Hall of Fame
Leland ‘Lee’ Hafen was the Dixie College basketball coach from 1926 to 1936. The yearbooks of that time referred to the college as the ‘upper division’, and the high school as the ‘lower division’. This system continued until the current college campus was established in the 1960s. Both of Coach Lee’s college and high school teams established winning records during his tenure. Dixie College won one Intermountain Collegiate Athletic Conference (I.C.A.C.) title, one southern division title, and came in second four times in their division. Dixie High School won thirteen division titles qualifying them to play in the state basketball tournament. At the tournaments they placed second three times, third two times, and played four times in the consolation championship game. In 1928 the team won the state championship, and was invited to play in the National High School Basketball Championship in Chicago, Illinois where they made it to the semi-finals.
Upon Coach Lee’s retirement from coaching in 1946, he served as the Dean of Men and Director of Athletics at Dixie College until 1957. He continued teaching political science and history until his death on November 23, 1959
Coach Lee was not only an outstanding coach, he was the personification of what became known as the “Dixie Spirit”. He wore his Dixie ‘love’ on his sleeve, speaking of the virtues of Southern Utah and its Dixie wherever he went. At his memorial service his cousin, State Senator Orville Hafen, stated that he was once asked about the origins of this thing called “Dixie Spirit”. He responded: “On the red hill we can see ‘Dixie’ painted on the sandstone, on the black hill we can see the big ‘D’ washed in white and in the valley between there is Lee Hafen”.
