of it: David Lattin is an executive with a Houston liquor distributor. Texas Western ripped Nevada 86-49 Wednesday night, Dec. 22, to easily win the Mississippi Valley Cage Classic in Rockland, Ill. Blacks now were recruited as reserves as well as starters. Ten players in laughably short pants move slowly through 40 minutes of A couple weeks ago, some Texas Western players returned to Cole Field House for the first time since 1966. 1965: Miners, Hawkeyes take first-round tourney wins. major-college team had ever started five blacks in ANY game. Iowa narrowly avoided an upset at the hands of Arkansas as Gerry Jones got a tip in at the buzzer for the victory. Those two layups gave the Miners Coach Haskins didn't think that made any sense. So they could cut down the nets. But the Miners zipped quickly back and erased the lead to dump New Mexico 67-64 in an overtime affair in Albuquerque. "The players were just out there, doing what we were doing. Texas Western Upsets Kentucky for N.C.A.A. They would never trail again. The other were reluctant to play for him. And what they did that night has resonated for 50 years since.. Meanwhile, though it was never mentioned until decades later, by the Athletes who had 1965: Miners take opening game, beat ENMU. Curiously, while Oswald had been prodding Rupp, Texas Western president "The legend of Texas Western: journalism and the epic sports spectacle that wasnt. New Mexico led Texas Western 37-21 at the half and led by 20 points with 14:03 to play. Whether it happened or not, five "(Lattin) said, `Take that you white honky,'" recalled Riley. A lot of stuff happened that wasnt supposed to happen, even with Don Haskins. 1965: Miners outlast Weber for fourth win in row. until Texas Western coach Don Haskins did it earlier that season, no A rematch between the two teams was played at 8 p.m. on Saturday, the following day, in Memorial Gym. It wasn't a racial issue at the time. Bobby Joe Hill and David Lattin each had 18 points and Willie Cager added 10. Fifty years ago, Texas Western started . And three years before Rupp told reporters five Black players couldn't beat five white players, the Alabama National Guard forced Gov. Lattinscored 16 points and had nine rebounds while Rupp's words from that press conference echoed in his mind. 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 win was the Miner's fifth of the season without a loss at Memorial Gym Friday night. But it was not enough for the Jayhawks. Haskins says I was simply playing the best players I had. 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. 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. No big deal. 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. 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. Texas Western improved to 6-0 on the season while Fresno State, which came into this two-game series at 5-1, dropped to 5-3 on the season. It should have been done a long time ago as far as the commitments to all the blacks being successful. Bobby Joe Hill had 17, Cager had 15 and Orsten Artis had 11 points to pace TWC. American cities. The Miner defense was again strong, holding the Wildcats to just 36.4 percent shooting from the field. David Lattin led TWC with 14 points, 11 rebounds. The Miners went into their delay game with Bobby Joe Hill and Orsten Artis handling the ball. 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. College Basketball: NCAA Final Four, Texas Western coach Don Haskins in team huddle during game vs Utah, College Park, MD 3/18/1966 Back then, there were very few games on TV. Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 19 points. Until that moment, at the height of the civil-rights era, no major-college one shocked coach asked Haskins afterward. 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. Orsten Artis became a detective sergeant in Gary, Ind., and Bobby Joe Hill As early as the 1920s, the NAACP urged Black people to take part in sports, "as a way to demonstrate citizenship, reliability, sportsmanship, all those kinds of character issues," said Pierce,who studies twentieth century America andspecializes in the urban experience of Blacks. Texas Westerns players came from all over the country to El Paso, Texas. Copyright 2023 Endgame360 Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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. "He treated us all the same, like (expletive deleted)," said Worsley. He said it was probably the worst day of his life when he lost that game, but he felt the right team won because it did so much for others. Shed had 11 and Harry Flournoy had 10 points, 10 rebounds. The Miners improved to 22-0 with two regular season games remaining one at New Mexico State, one at Seattle with a big second half run in front of a sellout crowd of 5,200 in Memorial Gym. Willie Worsley had 14, Bobby Joe Hill 13 and Willie Cager 10 points to pace the Miners. 2001, you'll see more athletic talent at many high school games. "What a piece of history. Through the years, before his death in 2008, Haskins repeatedlysaid he didn't play an all-Black starting five to make a social statement. Basketball is long gone from Cole, which was built for boxing, became one of the most storied basketball arenas, and now is transitioning into a football indoor practice facility. 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 was Arizona State's worst home loss in 10 years. The crowd is white. Did The Flock Sign Him Or Does He Have A New Trolling Target. What Lattin noticed immediately: No blacks on either team. Then he walked out of my room.". "`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. the sportswriters on press row. Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 18 points. Kentuckys well-regarded coach, Adolph Rupp, was known for being racist. 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. 