In College Park, Maryland on March 19, 1966, underdog Texas Western College defeats Kentucky, 72-65, in the NCAA men's college basketball finalthe first NCAA title for an all-Black starting. 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. 1966: TWC win 14th straight, sweep West Texas state. A big reason for the win was that the Miners outrebounded the Sun Devils 47-34. [1] Thats when people started talking about it, Lattin said. The Team - University of Texas at El Paso The watershed game highlighted the end of racial segregation in college basketball. ordinary basketball. Texas Western improved to 15-0 and brought the crowd to its feet over and over with the big win over rival NMSU. I agree to receive the "CBS Sports HQ Newsletter" and marketing communications, updates, special offers (including partner offers), and other information from CBS Sports and the Paramount family of companies. been directed to small black schools now were being lured to major state Hill sat out the first half and the Miners led 34-32 at the intermission. The lead in Saturday's game changed hands 20 times as the two teams went back and forth. David Lattin led Texas Western to a comfortable 74-63 win over Weber State Tuesday night, Dec. 14, in front of 3,875 fans in Memorial Gym. was a senior buyer with El Paso Natural Gas Co. Few teams were recruiting black players, so it was unheard of to field an all-black team. Harry Flournoy had 19 rebounds, Shed had 12 and David Lattin had 10. Winning was. Later in his career, he signed 7-foot-2 Black center Tom Payne. For example, when they won the championship no one brought out a ladder for them to cut down the net. 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 . Lattin had 24 points, 12 in each half, and 13 rebounds. He is talking about a team of aggressive, good players. 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. But the Miners came right back, took the lead and led 43-37 at the half and never trailed again. MINERS WIN, 72-65. 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.". In the 1966-67 season, Sign up to receive The Shadow League Newsletter in your inbox. 1966: AP rates TWC ninth in poll; Miners Defeat Tulsa. David Lattin had 16 points, 15 rebounds. Oh, it felt like yesterday, man, Cager said about returning to Cole Field House. three came within a semester of their degrees and have not suffered because The Texas-Indian wars were a series of conflicts between settlers in Texas and the Southern Plains Indians during the 19th-century. pic.twitter.com/QixgpCRVA7. The Miners roster consisted of seven African-Americans. 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. The two teams finished regulation tied at 67-67. They quickly realized it would not be an ordinary game of basketball when five white Wildcats and five black Miners stepped on the court. Willie Worsley added 11 points for Texas Western. "It was like they were sitting theredazed," said Lattin, who, with Willie Worsley, arethe only two starting playersstill alive. The squad also had four Anglo-Americans (Jerry Armstrong, Louis Baudoin, Dick Meyers, and Togo Railey and one Mexican-American Dave Palacio). It looks more like College Basketball: NCAA Final Four, Texas Western coach Don Haskins in team huddle during game vs Utah, College Park, MD 3/18/1966 Oswald, realizing changing times and the school's border-state geography 1 person. 3 of 13. were reluctant to play for him. White and Hill exchanged free throws and the Miners led 79-73. He cut to the middle of the court, went high just in front of the top of the circle and, on the dead run, drained the game winner. A rematch between the two teams was played at 8 p.m. on Saturday, the following day, in Memorial Gym. Nor, for that matter, was UCLA the only time in John. 1966: TWC dumps New Mexico State Aggies, 73-56. Texas Revolution - Wikipedia How can you talk to these black guys like that?" "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. 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. "You can't measure the importance of this game and the outcome of it.". Articles with the HISTORY.com Editors byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan and Matt Mullen. Fifty years ago, Texas Western started . That move by a bearish white man didn't come without controversy. 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. Those two layups gave the Miners But the Miners raced back, took a 45-39 lead and never looked back. 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. 4 Iowa, were ranked ninth in the nation on that first Monday of 1966. So, the All-American player had a front-row seat to what happened that night. TWC also led by seven points in the final half but Colorado State refused to go away. New Mexico led Texas Western 37-21 at the half and led by 20 points with 14:03 to play. Why? A white woman from Queens saw his confusion. 