“Five starters, two subs. Forty minutes, seven players. I’m only going to play the Black players in the final game tomorrow. Just you.”
That was the moment when Texas Western head coach Don Haskins, played by Josh Lucas in the movie “Glory Road”, decided to dispel negative stereotypes about Black athletes and make history by starting five Black players in the NCAA title game against Adolph Rupp and the Kentucky Wildcats.
While the two-decades old movie was powerful and remains a must-see sports film, the true story it depicted, which celebrated its 60th anniversary on March 19th, is obviously much more important, particularly in the current time we’re living in.
The NCAA Championship won by the Texas Western miners in 1966 is honored by sports fans, but with Black history (and people) under attack, it’s a moment that seems to feel less relevant in today’s society ruled by ignorance.
Yet it’s a moment whose relevance, and importance, has never been more significant precisely because of what we’re experiencing in America.
In 1966, the Texas Western Miners endured racist attacks and threats to finish with one loss during (Seattle) the regular season. In the movie, the tournament game against Kansas was the featured moment, which they won in 2OT. Yet the round prior the Miners needed overtime as well to beat Cincinnati.
After defeating Kansas, Haskins’ squad beat Utah to reach the Tournament Championship game against Kentucky, a team featuring Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley and zero Black players.
In response to the questions of whether Black players were “smart enough” or simply good enough to win a championship, Haskins started Bobby Joe Hill, David Lattin, Orsten Artis, Willie Worsley and Harry Flournoy, the first all-Black starting lineup in NCAA Championship game history, and brought Nevil Shed and Willie Cager off the bench.
A seven player rotation for a championship winning team that finished the year at 28-1 and was enshrined into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.
The game took place during the Civil Rights era, so this game carried additional meaning off the court as the team was fighting for respect on the court as much as they were fighting for it in the streets.
They faced questions about whether they had the intelligence, not just the athleticism, to win.
“There was a certain style of play whites expected from blacks,” said Perry Wallace, who became the first Black basketball player in the SEC when he played for Vanderbilt in 1967. “`Ni**er ball’ they used to call it. Whites then thought that if you put five blacks on the court at the same time, they would somehow revert to their native impulses.”
“Rod Hundley, the former West Virginia and Lakers star, had the funny quote of the tournament when he was talking about Texas Western,” wrote the Baltimore Sun’s John W. Stewart the weekend of the game. “`They can do everything with the basketball but sign it.'”
In the streets, those vile thoughts were sometimes complemented with greater physicality than they experienced under the boards.
This experience is what today’s athletes don’t know about thanks to the political white-washing of Black history, the elimination of Black history courses, the restriction of Black books and the big money of college sports that blind far too many Black athletes from learning about the past.
By not learning about the past, these athletes are purposely denied the recognition, understanding and motivation to fight back against a system that has hampered them in so many ways.
That’s why the history of the Texas Western team must be told to today’s generation for it isn’t just sports history, it’s Black history and a part of American history that so many wish to cover up.
And it must be told in the context of the events of that time.
The Miners proved that Black athletes had everything it took to win, and three years after that humbling defeat, Rupp recruited Tom Payne, the first Black player in Kentucky basketball history.
Looking at that pivotal moment in 1966 in the context of American history provides you with a stronger understanding and appreciation of its significance.
Two years prior, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination by race, sex, color and religion, banned employment discrimination and ended segregation in schools and public areas.
In 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom. A month later, peaceful Black protesters were beaten in Selma, AL on “Bloody Sunday”. Five months later, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed discriminatory voting practices.
In 1966, the “Black Power” movement began its rise through the leadership of Stokely Carmichael.
Two years later, Martin Luther King was assassinated and John Carlos and Tommie Smith held their Black gloved fists in the air at the Mexico City Olympics.
And right in the middle of it all was a tiny school in western Texas that dispelled the foolish belief that Black athletes weren’t smart enough to win.
Unfortunately, that victory doesn’t get its rightful place in Black history.
Far too many people don’t understand that it wasn’t just a moment in sports but a moment that deserves recognition within Civil Rights history.
It’s a shame how many Black millennials don’t know about the 1966 Texas Western Miners, the movie “Glory Road” or that Texas Western is now known as the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP).
Many more don’t even know that, as per ESPN, coach Haskins was actually the first coach of a major college team in history to start five Black players in ANY game, and that took place earlier that season before the championship game against Kentucky.
But worst of all, they don’t know that the Texas Western Miners proved exactly what Black people are still having to prove in this era of anti-DEI, anti-Woke outrage and glaring inhumanity.
That Black people are capable of anything and everything.
And that’s why Black history must be taught, learned, cherished and protected.
