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Hastings High Hall of Fame
Hastings High Hall of Fame
Inducted 2015
Inducted 2015
Roy Bassett, Class of 1927 and long-time Tiger coach, was selected for the HHS Athletic Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 2015.
Bassett was an all-state basketball player on the great 1927 squad which won a school-record 17 straight games. The 6'2" Bassett's inside scoring helped the Tigers to the state semifinals in both his junior and senior years with a combined 30-5 record. He was also the first Tiger to win a individual conference track gold medal, capturing the Mid State Conference javelin title his senior year. He medaled at the state meet in both his junior and senior years.
An injury from a sophomore-year motorcycle accident kept him off the high school football field, but at Hastings College he returned to gridiron and earned All-American honors there and on the basketball court. He also lettered four times in track at HC. He is a member of the Hastings College Hall of Fame.
After a short stint as a coach at Nelson High School, Bassett returned to Hastings High under the recommendation of his high school coach Dwight Thomas. He coached the Tigers during five different decades leading the basketball, football, cross country and track squads.
As football coach from 1944-1953 Bassett's teams won Mid East Conference titles in 1945 and 1947. Bassett was the last old-school all-sport coach at HHS, leading basketball, football and track for five years. During football he would double as bus driver, taking his teams down 7th Street every afternoon to practice at Oswego Park. At his Hall of Fame induction, his son Thomas told story of a tired Bassett returning home with the bus on several instances. having forgotten to drop the players back off at the school. [on left with Coach Earl Applebee at football practice in 1952]
Bassett took over the basketball program mid-way through the 1944 season when Eldon Miller decided to go into the grocery business. He led the Tigers and high-scorer Don Duncan to the state tournament. Bassett took over the program officially in 1947 and led the Tigers to five straight state tournaments and 89 wins. His 1949 team [pictured], led by Chuck 'Thin Man' Stickels, made it all the way to the state final before losing a heart-breaker to Lincoln Northeast. He made one more emergency appearance on the Tiger bench when new coach Ollie Smith was struck ill in 1952, and again the Bassett-men qualified for state.
He become the head track coach in 1945 and held the job until his retirement in 1972, 28 seasons. Twice the Tigers were state runners-up, and two more times, they finished third. His teams won six district titles, ten conference trophies and 22 individual state championships.
Coach Bassett founded the school's cross country program in 1956 and led the Tigers to the 1958 and 1959 state championships. He also led that program until he retired. Bassett was a head coach for 60 different sports seasons at Hastings High. No one has ever walked the halls of Hastings High more deserving of the title "Coach".
He was inducted in the Nebraska High School Hall of Fame in 2009.
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