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. In his time at Texas Western/UTEP, he compiled a 719-353 record, suffering only five losing seasons. Rupp's lingering bitterness helped paint the Miners as urban street thugs, 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. He called the Texas Western players "loose-jointed Kentuckywas quick and hadn't had much trouble with teams throughout the season. Texas Western, 19-0, and Kentucky, 20-0, were the only two undefeated teams in the nation at this point. ", 1966: TWC rallies to rout Oklahoma City, 89-74. Texas Western defeats Kentucky in NCAA final - History Bobby Joe Hill and David Lattin each had 18 points and Willie Cager added 10. championship. In 1966 his team won the NCAA tournament over the Wildcats of the University of Kentucky, coached by Adolph Rupp. I want to talk to them. There was so little madness surrounding the Oklahoma City opened with a flurry but Texas Western finished with a flurry. David Lattin was a lot bigger than anybody, and the guards for Texas Western were really good. TWC improved to 11-0 on the season, leaving the Miners and the University of Kentucky as the only two undefeated teams in the nation perhaps a bit foreshadowing. "I kind of understoodwhat we were getting into.". ", This page was last edited on 26 March 2023, at 11:13. 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. Even Texas Western players remain amazed theyre still remembered 50 years later. Nevil Shed had 12 points, eight rebounds, and Willie Worsley had 10 points. GO-GO WITH BOBBY JOE - Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com It was Arizona State's worst home loss in 10 years. No big deal. Their Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. 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. "`Nigger ball' they used to call it. The players on Haskins' team seven Black and five white that 1965-66 season were equally chastised by the coach. How about that? Nomention of skin color. It was as if history demanded that for change finally to occur, a great hero Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 19 points. And four when behind", things changed players he did recruit -- like Kentuckians Butch Beard and Wes Unseld -- 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. All-white leagues like the Atlantic Coast Conference, Southwestern Conference, and Southeastern Conference became integrated within the next two years. Lattinscored 16 points and had nine rebounds while Rupp's words from that press conference echoed in his mind. The Miners, ranked 9th in the nation, improved to 12-0 on the season with the Thursday night win. Essentially, the final game pitted Kentucky's offense against Texas Western's defense, and it was the defense that held up.". 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. 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 team was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 It'slike a Jackie Robinson moment,"said Derrick Gragg, the NCAA's senior vice president for inclusion, education and community engagement. 69 Texas Western 1966 Premium High Res Photos 1966: Seattle wins, 74-72, to end Miner string. Then he walked out of my room.". NCAA officials, the referees, the coaches, the cheerleaders and almost all Texas Western, ranked second in the nation, fell Saturday evening. 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. March Madness fans will remember the 2020 tournament as the competition that never happened. '", "The Miners, who don't worry much about defense but try to pour the ball Bobby Joe Hill had 18, Willie Worsley 12 and David Lattin had 11. It was one of those Southern states that had through the years enforced widespread segregation. The game was played during an era of racial unrest and as the civil rights movement was gaining power. Other Kentucky players shown are Tommy Kron (30) and Larry Conley (40). Coach Haskins didn't think that made any sense. 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. This guy could jump out of the gym. The Miners roasted South Dakota 88-42 in the first game and then toasted Nevada 86-49 for the two commanding victories. 1965-66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team Two years later, Payne had left, and Kentucky was Texas Western led 32-27 at the half and held on to a 60-59 lead with 1:56 to play. Here's how I saw history. 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. Still, Haskins took it a step further than schools in the south were doing and heplayed his Black players. 7 Related Question Answers Found. Make history. That was furthest thing from my mind," he said. The Miners led by as many as seven points in the first half but the Rams trimmed that lead to two, 43-41, at the half. Neither Seattle nor Tennessee were invited to the NCAA tournament. In the last 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. 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. Informed by Haskins that Rupp had vowed five The 1965-66 Texas Western Miners basketball team represented Texas Western College, now known as the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP). Throughout the season, the Texas Western players faced racial discrimination and bullying. Fifty years later, the tributes to Texas Western (now known as the University of Texas-El Paso) keep coming. Haskins replied, Same way I do white guys.. We strive for accuracy and fairness. 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.
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