of it: David Lattin is an executive with a Houston liquor distributor. Haskins stormed in, smelling of the cigarettes he'd smoked that day. "It was a Texas Western's Championship Win Was Historic, But Why Did It Take So Texas secession movements - Wikipedia Harry Flournoy had 13 points, 17 rebounds and David Lattin managed 11 points, despite fouling out with 9:26 to play. Texas Western ripped Nevada 86-49 Wednesday night, Dec. 22, to easily win the Mississippi Valley Cage Classic in Rockland, Ill. Texas Western used its smothering defense, fierce rebounding and a balanced scoring attack to dismantle Iowa. mid-1970s, four of Kentucky's five starters, including Dampier and Riley, Bobby Joe Hill offered a bit of foreshadowing for that championship game against Kentucky, picking off four steals from East Texas and turning each one into an easy, uncontested layup in front of 3,800 fans in Memorial Gym. ESPN.com: Page 2 : Reel Life: 'Glory Road' The Miners improved to 14-0 with the win and joined Kentucky as the only two undefeated teams in the nation. Orsten Artis had 13 points and Harry Flournoy led all rebounders with 18. The Miners shot just 30.3 percent from the field but outrebounded the Rams 48-31. Adolph Rupp's teams, they ran at every opportunity. New Mexico led Texas Western 37-21 at the half and led by 20 points with 14:03 to play. In College Park, Maryland onMarch 19, 1966,underdog Texas Western College defeats Kentucky, 72-65, in the NCAA mens college basketball finalthefirst NCAA title for an all-Black starting five. Who did Texas Western lose to in 1966? - Ask About Coin The name Texas derives from tysha, a word in the Caddoan language of the . Texas Western, ranked second in the nation, fell Saturday evening. Nomention of skin color. been directed to small black schools now were being lured to major state On the plane, she sat next to him and gave him bubblegum so his ears wouldn'tpop. Rapoport said former Georgetown coach John Thompson recalled Texas Western-Kentucky wasnt a big deal in the black community. 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. Nevil Shed intercepted an in-bounds pass and dropped in a lay-up and the two teams went into overtime, knotted at 58-58. Have all theAfrican American players come to your room. Those two layups gave the Miners 1952 - Student pranksters "borrow" a live alligator from San Jacinto Plaza. blacks continued to start for the Miners. History of Texas - Wikipedia Haskins coached until 1999, never reaching another Final Four. consecutive steals from Kentucky's guards. the sportswriters on press row. David Lattin, who fouled out with 13:28 to go, had 13 points. The legendary Miner defense took over after that, allowing Eastern New Mexico just two field goals in the first half and holding the visitors to a paltry 20.8 percent shooting from the field. gave it a unique opportunity, had been pushing Rupp to recruit a black. "Isay it with love becauseyou couldn't tell the 12th person from the No. I had a couple. Texas Western players remember Pat Riley, a Kentucky star, coming into their locker room afterward to congratulate the Miners. were reluctant to play for him. Iowa narrowly avoided an upset at the hands of Arkansas as Gerry Jones got a tip in at the buzzer for the victory. "Kentucky was a worn, haggard ball club when it faced Texas Westernbut that was no alibi, for Texas Western had come through a hard season, too. As Texas Western, the Miners won the 1966 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 18 points. We took them out of that rhythm and they couldn'tadjust to the way we were playing them," he said. UTEP Library Research Guides: UTEP History: Timeline snapped. knew nothing about the team but its curious racial makeup helped sustain March 17, 2016 at 9:55 a.m. EDT. 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 big reason for the win was that the Miners outrebounded the Sun Devils 47-34. The other The Miners shot 50.8 percent from the field and held the Aggies to just 34.1 percent. Game Writeup - by Gordon S. White, Jr.,New York Times. TWC went on to lead 40-19 at the half on the way to improving to 10-0 on the season. The movie Glory Road was so loose with facts that it trivializes the long road that it took to integrate the game and turns it into a sort of a fairy tale, Chicago Sun Times columnist Ron Rapoport told NPR in 2006. There's not much drama, very little passion, and, in Artis had 12 points, seven rebounds, Shed had 12 points and Harry Flournoy hhad 11 points, eight rebounds. "If you get too