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BEN COLLINS - INDUCTEE #71

hall of fame fast fact:

Ben Collins remembers a road trip in 1941 when the Buffs traveled to California and beat Fresno State 7-6, then beat Arizona State 13-7 the next Saturday. "We traveled in those little old Chevrolet buses with WT on them. We had two buses; each would hold 22-24 people," he said. "We just stayed out there and won both games. That was a good memory."

Ben Collins

Ben Collins was athletic director at Texas Western College (University of Texas at El Paso) whose 1966 NCAA basketball championship team starred five black players and inspired the movie Glory Road.

“Wee Ben Collins” grew up in Wichita Falls and came to Canyon to play football at West Texas State Teachers College, where he earned all-conference honors twice.

After graduating, Collins joined the Marines as a member of the First Marine Division.

After the war, Collins was an assistant football coach at what then was the Texas College of Mines in El Paso. Eventually, Collins became head football coach for five years, and his Texas Western teams compiled a 18-29-1 record from 1957 to 1961. The last three of those years, Collins doubled as the athletic director.

He spent 16 years in athletics at UTEP, then became a full-time teacher.

Collins retired in 1985.