In the early 60s, Texas Western U struck a blow for equality. A story you should know!

[Are_grits_groceries]

Texas Western is now known as UTEP.

This is the first part of the story:

A Night To Remember
If you were in front of the television on the evening of March 19, 1966, you might have witnessed what many have since described as "the most important game in the history of college basketball," Texas Western's 72-65 upset of Kentucky in the NCAA championship final. This was the night in which the Miners' all-black starting lineup (a first in NCAA title game history) and two reserves, also black, toppled coach Adolph Rupp's all-white Wildcats. The story was so compelling that in recent years Texas Western coach Don Haskins received several overtures to turn the tale into a movie before producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Black Hawk Down) persuaded him to serve as a consultant for Glory Road, which opened nationwide last week.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1106466/index.htm

The fact that Don Haskins played an all-black starting lineup was radical in itself. To top it off, they beat the powerhouse, all-white Kentucky squad coached by Adolph Rupp. Haskins didn't give a shit what anybody said to him.
The movie 'Glory Road' is about this team.

However, there is a very important backstory to the beginnings of that team that is less known. It deserves to be.

Early Step On The Road To Glory
The unlikely genesis of Texas Western's historic NCAA title
<snip>
But on the eve of a new college hoops season an obscure footnote to that story has surfaced, and it provides a worthy new insight into how a predominantly white school in the old Confederacy came to recruit a bounty of black players, even before passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

In college in the 1940s, "seven of the top 10 guys on the team were ," says Williams, who as a result got a taste of discrimination: After road games players had to take all-night bus rides home because few motels around the Southwest would accommodate them.

Turns out the answer begins in the spring of 1962 with the friendship of two men, both from the El Paso barrio and neither of them Hispanic: Bert Williams, a white city alderman and former Miners basketball captain, and Nolan Richardson, an African-American hoops player then in his junior year at Texas Western (now known as UTEP). Richardson, who would go on to coach Arkansas to the 1994 NCAA title, was a good enough outfielder to be offered a contract by the Houston Colt .45s, and Williams roped him into ringer duty on his softball team. After a game the two swung by the Oasis, a restaurant owned by former mayor Fred Hervey. Richardson knew exactly how they'd be received, but Williams dared their waitress to deny them service. "She looked me in the eye—she wouldn't look at Nolan—and said, 'I can't serve him,'" says Williams, now 83. "I went into my whole 'Don't be that way, these are different times' mode. Jack Kennedy had just come into office pushing civil rights. She didn't budge. I said, 'I'll be back.'"
<snip>
Adds Rus Bradburd, a former Haskins assistant whose forthcoming biography of Richardson, Forty Minutes of Hell, highlights the Oasis incident, "This wasn't like Rosa Parks, who had the entire civil rights movement behind her. This was a Power of One kind of story."

Or a Power of One Thing Leads to Another kind of story. As Richardson says, "You could say Pájaro was ahead of his time. And you could say that he was right on time."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1162929/index.htm

Williams didn't do what he did for fame or glory. In fact, he took a lot of shit for his attitude. However, he didn't waver from what he felt was right.

Don Haskins has become a well known figure in the history of BB and in general. Williams is one of those people you never hear about. He walked the walk though.

[Democrat 4 Ever]

1. This makes for a good movie but there is more to the story

than Rupp and the Kentucky team were racists. Several years before this game Rupp, as Kentucky's coach, wanted to recruit Africian-American players. He was told in no uncertain terms that if he did then none of the teams in the SEC would play them. This included teams like Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida to just name a few. He was also told he would not be able to house and feed any black players and that the whole team would be in danger if they ventured off of the campus for road games. Rupp only cared about people who could play the game but it was the 50s and 60s and he couldn't fight the whole world. Rupp would have played a whole team of purple, polka-dotted aliens if they could hit shots, run defense and win games. Rupp was a damn fine coach and he doesn't deserve this smear of his coaching for a movie which is light on a few of the facts. This in no way takes anything away from Don Haskins or the Texas Western team. They played a great game and certainly deserved to win but not at the expense of a legend.

And, yes, I'm a big Kentucky fan.

[angstlessk]

2. So, you are saying Kentucky is more racist than Texas?

Seems all the same shit was put to the Texas coach..and he poo poohed them...

[taterguy]

3. I hate to defend UK but the circumstances may have been different

Even Dean Smith, who was as liberal as any basketball coach that ever lived, didn't manage to integrate UNC as fast as he wanted.

Of course like most Internet posters I'm generally talking out of my ass since I'm not completely familiar with the circumstances that both schools were in at the time.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. University of Houston was one of the first schools down

there to have African-American athletes as well, during my four years of college 1964-68. If I remember right, Ole Miss wouldn't allow our athletes onto their field and the game had to be played in another state.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

7. First name that came to mind was "Elvin Hayes".

I'm no jock and no sports fan. I went to the U of H in the 70s and remembered that name. And Clyde Drexler.

[Blue_In_AK]

8. Yes, indeed.

I believe the first black athlete at UH was Warren McVey for the football team, and then Elvin for basketball.

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. "at the expense of a legend.'

The story isn't about Rupp. The story is about a coach who played an all-black starting lineup in the early 1960s.
if you read the backstory, there were a couple of other people taking a stand.

That Kentucky was their opponent was one of those cosmic quirks of fate. Rupp does take the brunt of it for the whole SEC. However, of all the people who could have stood up and pushed back, Rupp probably could have done it. He was a great coach and a legend.

Dean Smith brought Charlie Scott to UNC in 1966. He was the first African-American scholarship athlete there. Smith had only been the coach since 1961 at UNC, and he didn't have much standing yet.

Rupp was wrongly the face of racism. However, I will believe to my dying day that he could have done more.

BTW Calipari is a good coach, and he should set the program up well. He has a go to player in Patterson. However, if he can't keep his nose clean, Kentucky will pay the price. He shouldn't have as much trouble recruiting for KY. There are more quality programs going after recruits, but I still thing KY has enough cachet to pull more in. I am not a Kentucky fan per se, but I think it is a much better game overall when they are up.

[Are_grits_groceries]

6. dupe