner rarely if ever addressed the racial hostility Mr. Wallace faced, he was a calming influence during difficult times.
“The test is not, did he stand up to hostile crowds?” Mr. Wallace said. “His basic manner and his approach and the fact that he was sincere in trying to help me was most important to me.”
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Mr. Skinner later said that recruiting black athletes from the North was difficult because black students “were skeptical going to the South.” He also said that he received petitions from alumni against recruiting blacks.
“I only took that with a grain of salt,” he said in a 2007 article on the Vanderbilt Commodores’ Web site. “There wasn’t anything they could do about that.”
Roy Gene Skinner was born in Paducah, Ky., on Apr. 17, 1930. He graduated from Presbyterian College in South Carolina in 1952, and he played point guard throughout his high school and college years.
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Mr. Skinner took his first job coaching basketball for Paducah Junior College in 1955. In 1957, he became an assistant coach at Vanderbilt, and in 1958 he became the acting head coach. He became the head coach in 1960 and held the position until 1977.
He won 278 games during his career and was named the SEC’s coach of the year four times.
Mr. Skinner is survived by his second wife, Nathleene Skinner; five children from his first marriage, Kim Skinner and Chris Skinner, both of Dothan, Ala., Joe Skinner of Greenville, S.C., Tapp Skinner of Greer, S.C., and Dea Skinner Johnson of Anderson, S.C.; and eight grandchildren.
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