{"id":79759,"date":"2026-09-29T12:57:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T16:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/?p=79759"},"modified":"2026-09-29T12:57:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T16:57:46","slug":"remembering-dennis-haskins-his-home-and-heart-were-always-in-chattanooga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.utc.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/remembering-dennis-haskins-his-home-and-heart-were-always-in-chattanooga\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Dennis Haskins: His home and heart were always in Chattanooga"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dennis

Dennis Haskins shows his Mocs pride before UTC\u2019s 2017 football game against UT Martin. Photo by Angela Foster.<\/p><\/div>\n

When Dennis Haskins\u2019 name was called at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga\u2019s fall 2015 commencement, he crossed the stage in cap and gown at age 65, accepting the bachelor\u2019s degree in theatre that had been unfinished business for decades.<\/p>\n

Someone had queued up the \u201cSaved by the Bell\u201d theme.<\/p>\n

It was funny, of course. It also fit.<\/p>\n

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: \u201cHey, hey, hey, hey, what is going on here?\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Haskins died Sunday, Sept. 27, at age 75.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cSaved by the Bell\u201d to the UTC Library, the conversation quickly turned to Chattanooga and UTC.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy home and my heart are in Chattanooga,\u201d Haskins said in an interview shortly after the UTC Library event. \u201cI\u2019ve been in California longer than I\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n