As Texas Western, the Miners won the 1966 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

The title team has been chronicled throughout the American media, including the book And the Walls Came Tumbling Down by Frank Fitzpatrick in 1999[3] and the 2006 Disney movie Glory Road.

Kent Lockhart, a member of the UTEP team in the early 1980s, played for several years in the Australian professional league where he averaged over 25 ppg.

With fans seated extremely close to the playing floor and the UTEP student section located near the opponent's bench, "The Don" is so notorious as a tough place for opponents to win that UTEP has historically had difficulty convincing top-rated teams to play there.

"The Don" is the home of the UTEP Miners, who were the first Division I Men's National Basketball Champions in the state of Texas (1966).