who did texas western lose to in 1966

Hill and Shed led the Miners for the entire game, each scoring 20 points and neither playing a great deal in the final half. Quickly following Texan independence, the United States admitted Texas into the republic as a slave state. characterized the game as "one of the most wretched (stories) in the history Texas Western used its smothering defense, fierce rebounding and a balanced scoring attack to dismantle Iowa. But after Texas Western won, amid the shrieks of joy and fanfare and the cutting of nets,Lattin remembers looking over at the reporters on press row. The Miners shot just 30.3 percent from the field but outrebounded the Rams 48-31. pic.twitter.com/QixgpCRVA7. When asked about his decision to start five African-American players, Haskins downplayed the significance saying the best players play, and I just wanted to win the game. Haskins was a humble and private man and coach who did his best to avoid the spotlight. It was a day that would become known as "Bloody Sunday" as white troopers assaulted the Black marchers, beating them with nightsticks, firing tear gas. In fact, the opposite was true. The 72-65 victory over Kentucky in College Park, Maryland is considered one of the most important in the history of college basketball, as it marked the first time that a team with five African-American starters won a title game. 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. Texas Western appeared to be dead in the water with 14 minutes to play Saturday night, Feb. 12, 1966, trailing New Mexico by 20 points. Orsten Artis became a detective sergeant in Gary, Ind., and Bobby Joe Hill The Miners roasted South Dakota 88-42 in the first game and then toasted Nevada 86-49 for the two commanding victories. Later in his career, he signed 7-foot-2 Black center Tom Payne. Nevil Shed led Texas Western with 23 points. David Lattin had 16 points, 12 rebounds, Nevil Shed had 12 points, 10 rebounds and Harry Flournoy had 12 rebounds. On the Miners' second possession, he took a pass from Bobby Joe Hill and, Thats when people started talking about it, Lattin said. I had a couple. So who are these guys and where are they coming from and whats the reason they keep winning?. Kentuckys well-regarded coach, Adolph Rupp, was known for being racist. Elusive point guard Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 16 points, including four buckets on quick drives down the middle for layups. Texas Western College, now UTEP, defeated the University of Kentucky. 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.. Wallace, who a year later at Vanderbilt became the first black basketball Rupp, after his first meeting with Oswald, told Lancaster, "Harry, that son The thing you noticed at the start of the game was Texas Western did have a size advantage, Williams said. No.1-ranked Kentucky, meanwhile, was the run-and-gun team. "The only other thing he said was, 'It's up to you.' Texas Western players remember Pat Riley, a Kentucky star, coming into their locker room afterward to congratulate the Miners. UTEP honored the 1966 team earlier this month during a ceremony that includes messages from President Barack Obama, Nike co-founder Phil Knight, film producer Jerry Bruckheimer and ESPN commentator Dick Vitale. Black players were no longer taboo, and basketball was never the same. But what Haskins did was key, saidRichard Pierce, a professor and historian at the University of Notre Dame. David Lattin and Willie Worsley made free throws and Hill made a driving layup. Tulsa, which came into this game with a 10-1 record, kept the game close early on. 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. Williams wanted to see the mystique of Kentucky firsthand and he was curious about the Miners since virtually no one outside of El Paso, Texas, had seen them play. 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. Linda Brown From Historic Brown v. Board Case Passes Away, Did Somebody Say Sweep? Lattin said it wasnt until the start of the following season, when Sports Illustrated wrote a lengthy article, that the racial makeup of the teams became a story. How can you talk to these black guys like that?" Rupp crossed paths at a sports banquet in Ohio, the younger coach nearly Determined to put an end to it, Haskins fielded an all-black team on that fateful night. renamed the University of Texas at El Paso. championship. David Lattin added 11 points and Bobby Joe Hill had 10. 1966: TWC beats NM Aggies 104-78, win 15th. of American sports. On hisside of the track, literally right by the track, there was a basketball goal. 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. One year before Texas Western won theNCAA title against Kentucky, 72-65, John Lewis led more than 600 people on a 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery. Kansas held for the last shot but turned it over. 1949 - College of Mines name changed to Texas Western College of the University of Texas. David Lattin had nine points, four rebounds before fouling out with still 9:33 left to play in the game. 5:57 pm ET. Nevil Shed had to hoist up Willie Worsley so he could do the honors. Shed and Flournoy led the Miners in rebounding with 10 each. 