Roy Skinner

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

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

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]

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