The opening game in Wichita will pit Colorado State and the University of Houston. Still, Rupp held out. 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. The Miners tried to even things with shot after shot down the stretch. She heldhis hand during the flight. It was the first time a starting five of all-Black players had won the title. The players on Haskins' team seven Black and five white that 1965-66 season were equally chastised by the coach. ", 1966: TWC rallies to rout Oklahoma City, 89-74. sometimes embellishing his excuses with hints that Texas Western somehow had Meanwhile, though it was never mentioned until decades later, by the "There was a certain style of play whites expected from blacks," said Perry The crowd is white. CBS Sports is a registered trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Commissioner.com is a registered trademark of CBS Interactive Inc. site: media | arena: collegebasketball | pageType: stories | The Story Behind A Rap About The 1966 Texas Western Team Miami Heat President Pat Riley Reflects on 50th Anniversary of Texas It turned out to be one of the greatest nights in the history of college sports. No problem. Then Haskins turned to them and said they needed to go to bed, to rest up. Hill led the Miners with 22 points, followed by Lattin with 15 points and 17 rebounds. It had been a goal of the National Association forthe Advancement of Colored People for decades. Quickly following Texan independence, the United States admitted Texas into the republic as a slave state. Back then, there were very few games on TV. The duel was breath taking Texas Western 69, Kansas 69 at the end of regulation; TWC 71, Kansas 71 at the end of the first overtime. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. By William Gildea. point to prove. 1966: TWC edge Sun Devils for 19th straight. Native people lived in what is now Texas more than 10,000 years ago, as evidenced by the discovery of the remains of prehistoric Leanderthal Lady.In 1519, the arrival of the first Spanish conquistadors in the region of North America now known as Texas found the region occupied by numerous Native American tribes. The Miners ran their record to 8-0 with a dominating second half performance. For several years Kentucky president John W. Haskins stormed in, smelling of the cigarettes he'd smoked that day. But in the south, it was still rare to find a college sports team that wasn't all white. Until that moment, at the height of the civil-rights era, no major-college team had ever started five blacks in an NCAA championship game. 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. The following season, several college teams started to integrate. When the game was over and Texas Western was thevictor, the players didn't shake hands. Texas Western edged Fresno State 75-73 on Friday night, Dec. 17, 1965 with an injured Bobby Joe Hill watching from the sidelines. 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. David Lattin had 16 points, nine rebounds. That shouldnt be significant one way or the other, except that many people make it noteworthy with snickers about the ethnic makeup of the team.. He is talking about a team of aggressive, good players. The year after winning the title, the school became the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP). But the Miners came right back, took the lead and led 43-37 at the half and never trailed again. Harry Flournoy had nine points, 11 rebounds and Orsten Artis also added nine points to help the Miner cause. He was on the Duke freshman team, Lattin said. the basketball but sign it. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Blacks now were recruited as reserves as well as starters. 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.. Bobby Joe Hill had 13 points, Orsten Artis had 10 and David Lattin, who got into first half foul trouble, had 10 points, 10 rebounds. Texas Western's Championship Win Was Historic, But Why Did It Take So Later in his career, he signed 7-foot-2 Black center Tom Payne. It was the first. Keep acting nonchalant. It should have been done a long time ago as far as the commitments to all the blacks being successful. Otherwise, games David Lattin scored just one point in the first half but finished with 19 points to lead the Miners. The Miners were playing and winning their third road game in four outings on this Saturday night in south Texas. He had never been on a plane. "Isay it with love becauseyou couldn't tell the 12th person from the No. Nevil Shed led the Miners with 17 points and Hill had 16. It's true, Texas Western, ranked No. 1966 NCAA tournament: Bracket, scores, stats, records ordinary basketball. time, they would somehow revert to their native impulses.". Cager later made two free throws to give Texas Western a 76-72 lead. 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. In the 60s, many people believed black men would not be able to handle the pressure of playing at a collegiate level. basketball at the time, but the ideal foils for Haskins and Texas Western. Texas Western's journey to the 1966 NCAA championship was depicted in the 2006 film Glory Road. 19, 1966, Texas Western College and the University of Kentucky met in the men's college basketball championship game. The Wildcats were coached by the legendary Adolph Rupp aka The Baron Of Bluegrass and led by All-American guards Pat Riley and Louie Dampier. 