In the fifth episode of Season 2 of “Where I Come From” — a World-Herald podcast — host Dirk Chatelain sits down for an in-depth interview with Omaha North principal Gene Haynes, the first African-American high school head coach in Nebraska.
The podcast, which features extended conversations with Nebraska’s most prominent and interesting sports figures, goes beyond the daily soundbites and clichés to offer access you can’t get anywhere else. Who are these people and how did they get where they are? What life experiences changed them? What have they learned?
In this episode, Haynes discusses growing up in Mississippi, the mentors who drove him to succeed, shuttling Johnny Rodgers to high school practices, his approach to social grievances and what’s keeping him from retirement.
“The fall of 1962, that’s when James Meredith…
