[6] Also, they were not invited on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was customary for the NCAA Champions. Theirstory was on the the cover of Sports illustrated on March 28, 1966, with the headline "Texas Western Takes it All" witha photo of Flournoy stealing a rebound from Riley. We were successful in kicking their booty., After Texas Westerns 72-65 victory over Kentucky, there was virtually no mention in the media about race. The Disney movie took liberties. If we could have just gone over and shook their hands. W. Stewart in the Baltimore Sun that weekend. The hate came from both sides. It didnt matter to me. The Miners, ranked fourth in the nation, improved to 18-0 with the win. Bobby Joe Hill scored 20 points and Nevil Shed had 16 in the first half alone as the Miners took a commanding 55-30 lead at the intermission. But that wasnt the same thing as President (Lyndon) Johnson), Cager said. Through the years, before his death in 2008, Haskins repeatedlysaid he didn't play an all-Black starting five to make a social statement. The Miners, now 23-1, will travel Sunday to Wichita, Kan., where they will open the NCAA Tournament against Oklahoma City University on Monday. renamed the University of Texas at El Paso. This was a landmark night and although the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education decision and Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racial segregation in the public school system, it was still common to find all-white college sports teams, particularly in the South. This is where history and Hollywood converge, and new truths become part of the story. section: | slug: significance-of-texas-westerns-1966-ncaa-title-not-realized-at-first | sport: collegebasketball | route: article_single.us | The American . Walt Wesley, the 6-foot-11 Kansas center, scored first in overtime but the Miners' David Lattin scored off a rebound with 3:02 to play, tying the game at 71-71. I knew it as the championship game. But then the Miners' full-court pressure kept the Aggies from getting the ball across mid-court for the next two minutes. Coach Haskins did say he had some threatening mail and phone calls. Browse 69 texas western 1966 photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. Get their watches. pic.twitter.com/CjYykMS62n, After Texas Western secured the win, white Kentucky fans, who had been waving Confederate flags, sat speechless. All rights reserved. I never knew that. pic.twitter.com/QixgpCRVA7. jungle wire.". TWC also led by seven points in the final half but Colorado State refused to go away. 6-keys: media/spln/collegebasketball/reg/free/stories, By pressing sign up, I confirm that I have read and agree to the. It was the first. When you do something for someone else, its a legacy that lasts forever.. The Miner defense was again strong, holding the Wildcats to just 36.4 percent shooting from the field. Texas Western led 42-32 at the half and held the Lions to just 19 points in the final half, improving to 2-0 on the season. We wanted to carry that trophy out of there," he said. According to longtime Kentucky assistant Harry Lancaster's autobiography, Flournoy led the Miners with 17 rebounds while Lattin added nine boards. If basketball ever took a turn, that was it," said Nolan Richardson, the Arkansas coach And what they did that night has resonated for 50 years since.. He had never been on a plane. Until that moment, at the height of the civil-rights era, no major-college 2001, you'll see more athletic talent at many high school games. Rupp, after his first meeting with Oswald, told Lancaster, "Harry, that son March Madness fans will remember the 2020 tournament as the competition that never happened. In this March 19, 1966, file photo, Texas Western basketball coach Don Haskins, second from left, and players celebrate after winning the NCAA basketball championship in College Park, Md.. Princeton-Dartmouth on a Friday night in January. Haskins replied, Same way I do white guys.. blacks continued to start for the Miners. She took his hand and walked him through the airport. Those two layups gave the Miners and an Hispanic, none of whom played that night -- four graduated. "I had been listening to all this damn crap out of him," said Haskins. Enter a date in the format M/D (e.g., 1/1), Texas Western defeats Kentucky in NCAA final, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/texas-western-defeats-kentucky-in-ncaa-finals, Elvis Presley puts a down payment on Graceland, Bodies found in Yosemite serial killer case. Kentucky was a prohibitive favorite in the 1966 national championship game: think Sonny Liston versus Cassius Clay in Miami in 1964, Mike Tyson against Buster Douglass in Tokyo in 1990 and 40th Street Black versusBootney FarnsworthinLets Do It Again. "We didn't see Black and white. Even during the game when competition was heated, the trash talk never went there. Willie Cager led the Miners in scoring with 18 points. The 196566 Texas Western basketball team faced many issues due to racism. Texas Western Upsets Kentucky for N.C.A.A. The Miners improved to 7-0 on the 1965-66 season by dominating South Dakota 88-42 in the tournament's semifinals. She heldhis hand during the flight. In 1966 his team won the NCAA tournament over the Wildcats of the University of Kentucky, coached by Adolph Rupp. It made it possible for kids to go to major universities, especially in the deep South, and not just for basketball. The 1965-66 Texas Western Miners basketball team was headed by Hall of Fame head coach Don Haskins and represented Texas Western College, now the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). JoJo White rushed down the floor and heaved one up from the left side as time ran out. Harry Flournoy had 19 rebounds, Shed had 12 and David Lattin had 10. Its my legacy. The bigger change, of course, came in the South. superior rebounding stifled Kentucky. Julia Worsley barked at her son when he told her Haskins wanted him to play at Texas Western. 