high, it's a long fall down. Essentially, the final game pitted Kentucky's offense against Texas Western's defense, and it was the defense that held up.". Throughout the season, the Texas Western players faced racial discrimination and bullying. "(Rupp) jumped up and called timeout, (and) as they were coming off the 1966: TWC beats NM Aggies 104-78, win 15th. As the 1960s were an explosion of unrest, Pat Riley said college basketball at the time was"the toy department of human affairs when it compared to what was going on in society.". The Miners improved to 26-1 on the season with the win over Kansas while the Jayhawks ended their season at 23-4. That was furthest thing from my mind," he said. and an Hispanic, none of whom played that night -- four graduated. player in the Southeastern Conference. All Rights Reserved. "One day, Haskinsinvited aBlack guy over to play with him," Lattin said Haskins told him. Texas secession movements, also known as the Texas independence movement or Texit, refers to both the secession of Texas during the American Civil War as well as activities of modern organizations supporting such efforts to secede from the United States and become an independent sovereign state.. It had been a goal of the National Association forthe Advancement of Colored People for decades. Rupp's lingering bitterness helped paint the Miners as urban street thugs, You can navigate days by using left and right arrows. Then Haskins turned to them and said they needed to go to bed, to rest up. Kentucky vs. Texas Western (March 19, 1966) Kentucky," wrote the Sun's James H. Jackson. Linda Brown From Historic Brown v. Board Case Passes Away, Did Somebody Say Sweep? Contribute to The Shadow League today and help us share our narratives. "I was simply playing the best players on the team, and they happened to be Black.". In fact, the opposite was true. Ray suggested Orsten Artis had 13 points, Nevil Shed had 11 points, eight rebounds, Bobby Joe Hill had 11 and Harry Flournoy had eight rebounds. Learn how your comment data is processed. Sophomore Willie Cager led the Miners with 16 points, scoring 12 of those in the second half. 1966: TWC nips Pan American, stays unbeaten. COLLEGE PARK, Md., March 19 -- Texas Western, overlooked in preseason ratings last December, became the collegiate basketball champion for the first time by whipping long-time powerful Kentucky, 72-65, tonight in the final of the National Collegiate Athletic Association . By William Gildea. violent game. And four when behind", things changed a rigidly patterned offense, "We were more white-oriented than any of the other teams in the Final So they could cut down the nets. Whites then thought that if you put five blacks on the court at the same Technical and creative licensing issues aside, the movie is important because it exposes the story of the team that endured racism and changed the face of college basketball to a wider audience, paying homage to an accomplishment that would radically alter the face of NCAA hoops. Lattin had 24 points, 12 in each half, and 13 rebounds. Orsten Artis had 14 points, seven rebounds and Willie Worsley had 14 points and Harry Flournoy had seven rebounds. And what they did that night has resonated for 50 years since.. Lattinscored 16 points and had nine rebounds while Rupp's words from that press conference echoed in his mind. [6] Also, they were not invited on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was customary for the NCAA Champions. In stark contrast, the final game of the 1966 NCAA Tournament holds a place in civil rights history. Orsten Artis had 15, Nevil Shed and David Lattin had 13 points each. Kansas scored with 22 seconds left then added two free throws with six seconds left when Lattin was called for a technical foul for hanging on the rim after a Kansas player fell beneath him. Coach Haskins, I loved him very much. Don Haskins, 78; basketball coach was first to win NCAA title with 5 2 transfer Max Abmas commits to Texas. superior rebounding stifled Kentucky. Texas Revolution - Wikipedia Texas Western, ranked 6th in the nation, ripped New Mexico State 104-78 in front of a standing room only crowd of 5,201 in Memorial Gym on Tuesday night, Feb. 1, 1966. Nevil Shed had 12 points, eight rebounds, and Willie Worsley had 10 points. [1] Maryland's Cole Field House. Two years later, Payne had left, and Kentucky was Fifty years later, the tributes to Texas Western (now known as the University of Texas-El Paso) keep coming. What If: Duke Had Played Texas Western In 1966 Instead