Scotty Harjo, a longtime coach, mentor and icon at Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas, died on Wednesday. He was 78.

Harjo was Seminole and Creek from Oklahoma. He came to Haskell in 1957, bringing a positive and warm attitude to the school, friends said. He took Haskell students, who usually came from destitute reservations, under his wing. He and his wife, Esther, were known to open their home in the summer to students who had nowhere else to go.

"I spent a summer with them, and they never charged me a thing," Phil Homeratha, the Haskell women's basketball coach, told The Lawrence Journal-World. "It wasn�t because they didn�t need the money; it was because they cared about me. They didn�t want to burden me; they wanted me to be successful."

Harjo served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He earned two Bronze Stars for his service.

Funeral services are scheduled for Monday, 11am, at the First Southern Baptist Church in Lawrence.

Get the Story:
Haskell icon and longtime coach Scotty Harjo dies at 78 (The Lawrence Journal-World 2/24)

Relevant Links:
Haskell Indian Nations University - http://www.haskell.edu

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