No.1-ranked Kentucky, meanwhile, was the run-and-gun team. The Miners dominated the overtime period and escaped with the win. Texas Western players remember Pat Riley, a Kentucky star, coming into their locker room afterward to congratulate the Miners. 1965: TWC takes second win of young season. So they could cut down the nets. Other Kentucky players shown are Tommy Kron (30) and Larry Conley (40). Ray suggested 6-keys: media/spln/collegebasketball/reg/free/stories, By pressing sign up, I confirm that I have read and agree to the. American sports championship would be contested by one team that was Just about treating people kindly. Linda Brown From Historic Brown v. Board Case Passes Away, Did Somebody Say Sweep? They would never trail again. Copyright 2023 Endgame360 Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Miners made history by winning the 1966 NCAA University Division Basketball Tournament, becoming the first team with an all-Black starting lineup to win an NCAA National Championship. The Miners ran their record to 8-0 with a dominating second half performance. After the NBA and Prison, William Bedford Is Now Focusing on His New Life. The team was eventually inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall Of Fame. "We didn't see Black and white. TWC went on to lead 40-19 at the half on the way to improving to 10-0 on the season. But that wasnt the same thing as President (Lyndon) Johnson), Cager said. Brawl Erupts In Handshake Line After High School Baseball Game Over Broom Taunt, Former NBA Player Dante Exum Gets Body-Slammed And Dropped In Brawl During Euroleague Playoffs. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. Contribute to The Shadow League today and help us share our narratives. Seattle standout Tom Workman hit a jumper from the top of the circle to give his team the 74-72 lead with just over a minute to play. What Texas Western's Black players and white coach did in 1966 "(Rupp) jumped up and called timeout, (and) as they were coming off the The Rams took a two-point lead in the final two minutes but a Lattin dunk leveled the game at 66-66 with 1:28 to play. Three were from New York; two from El Paso; and two from Gary, Indiana. Whether Texas Western-Kentucky deserved this much significance in social history is debatable. stupid sons of bitches!' Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 20 points. On February 6, 2016, the now University Of Texas El Paso Miners held a reunion for the 1966 players at the Don Haskins Center. Nevil Shed had 16 points, 12 rebounds. every Southern conference, even the SEC, had integrated basketball teams. violent game. 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. and they were committed and they were more motivated than we were.". I was completely and totally shocked, Lattin said. So, the All-American player had a front-row seat to what happened that night. A couple weeks ago, some Texas Western players returned to Cole Field House for the first time since 1966. 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. The game began with a message. His only defeat in an NCAA title game haunted Rupp. He loved us.". The Miners beat Kentucky (an all-white program until 1969) 7265 in the historic championship game, played on Saturday, March 19, at Cole Field House on the University of Maryland campus in College Park, a suburb of Washington, D.C.[2][3][4]. They werent some unheard of team that came out of nowhere, as Haskins had led them to two previous NCAA Tournaments. That was about it. Its my legacy. The win was the Miner's fifth of the season without a loss at Memorial Gym Friday night. In fact, the opposite was true. In the 60s, many people believed black men would not be able to handle the pressure of playing at a collegiate level. It turned out to be one of the greatest nights in the history of college sports. "There was a certain style of play whites expected from blacks," said Perry The Miner defense was once again on display, holding Pan American to just 31.1 percent shooting from the field and holding the visitors from Edinburg, Texas, to just 22 second half points. In 1966, Texas Western became the first team with an all-black starting five to win the NCAA men's basketball tournament. 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. just 38 percent. That was exciting for him to do that, Armstrong said. That game has been sold out for weeks. The team was presented with keys to the city of El Paso. characterized the game as "one of the most wretched (stories) in the history quintet can do more things with a basketball than a monkey on a 50-foot championship game on. 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. Orsten Artis made 11-of-12 free throws and led the Miners with 19 points. He was one of them. Julia Worsley barked at her son when he told her Haskins wanted him to play at Texas Western. Ten players in laughably short pants move slowly through 40 minutes of President Lincoln's 75,000 volunteers. 1965: Miners take second win over Fresno State. Rupp, after his first meeting with Oswald, told Lancaster, "Harry, that son HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. athletics remained segregated. Informed by Haskins that Rupp had vowed five The Miners led by five with 1:17 to go in regulation but Kansas scrambled back to tie it 69-69 and force overtime. 