Of Kentucky? Even Texas Western players remain amazed theyre still remembered 50 years later. It was as if history demanded that for change finally to occur, a great hero Oklahoma City, which came into this game averaging 99.2 points per game, raced away to an 11-2 lead and led 20-9 with 13:33 left in the opening half. For weeks Don Haskins had splitting headachesfrightful, bursting pains that seemed to cleave his brain. How can you talk to these black guys like that?" The team was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 1 ranked Kentucky team 72-65. pic.twitter.com/Lmk67DtL3o. team had ever started five blacks in an NCAA championship game. The 196566 Texas Western basketball team faced many issues due to racism. Arizona State cut the lead to 62-61 with five minutes remaining. championship. Rupp had only one black player on his rosters in his 41 years of coaching in Lexington. In 1966, Texas Western Changed the Face of College Athletics And none of them would drop. He was on the Duke freshman team, Lattin said. Wallace, who a year later at Vanderbilt became the first black basketball Nevil Shed made a free throw with 10:18 left in the first half to give the Miners a 10-9 lead. White and Hill exchanged free throws and the Miners led 79-73. Please check the opt-in box to acknowledge that you would like to subscribe. That was exciting for him to do that, Armstrong said. I was completely and totally shocked, Lattin said. Neither team would score again. Oswald, realizing changing times and the school's border-state geography No big deal. That win accelerated the advancement of black athletes in the South. 1966: TWC edge Sun Devils for 19th straight. Here's how I saw history. Annexing Texas (article) | Khan Academy Texas Western was beaten 74-72 at Seattle, Kentucky 69-62 at Tennessee. Otherwise, Miners players said there was no racial tension. The Wildcats were the favorite to win, despite the Miners 23-0 season. Lattin and roommate Bobby Joe Hill sitting on their beds. Fifty years ago, Texas Western started five black players Willie Worsley, Orsten Artis, Bobby Joe Hill, David Lattin and Harry Flournoy against Kentucky in the N.C.A.A. Orsten Artis made 11-of-12 free throws and led the Miners with 19 points. Theydid it againstKentucky's all-white squad. The Miners, now 23-1, will travel Sunday to Wichita, Kan., where they will open the NCAA Tournament against Oklahoma City University on Monday. After the NCAA title in 1966,the nation watched the players goto the White House and meet Lyndon B. Johnson. "Sports wasa vehicle through which African Americans could compete with whites on an equitable playing field," he said. They won their games by an average of 15.2 points. Worsley. have played five kids from Mars if they were his best five players.". According to longtime Kentucky assistant Harry Lancaster's autobiography, "I had it pretty good," he said. 1966 NCAA tournament: Bracket I covered Texas Western's win over Kentucky. Here's how I saw history. JoJo White rushed down the floor and heaved one up from the left side as time ran out. Willie Worsley and Willie Cager had eight pints each. Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 24 points. Haskins contends he doesn't recall the incident, but Ray spoke of their This Day In 1966: Texas Western, featuring the first all-black starting lineup, beats Adolph Rupps Kentucky team to win NCAA title. Glory Road is a 2006 American sports drama film directed by James Gartner, based on a true story surrounding the events leading to the 1966 NCAA University Division Basketball Championship. Texas Western's Streak Is Over : NPR The blacks own the game today and that game paved the way, Vaccaro said. That night, to the surprise of almost everyone, Texas Western's defense and He loved us.". Nevil Shed had 14 points, nine rebounds. Decades before he became Marylands basketball coach, Gary Williams snuck into the Texas Western-Kentucky game as a Terrapins player thanks to a friendly security guard who worked at Cole Field House. Shed led the Miners in scoring with 17 points. do?". For the next four years he was at Texas Western, the woman would pick up Worsley every Sunday from campus and take him to her house for dinner. The Miners, now 25-1 on the season, rallied from a 42-36 halftime deficit and were tied 69-69 with Cincinnati at the end of regulation. those racist myths. ", This page was last edited on 26 March 2023, at 11:13. I hate to hear him saying that. American sports championship would be contested by one team that was Texas Western smothered Tulsa defensively on Monday night, Jan. 3, 1966 the day the Miners first moved into the Associated Press national rankings. "I had been listening to all this damn crap out of him," said Haskins. 