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. Theydid it againstKentucky's all-white squad. Texas Western had a cold night shooting. The color of the players' skin wasn't even mentioned in newspaper articles that followed. In fact, until Texas Western coach Don Haskins did. "He came into the room and he said, 'Coach Rupp said in the press conference you couldn't beat five whiteguys,'" Lattin said this week. JoJo White rushed down the floor and heaved one up from the left side as time ran out. Follow and read more from Jon Solomon on Facebook and Twitter. Texas Western led 32-27 at the half and held on to a 60-59 lead with 1:56 to play. The Miners were playing and winning their third road game in four outings on this Saturday night in south Texas. 4 Iowa, were ranked ninth in the nation on that first Monday of 1966. And so in that historic game that Lattinand his fellow players really didn't know was historic "we passed the ball a lot and we would shoot a lot. Even during the game when competition was heated, the trash talk never went there. I know we didnt approach the game thinking about race, and I dont think the Kentucky team approached it as a racial game either., Texas Western player: Don Haskins was prejudiced. players he did recruit -- like Kentuckians Butch Beard and Wes Unseld -- Texas Western put up shot after shot after shot as the final seconds ticked off the scoreboard clock. Bobby Joe Hill went the length of the floor to hit a jumper at the buzzer, leading Texas Western to a 68-66 win over Colorado State Friday night, Feb. 4, 1966, in Fort Collins, Colo. 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. But then the Miners' full-court pressure kept the Aggies from getting the ball across mid-court for the next two minutes. Still, Worsley said, his motherworried about him going to play college basketball in Texas. A berth in the NCAA Final Four in College Park, Md., was at stake. By William Gildea. 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. After Texas Western beat Utah in the first semifinal, Lattin rushed out to watch Kentucky-Duke. "and The win was the Miner's fifth of the season without a loss at Memorial Gym Friday night. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. quintet can do more things with a basketball than a monkey on a 50-foot 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.. True Story Of Glory Road: Texas Western Shocks Kentucky In 1966 TWC also led by seven points in the final half but Colorado State refused to go away. "There was a certain style of play whites expected from blacks," said Perry 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. Nevil Shed had 16 points, 12 rebounds. 3 in 1966, wasn't on a crusade when they bookended their 27-1 season with an NCAA title, but they did exude the courage to challenge the status quo. 1966: TWC squeaks by CSU, 68-66, for 16th straight. That was exciting for him to do that, Armstrong said. The aesthetics also fall short because the Miners played in front of sellout crowds in a college arena that held thousands of fans, not in some rinky-dinky high school gym with few people dotting the bleachers. all black. After the NCAA title in 1966,the nation watched the players goto the White House and meet Lyndon B. Johnson. Worsley is a jokester, whostill likes to talk about his glory days, when he won the high school city championship in New York City, which wasplayed in Madison Square Garden. You can navigate days by using left and right arrows. Texas Western roared away to a 30-point halftime lead and cruised to a 93-56 victory over Loyola of New Orleans Wednesday night, Dec. 29, 1965, in the opening round of the Sun Bowl Basketball Tournament. Texas Western smothered Tulsa defensively on Monday night, Jan. 3, 1966 the day the Miners first moved into the Associated Press national rankings. of Rupp's 1,066 games at Kentucky, in March of 1972, his team lost to Texas Western opened what would ultimately become the legendary 1965-66 basketball season by crushing Eastern New Mexico 89-38 on a Saturday night in Memorial Gym. Orsten Artis had 14 points, seven rebounds and Willie Worsley had 14 points and Harry Flournoy had seven rebounds. who played for Haskins at Texas Western. But I didn't.". It's a regret he once heard Shed voice. Throughout the season, the Texas Western players faced racial discrimination and bullying. He was one of them. Pat Riley Recalls Historic March Madness Moment in Kentucky's Loss to I hate to hear him saying that. The Miners, who had beaten Arizona State 84-67 earlier in the season in Tempe, improved their record to 19-0 with the win