Jack Haskin

Jack Haskin

Full Name:  Glenn Arthur Haskin
     Born:  June 25, 1905, Robinson, Ill.
     Died:  April 28, 1993, Tallahassee, Fla.

Legacy Bricks:  Legacy Walk Map Link
   1979 Coach HOF - Loc 19

FSU Career

Coaches & Administrators
C

Member of the FSU Hall of Fame

Elected into the FSU Hall of Fame in 1979

In 1947, the year Florida State became a coeducational institution, Jack Haskin founded the Flying High Circus. Under Haskin's direction, the FSU Circus grew from a small show in an old Army gymnasium to a nationally recognized organization. For seventeen years, Haskin taught in Florida State's Department of Recreation. His foresight and creativity in developing the circus has given FSU a unique recognition as well as a rare opportunity for gymnasts and other athletes at Florida State to perform in a non-competitive environment. Every spring when the Flying High Circus tent is raised on the Florida State campus, it stands as a memorial to its founder Jack Haskin.

Obituary for Jack Haskin.

From the Tallahassee Democrat, May 1, 1993, page 30.

Haskin: An FSU football pioneer.
FSU Flying High Circus founder Jack Haskin, who died on Wednesday, was the football program's first assistant coach.
By Steve Ellis, Democrat staff writer

Jack Haskin was asked in 1947 to join this state's newest coeducational university and help establish two programs. Nearly five decades later, Florida State University's Flying High Circus and its football program are the school's most noted non-academic endeavors.

His work as founder of the Flying High Circus is known internationally. Under Haskin's direction until 1965, when he left FSU for Kent State, the circus had toured Europe and established a working relationship with Callaway Gardens in Georgia.

Haskin, who died at age 87 on Wednesday, also was FSU's first assistant football coach, and only assistant under Ed Williamson in the program's inaugural season.

Haskin arrived in Tallahassee from Madison, Wis., where he worked in the city recreation department for Howard Danford, who became FSU's first athletic director.

There were no players, no equipment and no team nickname when Haskin and Williamson began. Nor was there financial aid, and the team went winless in five games the first season.

The two coaches were responsible for every aspect of the program's operation that first season, their only one at FSU. In addition to being the backfield coach, Haskin acted as trainer - taking up to three hours a day to tape half of the team's 60 players. Williamson did the other half.

A year later, Williamson made way for Don Veller, and Haskin turned his attention to being the "circus coach." In his short stay on the football field, Haskin left an impression upon his players.

"He was well liked by everybody," said Jack Tully, a starting guard on the 1947 club. "Nobody didn't like Jack. He was a reserved person.

"(Williamson and Haskin) worked well together as a pair. Those two had to do it all. They looked forward to the program growing, but Haskin's heart was on the circus and everybody understood. They all helped Veller every way they could."

Apparently Haskin's passion for the circus carried over to the football field where he put flare into pregame warm-ups.

"We were not much of a football team," halfback Wyatt "Red" Parrish once said with a laugh, "but when we lined up in three rings for those pregame warm-ups, we were the best in the world."

When Veller took over the head coaching reigns, Haskin and Williamson had put some things in place.

"He didn't have background (in football) but he asked to fill in," said Veller, FSU's head coach from 1948-52. "That was the year before I got here but they started with pretty much nothing.

"After that he taught in the recreation department and, of course, he had the circus. That circus was big."

There was a time, it may have been bigger than the football program Haskin had helped start. Halftime performances by the Flying High Circus stole the show at least twice during the 1949 season.

Haskin was inducted into the FSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1979. He was recognized by the Florida Legislature in 1986 when it named the Flying Circus complex in honor of Haskin.

Memorial services for Haskin will be at 2 p.m. today at Killearn United Methodist Church. Contributions may be made to the Jack Haskin Endowment Fund for the Florida State University Circus.

FSU Statistics