72-65 victory that night over No.1 Kentucky, coached by the legendary Adolph Haskins, who died in 2008, said he wasnt trying to make a social statement but simply starting his best players. of it: David Lattin is an executive with a Houston liquor distributor. In 1966, American cultural and sporting mythology insisted at least one The name Texas derives from tysha, a word in the Caddoan language of the . It led to the integration of college sports. The American . Lattin remembers Haskins telling him so many times about that player. 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. Hill led the Miners in scoring with 15 points. "`They can do everything with Rupp crossed paths at a sports banquet in Ohio, the younger coach nearly The Team - University of Texas at El Paso 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. Texas Western remained undefeated by dispatching Colorado State 72-55 Saturday night, Feb. 26, 1966, in the final home game of the season. First of all, we came from nowhere and no one expected us to be there. The Miners, playing their fourth road game in their last five outings, were led by David Lattin with 22 points, seven rebounds. I feel embarrassed by it., Lattin said Cager has talked about writing a controversial book for 25 years. Dan Koeck for The New York Times . Rapoport said former Georgetown coach John Thompson recalled Texas Western-Kentucky wasnt a big deal in the black community. In the years immediately after Texas Western's title, the integration of Few teams were recruiting black players, so it was unheard of to field an all-black team. In his time at Texas Western/UTEP, he compiled a 719-353 record, suffering only five losing seasons. Orsten Artis had 14 points, seven rebounds and Willie Worsley had 14 points and Harry Flournoy had seven rebounds. Lattin and roommate Bobby Joe Hill sitting on their beds. Texas Western's five black starters didn't catch the eyes of the country until they went up against an all-white Adolph Rupp coached Kentucky team in the national championship. Texas Westerns offense was tougher to guard and they played under control for the whole game.. would dissolve into chaos. Writing a decade later in his book, "Sports in America", James Michener I never knew that. Sophomore Willie Cager led the Miners with 16 points, scoring 12 of those in the second half. all-white and another whose starters were entirely black. Nevil Shed had 12 points, eight rebounds, and Willie Worsley had 10 points. "No longer couldthe excuse be used that Blacks were not smart enough, were undisciplined, could not work under pressure,could not follow directions and were not equipped to function on our own," Flournoy, a Texas Western starting five from Gary, Ind., wrotein his biography for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He called the Texas Western players "loose-jointed Otherwise, Miners players said there was no racial tension. That was furthest thing from my mind," he said. "It's just one of those things that sticks out to me about that game.". W. Stewart in the Baltimore Sun that weekend. The 1965-66 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. 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. They werent some unheard of team that came out of nowhere, as Haskins had led them to two previous NCAA Tournaments. "I had been listening to all this damn crap out of him," said Haskins. was a senior buyer with El Paso Natural Gas Co. The other But I didn't.". Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 24 points. I was simply playing the best players on the team, and they happened to be Black.. I want to win, bottom line. Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Fine, Hill! Haskins shouted, according to the story. and Louie Dampier, were small, quick and athletic. 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. According to longtime Kentucky assistant Harry Lancaster's autobiography, He didnt treat African-American guys differently than white guys.. Follow and read more from Jon Solomon on Facebook and Twitter. It didn't win as many games as his . Harry Flournoy scored nine points in the first half, seven more in the second half to lead the Miners with 16 points. The Shadow League is a narrative company. Willie Worsley, Harry Flournoy, Orsten Artis, Nevil Shed and Willie Cager standing. Orsten Artis led Texas Western with 18 points, followed by Bobby Joe Hill with 15, Willie Worsley with 14 and David Lattin with 10. The squad also had four Anglo-Americans (Jerry Armstrong, Louis Baudoin, Dick Meyers, and Togo Railey and one Mexican-American Dave Palacio). As basketball lore has told a thousand times since, Texas Western did beat Adolph Rupp's Kentucky Wildcats in the 1966 NCAA championship. All Rights Reserved. I made a point to listen to it for some strange reason, Vaccaro said. They hadjust finished their pregame meal and Texas Western coach Don Haskins had corneredhis big center David Lattin with a demand. On hisside of the track, literally right by the track, there was a basketball goal. Texas Western was beaten 74-72 at Seattle, Kentucky 69-62 at Tennessee. His mom told him he could go on one condition: He had to promise to let Cager and Shed take care of him if he got into any trouble. 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. white Converse All-Stars, are the five starters for Texas Western. section: | slug: significance-of-texas-westerns-1966-ncaa-title-not-realized-at-first | sport: collegebasketball | route: article_single.us |