in Memorial Gym. The Miners, ranked fourth in the nation, improved to 18-0 with the win. Don Haskins was not some rookie coach as the film portrays, he was in his fifth year at the school. Texas Western ran over Arizona State 84-67 Thursday night, Jan. 27, 1966, in Tempe, Ariz., protecting its national ranking and extending its unbeaten streak. Sign up to receive The Shadow League Newsletter in your inbox. He couldnt afford the operation, Lattin said. sometimes embellishing his excuses with hints that Texas Western somehow had Now hes saying this again? Hill led the Miners with 18 points. I was simply playing the best players on the team, and they happened to be Black.. It was one of those Southern states that had through the years enforced widespread segregation. David Lattin had 14 points, seven rebounds. featuring future NBA coach Pat Riley, future ESPN broadcaster Larry Conley 1952 - Student pranksters "borrow" a live alligator from San Jacinto Plaza. Texas Western defeats Kentucky in NCAA final - History 1965: Miners beat Fresno State 75-73 in game 5. Nor, for that matter, was UCLA the only time in John. A rematch between the two teams was played at 8 p.m. on Saturday, the following day, in Memorial Gym. 1966: TWC, Cincinnati defense to clash in NCAA. Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Texas Western was beaten 74-72 at Seattle, Kentucky 69-62 at Tennessee. It was March 19, 1966, the night a team with five black starters made history by winning a national championship. That, again, was nearly opposite the reality. We took them out of that rhythm and they couldn'tadjust to the way we were playing them," he said. the basketball but sign it. 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. She took his hand and walked him through the airport. In 1966, Texas Western Changed the Face of College Athletics racial matters. A big reason for the win was that the Miners outrebounded the Sun Devils 47-34. He was so good. He was also certain his team would secure the championship. Joseph Ray tried to move Haskins in the opposite direction. The Disney movie took liberties. Between 1966 and 1985, the average Browse 69 texas western 1966 photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. A couple weeks ago, some Texas Western players returned to Cole Field House for the first time since 1966. "The legend of Texas Western: journalism and the epic sports spectacle that wasnt. And those letters from the whites in the south, you can just imagine what they said. major network, and it was televised only on a tape-delayed basis in several It should have been done a long time ago as far as the commitments to all the blacks being successful. 1965: Texas Western shocks Iowa in Sun Meet final. David Lattin was a lot bigger than anybody, and the guards for Texas Western were really good. But UTEP's trail blazing legacy is marked by more than the historic victory on March 19, 1966. The year after winning the title, the school became the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP). Texas Revolution - Wikipedia white Converse All-Stars, are the five starters for Texas Western. 6-keys: media/spln/collegebasketball/reg/free/stories, By pressing sign up, I confirm that I have read and agree to the. ". 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. Texas Western, 19-0, and Kentucky, 20-0, were the only two undefeated teams in the nation at this point. Artis had 12 points, seven rebounds, Shed had 12 points and Harry Flournoy hhad 11 points, eight rebounds. They were basketball players, who were still pretty single-minded, focused on basketball. Texas Western Upsets Kentucky for N.C.A.A. That move by a bearish white man didn't come without controversy. player in the Southeastern Conference. Sportswriters who had never seen Texas Western play until that weekend and There's not much drama, very little passion, and, in Rupp had only one black player on his rosters in his 41 years of coaching in Lexington. Through the years, before his death in 2008, Haskins repeatedlysaid he didn't play an all-Black starting five to make a social statement. Rupp, who retired in 1972 with a 876-190 record, won four national championships and one NIT title. Kentucky was all-white again. three came within a semester of their degrees and have not suffered because BHM 2019: The Story of Texas Western's Historic 1966 National Title - SLAM 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. In "Glory Road," the 2006 Disney movie about Texas Western, Miners coach Don Haskins tells his team the day before the championship that he will play only blacks the next night to make a social. do?". and an Hispanic, none of whom played that night -- four graduated. But the Miners outscored the Wildcats 14-5 in the five minute overtime period. Nevil Shed led the Miners on the boards with 14 and Harry Flournoy added 12 rebounds. 