1949 - College of Mines name changed to Texas Western College of the University of Texas. Coach Haskins saved his life. Throughout the season, the Texas Western players faced racial discrimination and bullying. They were known as Rupp's runts. I got mail from Blacks, saying that I was exploiting Black kids,Haskins said. Haskins stormed in, smelling of the cigarettes he'd smoked that day. And already on the team when Haskins arrived was Nolan Richardson, who went on tobecome the first Black coach at a major university in the south at Arkansas. Arizona led four times, each time by one point. Ray suggested Rupp had only one black player on his rosters in his 41 years of coaching in Lexington. David Lattin was a lot bigger than anybody, and the guards for Texas Western were really good. v. t. e. The Texas Revolution (October 2, 1835 - April 21, 1836) was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) in putting up armed resistance to the centralist government of Mexico. Willie Worsley added 11 points for Texas Western. Hill and Shed led the Miners for the entire game, each scoring 20 points and neither playing a great deal in the final half. Fifty years later, the tributes to Texas Western (now known as the University of Texas-El Paso) keep coming. "He treated us all the same, like (expletive deleted)," said Worsley. All-white leagues like the Atlantic Coast Conference, Southwestern Conference, and Southeastern Conference became integrated within the next two years. David Lattin led TWC with 14 points, 11 rebounds. After the NCAA championship, Haskins received more than 40,000 pieces of hate mail for starting five Black players, he latertold theL.A. Times. Unusual for its time, the NCAA broadcast the game in black and white on TV, as the New York Times reports. The game was played during an era of racial unrest and as the civil rights movement was gaining power. Bobby Joe Hill had 17, Cager had 15 and Orsten Artis had 11 points to pace TWC. Nevil Shed finished with 13 points while Harry Flournoy scored 12. court, he confronted his two guards about the steals," recalled Eddie The Miners, who have already been selected for the NCAA Tournament, have only one regular season game left, a Saturday night date at the University of Seattle. Afterward, he realized he hadnt shaken hands with his worthy opponents. The Miners, ranked fourth in the nation, improved to 17-0 on the season with Thursday's win. You were led to believe that Don Haskins played by Gig Harbor High School grad Josh Lucas coached Texas Western to the NCAA title a year removed from. Seattle led 39-36 at the half. On the other side of the track sat another goal. until Texas Western coach Don Haskins did it earlier that season, no As with most Hollywood sports biopics, although based on actual events, there are many inaccuracies in the movie. The team was eventually inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall Of Fame. On February 6, 2016, the now University Of Texas El Paso Miners held a reunion for the 1966 players at the Don Haskins Center. "What a piece of history. How about that? The two teams finished regulation tied at 67-67. Claiborne, who was Dukes first black basketball player and became a business professor at Texas Southern. I had a couple. "I had it pretty good," he said. Vic Bubas always said that his 1966 team was his best. "That game was the catalyst that opened athletic, academic and employment doors for those who followed us. President Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers. March 17, 2016 at 9:55 a.m. EDT. Still, Rupp held out. Iowa narrowly avoided an upset at the hands of Arkansas as Gerry Jones got a tip in at the buzzer for the victory. The Miners held Tulsa to just 37.7 percent shooting from the field. Texas Western held on to outlast UTAH 85-78 Friday night in the NCAA semifinals in front of 14,253 fans in Cole Field House in College Park, Md. a rigidly patterned offense, "We were more white-oriented than any of the other teams in the Final The crowd is white. 2004-2023 CBS Interactive. point to prove. "They didn't know what to write. quickly. In 1966, American cultural and sporting mythology insisted at least one Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. As Texas Western, the Miners won the 1966 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. A rematch between the two teams was played at 8 p.m. on Saturday, the following day, in Memorial Gym. Orsten Artis led the Miners with 22 points. The Miners improved to 26-1 on the season with the win over Kansas while the Jayhawks ended their season at 23-4. Texas Western simply crushed East Texas State in the second half on the way to a 73-51 win on a Thursday night, Dec. 9, in game two of that 1965-66 championship season. But it was not to be. snapped. TWC improved to 11-0 on the season, leaving the Miners and the University of Kentucky as the only two undefeated teams in the nation perhaps a bit foreshadowing. Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 19 points. were reluctant to play for him. Texas Western celebrated. Finally, after two overtime and tons of tension, Texas Western edged Kansas 81-80 in front of 8,200 breathless fans in Lubbock Memorial Auditorium on Saturday night, March 12, 1966. The Miners improved to 22-0 with two regular season games remaining one at New Mexico State, one at Seattle with a big second half run in front of a sellout crowd of 5,200 in Memorial Gym. The team was immortalized in the 2006 film Glory Road. every Southern conference, even the SEC, had integrated basketball teams. 1966: Miners edge Kansas, 81-80, in overtimes. Although the uprising was part of a larger one . Riley worked his way into the Texas Western locker room on his own and remembers seeing pure joy,as USA Today details. The Lobos came right back and took a 58-56 lead with 1:04 to play. 4 Iowa, were ranked ninth in the nation on that first Monday of 1966. Florida State started five 1965: TWC takes 67-47 win over Pan American. Texas Western made 17 of 25 second-half shots to race away from West Texas State Thursday night, Feb. 24, 1966, in front of a sellout crowd of 3,700 in Canyon, Texas. On hisside of the track, literally right by the track, there was a basketball goal. Texas Western edged Fresno State 75-73 on Friday night, Dec. 17, 1965 with an injured Bobby Joe Hill watching from the sidelines. The players did not feel the way the coach felt," he said. Don Haskins, the coach who hastened the full integration of college basketball when he started five black players for Texas Western College against an all-white University of Kentucky team and. three came within a semester of their degrees and have not suffered because You can navigate days by using left and right arrows. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), Current one is: March 19. in 1977, the old coach lamented to visitors about the loss. disciplined game of them all.". "Isay it with love becauseyou couldn't tell the 12th person from the No. The Miners improved to 14-0 with the win and joined Kentucky as the only two undefeated teams in the nation. Texas Western's coach Don Haskins, who recruited black players, made sure it didn't happen. do?". Chambers still managed to score 38 points in the game. The 1966 Texas Western basketball team now the University of Texas at El. At Northern colleges, where the unwritten rule for coaches had been, "Two
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