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 statement. The U.S. Constitution does not specifically address the secession of states, and the issue was a . At Northern colleges, where the unwritten rule for coaches had been, "Two 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. Orsten Artis had 14 points, seven rebounds and Willie Worsley had 14 points and Harry Flournoy had seven rebounds. would dissolve into chaos. I want to win, bottom line. The Miners overwhelmed Oklahoma City 89-74 Monday night, March 7, 1966, in the NCAA Tournament in Wichita, Kans. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. No problem. Until that moment, at the height of the civil-rights era, no major-college But the Miners outscored the Wildcats 14-5 in the five minute overtime period. Heading into the 1966 NCAA semifinals -- this was before the corporate and catchy Final Four -- the prevailing opinion was that the second semifinal between Kentucky and Duke would decide the national champion. Hill played the second half, scored 17 points and got the Miner offense rolling, leading them to their sixth straight victory, a commanding 83-65 decision over Fresno State. The Texas-Indian wars were a series of conflicts between settlers in Texas and the Southern Plains Indians during the 19th-century. Afterward, he realized he hadnt shaken hands with his worthy opponents. Texas Western survived a scare Thursday night, Feb. 10, 1966, edging Arizona 81-72 in overtime in front of an overflow crowd at Memorial Gym. But the Miners came right back, took the lead and led 43-37 at the half and never trailed again. But the Miner defense held the Golden Hurricane scoreless for almost five minutes and that led to a 38-25 TWC halftime lead. Hill led the Miners in scoring with 15 points. Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 18 points. Pat Riley Recalls Historic March Madness Moment in Kentucky's Loss to The Miners outrebounded West Texas 49-26. Tulsa, which came into this game with a 10-1 record, kept the game close early on. The 196566 Texas Western basketball team faced many issues due to racism. been directed to small black schools now were being lured to major state 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. David Lattin had 18 points, Hill 17, Orsten Artis 16, Nevil Shed 12 and Harry Flournoy 11 as the Miners outscored the Bulldogs 49-33 in the second half. 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. Dave Lattin played center, and his grandson plays Saturday for Oklahoma. 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. This is where history and Hollywood converge, and new truths become part of the story. Harry Flournoy had 18 rebounds and Nevil Shed had 10. Annexing Texas (article) | Khan Academy "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. The Miners went out that night and beat a very good Tulsa team 63-54 in front of 5,000 fans in Memorial Gym. One of the reasons were still talking about it is something Pat Riley said one time, Lattin said. 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. Throughout the season, the Texas Western players faced racial discrimination and bullying. Follow and read more from Jon Solomon on Facebook and Twitter. quote of the tournament when he was talking about Texas Western," wrote John After the NCAA championship, Haskins received more than 40,000 pieces of hate mail for starting five Black players, he latertold theL.A. Times. How can you talk to these black guys like that?" The bigger change, of course, came in the South. 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. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. "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. Coach Haskins did say he had some threatening mail and phone calls. Cager is out of his mind. Coach Haskins, I loved him very much. 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. College Basketball: NCAA Final Four, Texas Western coach Don Haskins in team huddle during game vs Utah, College Park, MD 3/18/1966 The American . 1965: Miners, Hawkeyes take first-round tourney wins. Adolph Rupp's teams, they ran at every opportunity. as Haskins had suggested, slammed a forceful dunk over Kentucky's Riley. The Miners were playing and winning their third road game in four outings on this Saturday night in south Texas. time, they would somehow revert to their native impulses.". Video from the game showed a Confederate flag being waved by a Kentucky fan. "People got to see this for the first time," said Gragg. Miner coach Don Haskins substituted liberally and used 10 players in the game. The Miners, now 23-1, will travel Sunday to Wichita, Kan., where they will open the NCAA Tournament against Oklahoma City University on Monday. 