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. It was the first time a starting five of all-Black players had won the title. Coach Don Haskins, second from left, and Texas Western players celebrate after winning the 1966 NCAA basketball . UTEP outrebounded South Dakota 65-35. Adolph Rupp and Don Haskins were both prejudiced, but (Haskins) decided to play the black players and he did it and, bottom line, it worked.. 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. The Miner defense was again strong, holding the Wildcats to just 36.4 percent shooting from the field. 1966: TWC dumps New Mexico State Aggies, 73-56. "I'm proud of the way they came back after being 11 points down. "People got to see this for the first time," said Gragg. It had been a year since the voting rights marches from Selma to. In fact, the nucleus had been on campus for a while, winning 18 games the year before while qualifying for the NIT in 1965. He didnt treat African-American guys differently than white guys.. Lattin had 24 points, 12 in each half, and 13 rebounds despite fouling out with 7:44 left in the game to lead the Miners to their fourth win of the season. Coach Haskins saved his life. The Miners improved to 7-0 on the 1965-66 season by dominating South Dakota 88-42 in the tournament's semifinals. had come to Tennessee (on the same day Seattle beat Texas Western), shot blacks would never beat his team, Texas Western center David Lattin had a The state recently launched plans to tap into a new Biden administration immigration program to bring Ukrainians fleeing the war to work in the local oil industry. "(Lattin) said, `Take that you white honky,'" recalled Riley. have to change or become increasingly noncompetitive nationally," wrote 1966 NCAA tournament: Bracket, scores, stats, records I was very disappointed we didnt go to the White House or Ed Sullivan. Texas Western took an early lead and never relinquished it on its way to a national championship. The hate came from both sides. Still, Worsley said, his motherworried about him going to play college basketball in Texas. The 1965-66 Texas Western Miners basketball team represented Texas Western College, now known as the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP). Adolph Rupp, Kentuckys coach from 1930-1972, recruited almost exclusively inside Kentucky, earning the nickname The Baron of Bluegrass. Like many other coaches of the era, Rupp did not recruit African American players. The night before that team meeting of Black players in his motel room, Lattin sat at the Cole Field House with his team and watched the first half of the Kentucky-Duke game. and a great villain must meet. 1966: Texas Western Miners win 22nd, down Rams. Hill led the Miners with 22 points, followed by Lattin with 15 points and 17 rebounds. Orsten Artis, 6-foot-1 senior guard, had his best night for the Miners this season, scoring 21 points to take the high scoring honors for the game. Utah's Jerry Chambers was the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player and the tournament's leading scorer with 143 points. Why? Nevil Shed had 11 points and 17 rebounds in the game and guard Willie Worsley added 10 more points. W. Stewart in the Baltimore Sun that weekend. Later in his career, he signed 7-foot-2 Black center Tom Payne. court, he confronted his two guards about the steals," recalled Eddie Nevil Shed had to hoist up Willie Worsley so he could do the honors. UTEP Celebrates 50th Anniversary Texas Western, 19-0, and Kentucky, 20-0, were the only two undefeated teams in the nation at this point. It wasn't a racial issue at the time. FILE - In this March 19, 1966, file photo, Kentucky's Thad Jaracz (55) and Texas Western's David Latin (42) reach for a rebound during the first period of the NCAA men's baksetball championship game in College Park, Md. The lead in Saturday's game changed hands 20 times as the two teams went back and forth. The Miners outrebounded West Texas 49-26. I never knew that. "That game was the catalyst that opened athletic, academic and employment doors for those who followed us. 1965: Miners outlast Weber for fourth win in row. "You meet the same people going up you meet on the way back down," she told him. 1-ranked Kentucky Wildcats, an all-white team. stupid sons of bitches!' all black. There wereno racial slurs from Kentucky players. How many black players did Texas Western have on the team? as Haskins had suggested, slammed a forceful dunk over Kentucky's Riley. Johnson was having a lot of problems with segregation and all that kind of stuff., Said Lattin: No one ever said why we didnt go, and I guess it was just read between the lines and thats the way it was. 1966: TWC smack Chiefs, continue winning streak. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. President Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers. Lattin drove the lane and dropped in a layup just 54 seconds into the game, giving the Miners a 6-4 lead a lead they would not relinquish. On this date in 1966: Texas Western becomes the first team to start five black players in the NCAA national championship.The Miners beat Adolph Rupps all-white No. "`Nigger ball' they used to call it. Writing a decade later in his book, "Sports in America", James Michener A tight-knit group of blacks, whites and one Hispanic, the Miners played their way to the NCAA championship game against Adolph Rupp's No. Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 19 points. It never dawned on me the social significance that it was until after the fact., Today, Vaccaro views Texas Western-Kentucky as the most significant game in basketball history. The team was eventually inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall Of Fame. The team was presented with keys to the city of El Paso. '", "The Miners, who don't worry much about defense but try to pour the ball David Lattin had 20 points, 15 rebounds. 1965: TWC takes second win of young season. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. He was one of them. In a 1991 Sports Illustrated article commemorating the 25th anniversary of the game, author Curry Kirkpatrick described Haskins screaming at one of his black players, Bobby Joe Hill, and sitting him out of practice the day before the 1966 NCAA semifinals. The Shadow League is a narrative company. Coach Haskins didn't think that made any sense. Go over and comfort each other," Riley said, not just about that game but about what he calls today's divided country. The Miners were playing and winning their third road game in four outings on this Saturday night in south Texas. 1966: TWC squeaks by CSU, 68-66, for 16th straight. College Basketball: NCAA Final Four, Texas Western coach Don Haskins in team huddle during game vs Utah, College Park, MD 3/18/1966 And those letters from the whites in the south, you can just imagine what they said. It was like they just sat there, 'What are we going to write about?'". David Lattin added 11 points and Bobby Joe Hill had 10. It'slike a Jackie Robinson moment,"said Derrick Gragg, the NCAA's senior vice president for inclusion, education and community engagement. First of all, we came from nowhere and no one expected us to be there. Texas Western vs. Kentucky: 1966 National Championship | FULL GAME "He treated us all the same, like (expletive deleted)," said Worsley. Don Haskins was not some rookie coach as the film portrays, he was in his fifth year at the school. Hill and Shed led the Miners for the entire game, each scoring 20 points and neither playing a great deal in the final half. The 1966 Texas Western roster included seven African-Americans, four whites and one Hispanic player: Bobby Joe Hill, David Lattin, Orsten Artis, Nevil Shed, Harry Flournoy, Willie Worsley, Willie Cager, Louis Baudoin, Jerry Armstrong, David Palacio, Dick Myers and Togo Railey. The bigger change, of course, came in the South. 1965: Texas Western shocks Iowa in Sun Meet final. The movie erroneously paints a picture of a team of new recruits that takes a while to gel during that 1966 season. Kansas held for the last shot but turned it over. Claiborne, who was Dukes first black basketball player and became a business professor at Texas Southern. "and As a matter of fact, when Haskins was unloading the moving truck into his El Paso home after taking the job, one of the teams players that he inherited,Nolan Richardson, who would go on to become a legendary national championship-winning coach at the University of Arkansas in the 1990s, showed up to welcome and help him get situated. But then the Miners' full-court pressure kept the Aggies from getting the ball across mid-court for the next two minutes. Other Kentucky players shown are Tommy Kron (30) and Larry Conley (40). For the first time that night, on the edge of the Mason-Dixon Line, a major After the game, he refused to congratulate or shake hands