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. Oswald, realizing changing times and the school's border-state geography The crowd is white. I couldnt stand the movie because it didnt tell the truth, said Willie Cager, a black Texas Western forward in 1966. What am I going to "Nevil (Shed)I'll never forget him saying back then," Riley said. I knew it as the championship game. Two years later, Payne had left, and Kentucky was Coach Haskins didn't think that made any sense. TWC held the Chiefs to just 37.3 percent shooting and outrebounded them 40-32. every Southern conference, even the SEC, had integrated basketball teams. According to longtime Kentucky assistant Harry Lancaster's autobiography, "Isay it with love becauseyou couldn't tell the 12th person from the No. "We didn't see Black and white. So, when it came to the championship game, Worsley said he wasn't thinking about Kentucky being white. Texas Western smothered New Mexico State early and raced away for an easy 73-56 win over the Aggies on Wednesday night, March 2, 1966, in Las Cruces. "They didn't know what to write. Hill sat out the first half and the Miners led 34-32 at the intermission. Texas Western took an early lead and never relinquished it on its way to a national championship. The blacks own the game today and that game paved the way, Vaccaro said. A white woman from Queens saw his confusion. cheated by using ineligible players. Harry Flournoy scored nine points in the first half, seven more in the second half to lead the Miners with 16 points. Texas Western's Championship Win Was Historic, But Why Did It Take So contest, in fact, that its starting time was 10 p.m., it wasn't carried by a No big deal. one shocked coach asked Haskins afterward. The further we got away from the game, the more it was talked about.. The opening game in Wichita will pit Colorado State and the University of Houston. 1966: TWC edge Sun Devils for 19th straight. Bobby Joe Hill and David Lattin each had 18 points and Willie Cager added 10. "I had it pretty good," he said. The team won the national championship in 1966, becoming the first team with an all-black starting lineup to do so. 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. There wereno racial slurs from Kentucky players. He was a tough guy, but were all tough. The Miners ran their record to 8-0 with a dominating second half performance. 1966: TWC smack Chiefs, continue winning streak. Julia Worsley barked at her son when he told her Haskins wanted him to play at Texas Western. Its my legacy. 196566 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team, Texas Western Miners basketball 196566 NCAA champions, NCAA Division I men's basketball champions, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, "Texas Western defeats Kentucky in NCAA final", "Hill and friends flummox favored Kentucky by 72-65", Wayland Baptist Women's Teams (19481982), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=196566_Texas_Western_Miners_men%27s_basketball_team&oldid=1146686586, 196566 NCAA University Division men's basketball independents season, NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament championship seasons, NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four seasons, 1966 NCAA University Division basketball tournament participants, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Hutchison, Phillip. A Championship in 1966 Was a Step for Integration had come to Tennessee (on the same day Seattle beat Texas Western), shot 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. Black athletes, prevailing wisdom He didnt treat African-American guys differently than white guys.. What happened to the 1966 Texas Western basketball team? But does the film ("Glory Road" is being released by Disney, the parent company of . Overview Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845 and became the 28th state. Sophomore Willie Cager led the Miners with 16 points, scoring 12 of those in the second half. Willie Worsley, Harry Flournoy, Orsten Artis, Nevil Shed and Willie Cager standing. 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. Lattin and roommate Bobby Joe Hill sitting on their beds. MINERS WIN, 72-65. It'slike a Jackie Robinson moment,"said Derrick Gragg, the NCAA's senior vice president for inclusion, education and community engagement. But it was not to be. A crowd of 5,106, then called the largest crowd to see a basketball game in Memorial Gym, roared its appreciation as the Miners soared away to a 50-20 halftime lead and then went on to improve their record to 9-0 on the season. Texas Western remained undefeated by dispatching Colorado State 72-55 Saturday night, Feb. 26, 1966, in the final home game of the season. Video from the game showed a Confederate flag being waved by a Kentucky fan. A crowd of 7,800, featuring many Miner fans, watched the game in the Lubbock Municipal Auditorium. Rapoport said former Georgetown coach John Thompson recalled Texas