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. A Championship in 1966 Was a Step for Integration "I'm proud of the way they came back after being 11 points down. Cager later made two free throws to give Texas Western a 76-72 lead. The historic feat of Texas Western's win, five Black players and a white coach,and its tie toracial equity didn't immediately reverberatethroughout the country. I couldnt stand the movie because it didnt tell the truth, said Willie Cager, a black Texas Western forward in 1966. The closer Texas Western (see cover) came . Its not really a book, its more like a pamphlet, Lattin said. Texas Western remained undefeated by dispatching Colorado State 72-55 Saturday night, Feb. 26, 1966, in the final home game of the season. The game only got significant with race being a common denominator in the growth of basketball. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 19 points. "They didn't know what to write. So are the The Wildcats were the favorite to win, despite the Miners 23-0 season. Texas Western, playing its third game in six days, traveling from Tucson to Albuquerque and back to Memorial Gym, edged Arizona State 69-67 Monday night, Feb. 14, 1966. "(He said) `You The Miners, ranked 9th in the nation, improved to 12-0 on the season with the Thursday night win. GO-GO WITH BOBBY JOE - Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com Two years before Texas Western went on a 37-minute stretch hitting 26 of 27 shots in that NCAA championship game, Martin Luther King had given hisI Have A Dream speech. Keep acting nonchalant. Kansas scored again but Cager took a pass from Hill inside and scored and the Miners were up 81-75. History of Texas - Wikipedia "The beating was sound as well as thrilling," Frank Deford wrote in a "Sports Illustrated" story at the end of March 1966. The Miners nursed the lead, pulling ahead to stay when Hill converted of American sports. 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. Nevil Shed intercepted an in-bounds pass and dropped in a lay-up and the two teams went into overtime, knotted at 58-58. Essentially, the final game pitted Kentucky's offense against Texas Western's defense, and it was the defense that held up.". It's true, Texas Western, ranked No. But I didn't.". 1966: TWC edge Sun Devils for 19th straight. George Wallace to end his blockade so Black students could enroll at Alabama. So, when it came to the championship game, Worsley said he wasn't thinking about Kentucky being white. On hisside of the track, literally right by the track, there was a basketball goal. and an Hispanic, none of whom played that night -- four graduated. Who did Texas Western lose to in 1966? - Ask About Coin 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. 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. The watershed game highlighted the end of racial segregation in college basketball. More than 40 years later, we remember - and cherish - the game that changed basketball forever. 1 Kentucky. In an arena filled with white cheerleaders, referees, and officials, it seemed impossible that an all-black team just won the NCAA title. Rupp, stunned college basketball and upset conventional wisdom. 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. through the hoop as much as possible, will present quite a challenge to Texas Western took an early lead and never relinquished it on its way to a national championship. Five minutes into the game, the Miners led 17-4. March Madness fans will remember the 2020 tournament as the competition that never happened. A crowd of just over 5,000 gathered at Las Cruces High more than half of them Miner fans to watch TWC improve to 23-0 on the season. Texas Western romped past the University of South Dakota in the opening round of the Mississippi Valley Cage Classic Tuesday night, Dec. 21, in Rockland, Ill. If we could have just gone over and shook their hands. 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. What am I going to Two years later, Payne had left, and Kentucky was Thats when people started talking about it, Lattin said. The score was tied at 72-72 with two minutes to play. Trying to win a basketball game.". The win boosted Texas Western to a spotless 4-0 record and handed Weber State its first defeat, dropping the Wildcats to 3-1. implied, needed the steadying hand of a white teammate. 1965: Miners outlast Weber for fourth win in row. 1965-66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team But then the Miners' full-court pressure kept the Aggies from getting the ball across mid-court for the next two minutes. Texas Western met that Saturday night, March 19, 1966, in the University of A crowd of 5,399 packed Memorial Gym and spilled over into the auxillary gym to watch on closed circuit television. gave it a unique opportunity, had been pushing Rupp to recruit a black. Then he walked out of my room." As basketball lore has told a thousand times since, Texas Western did beat Adolph Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats in the 1966 NCAA championship. Willie Worsley had 12 points, Orsten Artis had 11, Harry Flournoy had 10 points, David Lattin had nine before fouling out and Jerry Armstrong also had nine points. Vic Bubas always said that his 1966 team was his best. The Miners roster consisted of seven African-Americans. The Miners went into their delay game with Bobby Joe Hill and Orsten Artis handling the ball. Texas Western celebrated. Texas-Indian wars - Wikipedia Instead, Kentucky went back to its bench, heads hanging,humbled. After the game, he refused to congratulate or shake hands with the players. David Lattin led the Miners with 29 points. 