with the players. But the Miner defense held the Golden Hurricane scoreless for almost five minutes and that led to a 38-25 TWC halftime lead. All-white leagues like the Atlantic Coast Conference, Southwestern Conference, and Southeastern Conference became integrated within the next two years. The Miners got off to a slow start and actually trailed 11-8 six minutes into the game. had not earned degrees. Fifty years ago, Texas Western started . Riley has one regret about that game, and it's not the loss. The Miners went out that night and beat a very good Tulsa team 63-54 in front of 5,000 fans in Memorial Gym. The Miners roster consisted of seven African-Americans. Willie Worsley led the Miners in scoring, hitting from the outside and finishing with 18 points. Texas Western met that Saturday night, March 19, 1966, in the University of Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. The Wildcats, whose only previous loss Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 20 points. The Miners nursed the lead, pulling ahead to stay when Hill converted Artis made seven-of-eight shots from the field and four-for-four from the free throw line. was a senior buyer with El Paso Natural Gas Co. historian Charles Martin. David Lattin had 14 points, seven rebounds. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. The squad also had four Anglo-Americans (Jerry Armstrong, Louis Baudoin, Dick Meyers, and Togo Railey and one Mexican-American Dave Palacio). It didn't win as many games as his . 19, 1966, Texas Western College and the University of Kentucky met in the men's college basketball championship game. And, like all of coach Orsten Artis led Texas Western with 18 points, followed by Bobby Joe Hill with 15, Willie Worsley with 14 and David Lattin with 10. It led to the integration of college sports. It was what I had done all year.. In 1966, Texas Western became the first team with an all-black starting five to win the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The score was tied 2-2 just 74 seconds into the game. The Miners advanced to play Kansas Saturday night, March 12, 1966, in the Midwest Regional finals. would dissolve into chaos. On Saturday night, Dec. 18, 1965, the same two teams met again in Memorial Gym in front of 4,601 fans and a Miner team with Hill proved to be a very different team. A 1996 New York Times article noted that Stan Isaacs of Newsday was a notable exception when he wrote this of Texas Western: All of the first seven are Negroes. Adolph Rupp and his Kentucky players as Texas Western puts the championship game out of reach in 1966. So, when it came to the championship game, Worsley said he wasn't thinking about Kentucky being white. 1966: Miners edge Kansas, 81-80, in overtimes. Three on the road. The win accelerated the advancement of Black athletes in the South as well. They came from the inner cities of Detroit and Houston, and from rural areas in Missouri and Kansas. Fireball seen over 4 states was not a meteor, experts say | Fort Worth 4 Iowa, were ranked ninth in the nation on that first Monday of 1966. The Miners again used their lockdown defense and rebounded with a fury, outrebounding Nevada 59-25. The Miners led Seattle 34-30 at the half but moved out to a 15 point lead midway through the final half. The win improved the Miner record to 24-1 and propelled them into the NCAA Midwest Regional Friday night, March 11 against the University of Cincinnati in Lubbock. The Texas Western Miners did make history, with an all-black starting five winning the national title in 1966. Haskins deserves plenty of credit for how he recruited and utilized his Black players especially guys like Bobby Joe Hill from Michigan, Harry Flourney from Gary, Indiana, Houstons David Lattin and Willie Worsley, a 5-foot-6 phenomenon out of DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, NY but Texas Western had African-Americans on the roster before he even arrived on campus. "We didn't see Black and white. Texas Western broke open a close game in the second half and raced away to take a 76-64 victory over Seattle University Thursday night, Jan. 6, 1966, in Memorial Gym. It turned out to be one of the greatest nights in the history of college sports. Chambers still managed to score 38 points in the game. Get their watches. It still matters because race is still prevalent in the American eye.. But even as the jubilant Miners celebrated a new set of myths was emerging. It was Arizona State's worst home loss in 10 years. Harry Flournoy. pic.twitter.com/QixgpCRVA7.