Remembering Dennis Haskins: His home and heart were always in Chattanooga

When Dennis Haskins’ name was called at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s fall 2015 commencement, he crossed the stage in cap and gown at age 65, accepting the bachelor’s degree in theatre that had been unfinished business for decades.

Someone had queued up the “Saved by the Bell” theme.

It was funny, of course. It also fit.

For most of the country, Dennis Haskins was Principal Richard Belding, the man trying to keep order at Bayside High while Zack Morris and his friends found new ways to test his patience, who delivered the line generations of viewers came to know: “Hey, hey, hey, hey, what is going on here?”

For Chattanooga and UTC, he was much more than a familiar face from a television classic. He was a native son who found success in Hollywood but never stopped talking about the city and University that had given him his start.

Haskins died Sunday, Sept. 27, at age 75.

His career spanned decades and included more than 90 acting credits. But when Haskins returned to campus in 2016 to donate his personal working scripts from every episode of “Saved by the Bell” to the UTC Library, the conversation quickly turned to Chattanooga and UTC.

Haskins lived in California for most of his adult life after moving west in 1980. But when asked where home was, he had a ready answer.

“My home and my heart are in Chattanooga,” Haskins said in an interview shortly after the UTC Library event. “I’ve been in California longer than I’ve been in Chattanooga, but the most important years of my life, high school, college, were in Chattanooga. You know what I mean … the blue and the gold.”

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Haskins attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Notre Dame High School before enrolling at UTC. He arrived with basketball on his mind, walking onto the Mocs team after not making the roster at the University of Tennessee. Basketball opened doors. So did people.

Leon Ford, then UTC’s athletic director, became an adviser and encouraged Haskins to take a theatre course after learning of his interest in it.

Haskins’ connection to performing had started even earlier, when he was a sixth grader at Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Longtime UTC theatre professor Dorothy Hackett Ward cast him in a production of “Pinocchio.” For three weeks after school, he went to the UTC campus to rehearse with college students.

“That’s where I fell in love with theater,” he said.

He recalled that UTC was where he learned how to bring people together, promote an event and work a room.

Haskins served as social director for Kappa Sigma fraternity, became involved with the University’s entertainment committee and later became its chairman. The job put him in the middle of the music business, booking artists and attending national conventions. He helped bring Ike and Tina Turner to campus in 1973. He was involved in the Drama Club, Harlequins, Blue Key Honor Fraternity and the Raven’s Society. He reported for The University Echo. He helped organize the annual “Freaks vs. Fuzz” basketball game, which raised scholarship money for children of UTC and Chattanooga police officers.

Haskins spent 10 years in the Chattanooga music business, working with artists, arranging shows, and learning the behind-the-scenes work that prepared him for an entertainment career.

Although he left UTC without a degree, he didn’t leave without an education. The University remained a constant part of his life, and he remained one of its most recognizable advocates.

His television career began with small roles, including appearances on “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “Magnum, P.I.” He later appeared in “The West Wing,” “Mad Men,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and other series and films.

But his biggest and best-known role was Mr. Belding.

Haskins first played the character in Disney Channel’s “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” in 1988. The following year, the character moved to NBC’s “Saved by the Bell,” where Haskins became the steady adult presence in a show built around teenage mischief. He continued in the role through the original series and “Saved by the Bell: The New Class.”

The character brought him national recognition. Haskins never seemed bothered by being known as Mr. Belding. He understood what the role had meant to viewers, and he enjoyed giving fans a little of what they came to see.

“Dennis had fans all over the world and of all ages,” said Steve Ray, head of UTC’s Department of Theatre. “I never went anywhere with him that fans did not approach him. He was always gracious.

“Dennis was a very gifted person. He was a talented actor, speaker and businessman. Perhaps his greatest talent was his ability to inspire others to believe in themselves. Our students always left conversations with him believing that they could pursue their dreams with confidence.”

Haskins also made a point of supporting the programs that shaped him.

“He himself was a fan of UTC, of its athletic programs and the arts on campus,” Ray said. “He took many opportunities to invest in our students and our programs.”

It also gave Haskins a way to stay close to UTC, even when he was thousands of miles away.

When Mack McCarthy’s Mocs basketball team made the Sweet 16 in 1997, Haskins recorded an introduction from the “Saved by the Bell” set. Behind him in Mr. Belding’s office was a photo of a basketball team. Every year, he replaced it with the current UTC team photo.

“It didn’t say Chattanooga on the picture, but it was the Mocs,” he said. “The Mocs were on the set with me every show.”

He wore a Mocs hat during an appearance on “Magnum, P.I.” When the production asked what it stood for, Haskins told them it could mean anything from a water moccasin to a Native American moccasin. But it meant more than that.

“It was my school,” he said, “so they let me wear it.”

When Haskins donated his “Saved by the Bell” scripts to the UTC Library, it started a conversation about the degree he had never completed. University staff reviewed his record and professional work. Ray reviewed the breadth of Haskins’ experience.

Haskins received credit for his continued work in his major field and completed his degree. In December 2015, four decades after leaving campus, he walked across the stage.

“He loved UTC,” Ray said. “He came back to UTC after a successful career in Hollywood to finish his degree. Completing his theatre degree meant a lot to him.”

The accomplishment mattered deeply to Haskins, not for publicity or because he thought it made a good story.

“It was a lifelong pursuit,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be about me. I wanted it to be about the experience of achieving a goal, no matter how long it took, and never giving up.

“It bothered me a lot, not having a degree, because I love this school. I kept thinking about it. It didn’t affect my career, because acting is constantly about auditions, getting parts and performing with different people. I’ve had some great experiences in that. But personally, I love this school so much, and the rest of my class, the friends I hung around with, they all graduated and got their degrees.”

He kept looking for a way to finish. In time, donating his “Saved by the Bell” scripts helped open that door.

“Forty years later, I found a way,” he said, “and when you least expect it, things happen. By giving these scripts back, it came back to me.

“So in December 2015, I went back to campus and walked and put on a cap and gown. It was an amazing experience. Then not too long after that, I got my class ring. It’s not just about how cool the ring is; it’s about what it represents, the journey. It was an amazing turn of events.”

Dennis Haskins photos courtesy of Angela Foster, UTC Special Collections and UTC photo archives