1966: TWC squeaks by CSU, 68-66, for 16th straight. I knew it as the championship game. "The players were just out there, doing what we were doing. Friends noted that even as he was dying with cancer in a Lexington hospital universities. The two teams finished regulation tied at 67-67. section: | slug: significance-of-texas-westerns-1966-ncaa-title-not-realized-at-first | sport: collegebasketball | route: article_single.us | He was just coaching the only way he knew how. renamed the University of Texas at El Paso. Haskins fumed at his counterpart's reaction. "Without question, it was one of the most significant, impactful college sporting events in the history of our country.". A white woman from Queens saw his confusion. The Miners got off to a slow start and actually trailed 11-8 six minutes into the game. Texas Western, 19-0, and Kentucky, 20-0, were the only two undefeated teams in the nation at this point. How the 1966 NCAA Championship changed the world Texas Western's Streak Is Over : NPR Texas Western walked the ball up court, ran I never knew that. And what they did that night has resonated for 50 years since.. A brilliant show of basketball hijacking and broken-field driving by little Bobby Joe Hill eased his coach's aching head and took the Texas Western Miners to the national collegiate championship. It had been a goal of the National Association forthe Advancement of Colored People for decades. 4 in the nation, edged Arkansas in the other semifinal game to set up a much anticipated meeting with the Miners in the Thursday night championship. Don Haskins was not some rookie coach as the film portrays, he was in his fifth year at the school. In fact, 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. Texas Western had a cold night shooting. Why? 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. Kentuckywas quick and hadn't had much trouble with teams throughout the season. Haskins had grownup in Enid, Oklahoma, where a railroad track separated Black neighborhoods from white ones. probably never crossed Don's mind," said his assistant, Moe Iba. It didn't win as many games as his . Sign up to receive The Shadow League Newsletter in your inbox. Blacks now were recruited as reserves as well as starters. Who did the Texas Western Miners lose to Seattle or Tulsa? "What the hell is in El Paso?" those racist myths. The Miners, ranked fourth in the nation, improved to 18-0 with the win. 1966: Miners beat Utah, to play Kentucky in Finals. Mullens, then Texas Western's sports-information director. Adolph Rupp and his Kentucky players as Texas Western puts the championship game out of reach in 1966. David Lattin was a lot bigger than anybody, and the guards for Texas Western were really good. Miami (Ohio) WBB coach resigns after investigation, Texas joins Top 25 And 1 after landing Abmas, Five-star prospect Ron Holland decommits from Texas, Ranking college basketball's top 40 transfers of 2023, No. Willie Cager scored six of Texas Western's nine overtime points to lead the Miners past Cincinnati Friday night, March 11, 1966, in Lubbock. 1965: Miners beat Fresno State 75-73 in game 5. Rupp's lingering bitterness helped paint the Miners as urban street thugs, Nevil Shed had 14 points, nine rebounds. Determined to put an end to it, Haskins fielded an all-black team on that fateful night. 1966 NCAA tournament: Bracket, scores, stats, records On March 19, 1966, the Miners defeated the Kentucky Wildcats (72-65) at Cole Field House on the campus of Maryland University in College Park, MD. They won their games by an average of 15.2 points. "Isay it with love becauseyou couldn't tell the 12th person from the No. Harry Flournoy had 13 points, 17 rebounds and David Lattin managed 11 points, despite fouling out with 9:26 to play. Kansas held for the last shot but turned it over. "I had been listening to all this damn crap out of him," said Haskins. Kentucky," wrote the Sun's James H. Jackson. Coach Don Haskins, second from left, and Texas Western players celebrate after winning the 1966 NCAA basketball . She heldhis hand during the flight. The Miners advanced to play Kansas Saturday night, March 12, 1966, in the Midwest Regional finals. superior rebounding stifled Kentucky. The Disney movie took liberties. Sportswriters who had never seen Texas Western play until that weekend and Riley worked his way into the Texas Western locker room on his own and remembers seeing pure joy,as USA Today details. On March 19, 1966, fans packed Cole Field House in College Park, Maryland, to watch the matchup between Kentucky and Texas Western. The "borrowed" alligator is then placed in Professor Quinn's Geology office. 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.. The team won the national championship in 1966, becoming the first team with an all-black starting lineup to do so. Rupp and Haskins fit those roles perfectly. Although the uprising was part of a larger one . historian Charles Martin. The Shadow League is a narrative company. Seattle U. gave lone loss to Texas Western's storybook team
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