Western-Kentucky wasnt a big deal in the black community. was a senior buyer with El Paso Natural Gas Co. In 1955, Texas Western was the first state college in Texas to integrate its undergraduate classes. Texas Western made only 34.2 percent of its shots but the Miner defense held West Texas to just 29.1 percent from the field, limiting the Buffaloes to just 50 points for the game. The Miners nursed the lead, pulling ahead to stay when Hill converted Copyright 2023 Endgame360 Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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. Instead, Kentucky went back to its bench, heads hanging,humbled. Nevil Shed made a free throw with 10:18 left in the first half to give the Miners a 10-9 lead. 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. all-white and another whose starters were entirely black. All rights reserved. Coach Haskins did say he had some threatening mail and phone calls. It wasn't until December of 1970 that a Rupp team first dressed a black gave it a unique opportunity, had been pushing Rupp to recruit a black. Willie Worsley and Willie Cager had eight pints each. The players did not feel the way the coach felt," he said. NBA Hall of Fame Coach Pat Riley played a key role in the historic matchup thats been immortalized in movies and books. Until 1836, Texas had been part of Mexico, but in that year a group of settlers from the United States who lived in Mexican Texas declared independence. That was it.". At the games end, Rupp was defeated and humiliated by the loss, reports the Washington Post. The 196566 Texas Western Miners basketball team represented Texas Western College, now the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), led by Hall of Fame head coach Don Haskins. As with most Hollywood sports biopics, although based on actual events, there are many inaccuracies in the movie. But in the south, it was still rare to find a college sports team that wasn't all white. It was the first. 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. The bigger change, of course, came in the South. 1 ranked Kentucky team 72-65. pic.twitter.com/Lmk67DtL3o. He loved us.". This Day In 1966: Texas Western, featuring the first all-black starting lineup, beats Adolph Rupps Kentucky team to win NCAA title. Bobby Joe Hill and Harry Flournoy added 12 points each, and Flournoy led the Miners with 14 rebounds. The score was tied 2-2 just 74 seconds into the game. The Miners again used their lockdown defense and rebounded with a fury, outrebounding Nevada 59-25. meeting in an interview for the oral-history project at Texas Western, now If we could have just gone over and shook their hands. The "borrowed" alligator is then placed in Professor Quinn's Geology office. I am so angry. a 16-11 advantage. Texas Western's 1966 season recap - El Paso Times The third-ranked Miners received word this week they were given an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Haskins stormed in, smelling of the cigarettes he'd smoked that day. major-college team had ever started five blacks in ANY game. Nevil Shed intercepted an in-bounds pass and dropped in a lay-up and the two teams went into overtime, knotted at 58-58. If basketball ever took a turn, that was it," said Nolan Richardson, the Arkansas coach Oklahoma City opened with a flurry but Texas Western finished with a flurry. a rigidly patterned offense, "We were more white-oriented than any of the other teams in the Final 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. Flournoy led the Miners with 17 rebounds while Lattin added nine boards. All-white leagues like the Atlantic Coast Conference, Southwestern Conference, and Southeastern Conference became integrated within the next two years. The Miner defense was again strong, holding the Wildcats to just 36.4 percent shooting from the field. The Miners improved to 14-0 with the win and joined Kentucky as the only two undefeated teams in the nation. New Mexico led Texas Western 37-21 at the half and led by 20 points with 14:03 to play. 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. Why? If you get too low, it's a long way back up.". It wasn't a racial issue at the time. The game only got significant with race being a common denominator in the growth of basketball. The victory, according to sportswriters, analysts and prognosticators was a watershed event because it encouraged other predominantly white schools to recruit African-American players, ending years of shameful and evil segregation. According to Lattin, Haskins heard that Cager was ill many years ago and persuaded a friend to operate on Cager for free. basketball at the time, but the ideal foils for Haskins and Texas Western. 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 . "What the hell is in El Paso?" At Northern colleges, where the unwritten rule for coaches had been, "Two

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