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Faculty/Staff Movin’ Mavs head coach Jim Hayes passes away at age 58
Faculty/Staff Movin’ Mavs head coach Jim Hayes passes away at age 58 | Movin’ Mavs head coach Jim Hayes passes away at age 58 |
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| Written by Sylvain Rey and Abigail Howlett | ||||
| Tuesday, 27 May 2008 08:23 PM | ||||
 InformationA memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday in the Physical Education Building practice gym.Memorials may be sent to: Movin’ Mavs Campus Recreation, UTA Box 19268 Arlington, TX. 76019 End textbox He sustained a spinal cord injury to his fifth, sixth and seventh cervicals on his 18th birthday by diving off a boat into knee-deep water, said Hayes’ sister, Laura Kelsey. Upon his admission into the hospital, Kelsey said doctors told Hayes “If you can make it tonight, you will make it.” She said the accident plunged him into a depression, but he recovered after his sister’s marriage. “He realized he only had his head and his hands left,” Kelsey said. “He had to get the knowledge and then could help tell others they were not handicapped.” In more than 30 years of being affiliated with the university, Hayes was vital in lobbying the university to become a wheelchair-friendly environment. Hayes graduated from the university in 1974, where he was president of Handicapped Student Association and the UTA student body. He also served as the coordinator of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 1976, he helped found the Office for Students with Disabilities, of which he became the director. Ten years later, he wheeled a 205-mile trek in 25 hours to earn $15,000 for the Helping Restore Ability organization when it was in financial difficulties. “When I talk to students, I always tell them an anecdote [about Jim Hayes],” said Dianne P. Hengst, current director of the Office for Students with Disabilities. “Jim picked a major according to what building he had access to. It was math or history. But he hated math.” After graduating with a history degree, Hayes worked hard to make all buildings accessible, Hengst said. “He went the extra mile for students,” said Hengst. “When I was assistant director, we spent hours talking to students to have access to housing. He was truly devoted to the university.” Hayes was the key component in creating the Movin’ Mavs in 1989, Douglas Kuykendall, student development assistant vice president, said. The birth of the basketball team was a positive side effect to the university’s mission to become more wheel-chair friendly. “There had been a concerted effort on the part of the university to recruit students in wheelchairs,” he said. “As students started coming to the campus, there was an interest in creating an athletic team.” The effort began as a club because there were not enough participants to create an intercollegiate team, Kent Gardner, College of Education lecturer, said. Kuykendall said the Movin’ Mavs were originally called “Free Wheelers,” and taught adaptive physical education for students in wheelchairs. As the team got more support from the university, and more interested participants, the team joined the intercollegiate association and received a name change. Hayes had been the only head coach of the Movin’ Mavs from its inception until his passing. Hengst, who knew Hayes for 10 years, said that his sense of humor would be missed. “When someone asked, ‘How are you doing?’ he would reply ‘Not too bad for a short, fat, balding guy.’ Everyone knew that he would say that,” she said. Hayes won a gold medal in the 1984 Paralympic Games as a wheelchair road racer and was honored in October 2000 with the Man of the Year award by the group Helping Restore Ability for his continuing services benefiting people with disabilities. During his career as coach of the Movin’ Mavs, Hayes led the team to seven National Wheelchair Basketball Association Championship titles. His team includes several players who participated in international sporting events such as the Paralympic Games in 2006. He also founded the Wheelchair and Basketball Program and the Adaptive Resource Center, a technological and testing center for students with disabilities, comprising technological resources unique in Texas. “He never wanted to be in the main light,” Kelsey said. “If a student needed something, he would provide it, sometimes of his own pocket. The team was his boys.”  University president James Spaniolo said more than the awards hanging in Texas Hall will be Hayes’ legacy. “He was a gracious and humble man with a huge heart and intensely competitive spirit who inspired us all,” he said. “He motivated students at UT-Arlington and beyond, not only to complete their degree, but to rise above any challenge faced.” Hayes’ girlfriend, Julie Duncan, said he always put up a front but would do anything for anyone. “He had two looks – either a scowl or a cheesy grin,” Duncan said. Kelsey called her brother a giver and recalls he particularly enjoyed fishing. “He was always there,” said Doug Garner, Movin’ Mavs assistant coach. “Even if [a student] called at three in the morning, he was always there.” Movin’ Mavs player Mariano Rodriguez said he didn’t have the grades to make it to the university but Hayes told him if he worked hard he would give him a scholarship. “He didn’t care who you were – he saw the best in you,” he said. “I wasn’t supposed to be in college, but he gave me the opportunity.” Duncan said Hayes expected his players to be gentlemen on the court as well as off. Movin’ Mavs player Tim Caldwell said Hayes didn’t focus solely on basketball but taught his athletes how to do better in school and at life. Caldwell, whose dad died when he was 12, felt Hayes was a father figure to him. “[Hayes} would always ask ‘Who do you want to be?’ ” he said. Caldwell said his best memory of Hayes was when one of his teammates, Danny Fik, was paired up with Hayes for a practice exercise. Fik was dragging Hayes’ chair behind him when he took a turn too sharply and Hayes was knocked out of his chair. “Coach was laying on his back laughing,” Caldwell said. Administrative assistant Elsa Corral met Hayes when she worked in campus housing where two of his first scholarship recipients lived. She described him as stubborn but good-hearted. “[It was hard] trying to get him to do things like eat and go see the doctor when he didn’t feel well,” she said. “He always took care of everyone else first.” Corral feels shocked that he is gone. At every sports banquet, Corral said Hayes made sure he had a rose for all the female coaches, the players’ dates and her. “It feels like the end of an era when it comes to him,” she said. “He is just a wonderful man, and I am going to miss him tremendously.” Views: 4227 | E-mail
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