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. Orsten Artis had 16, Bobby Joe Hill 14, Willie Cager 12, David Lattin 10 and Harry Flournoy 10. What happened to the 1966 Texas Western basketball team? 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. 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 Miners improved to 20-0 on the season and coach Don Haskins got his 100th career victory against only 25 losses. We took them out of that rhythm and they couldn'tadjust to the way we were playing them," he said. Black players were no longer taboo, and basketball was never the same. blacks. 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. But it was on the boards that the Miners truly dominated this game. The NCAA title game had yet to morph into March Madness when Kentucky and Julia Worsley never talked to her sonabout Black and white, he said. Willie Worsley, Harry Flournoy, Orsten Artis, Nevil Shed and Willie Cager standing. Willie Worsley added 11 points for Texas Western. Even when Texas Western players started dribbling the ball around at the end ofthe game to let the clock run out. Between 1966 and 1985, the average 1966: Miner's late surge edges Lobos in overtime. It was as if history demanded that for change finally to occur, a great hero "The beating was sound as well as thrilling," Frank Deford wrote in a "Sports Illustrated" story at the end of March 1966. And yet, that game did more to bring a country together than those young players knew at the time. 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. "What the hell is in El Paso?" 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. Nevil Shed led the Miners with 17 points and Hill had 16. By Devon POV Mason | Published on: February 22, 2021 Comments (0) The 1965-66 Texas Western Miners basketball team represented Texas Western College, now known as the University of Texas. In his time at Texas Western/UTEP, he compiled a 719-353 record, suffering only five losing seasons. ragamuffins. David Lattin had 16 points, nine rebounds. 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. 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. 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. Instead, Kentucky went back to its bench, heads hanging,humbled. They quickly realized it would not be an ordinary game of basketball when five white Wildcats and five black Miners stepped on the court. The Lobos came right back and took a 58-56 lead with 1:04 to play. 19, 1966, Texas Western College and the University of Kentucky met in the men's college basketball championship game. After the game, he refused to congratulate or shake hands with the players. After the NBA and Prison, William Bedford Is Now Focusing on His New Life. 1966: Miners edge Kansas, 81-80, in overtimes. They hadjust finished their pregame meal and Texas Western coach Don Haskins had corneredhis big center David Lattin with a demand. Lattin isn'ttalking about a team of white Kentucky players. violent game. After the NCAA championship, Haskins received more than 40,000 pieces of hate mail for starting five Black players, he latertold theL.A. Times. Maryland's Cole Field House. This Day In 1966: Texas Western, featuring the first all-black starting lineup, beats Adolph Rupps Kentucky team to win NCAA title. The game began with a message. 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. Hill led the Miners with 18 points. In stark contrast, the final game of the 1966 NCAA Tournament holds a place in civil rights history. David Lattin added 11 points and Bobby Joe Hill had 10. On March 19, 1966, fans packed Cole Field House in College Park, Maryland, to watch the matchup between Kentucky and Texas Western. The team won the national championship in 1966, becoming the first team with an all-black starting lineup to do so. "People got to see this for the first time," said Gragg. The Miners outrebounded West Texas 49-26. quickly. meeting in an interview for the oral-history project at Texas Western, now I knew it as the championship game. Texas Western's journey to the 1966 NCAA championship was depicted in the 2006 film Glory Road. That was exciting for him to do that, Armstrong said. Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. TWC held for the last shot but Bobby Joe Hill was called for charging with seven seconds left. The Miners shot 50.8 percent from the field and held the Aggies to just 34.1 percent. A white woman from Queens saw his confusion. The team was coached by Hall of Famer Don Haskins. Orsten Artis had 15, Nevil Shed and David Lattin had 13 points each. Coach Haskins, I loved him very much. contest, in fact, that its starting time was 10 p.m., it wasn't carried by a A fireball was seen hurtling over Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona early Thursday, April 27, and videos show it exploded into multiple pieces before vanishing in the dark. The closer Texas Western (see cover) came . Willie Cager led the Miners in scoring with 18 points. Linda Brown From Historic Brown v. Board Case Passes Away, Did Somebody Say Sweep? For the first time that night, on the edge of the Mason-Dixon Line, a major The Miners tried to even things with shot after shot down the stretch. More than 40 years later, we remember - and cherish - the game that changed basketball forever. No problem. Friends noted that even as he was dying with cancer in a Lexington hospital Winning was. According to longtime Kentucky assistant Harry Lancaster's autobiography, Joseph Ray tried to move Haskins in the opposite direction. 1966: Miners beat Utah, to play Kentucky in Finals. Title. The year after winning the title, the school became the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP). Chambers still managed to score 38 points in the game. In an arena filled with white cheerleaders, referees, and officials, it seemed impossible that an all-black team just won the NCAA title. Arizona State led 30-29 at the half but Texas Western went on a run to open the second half and led by eight points with 15 minutes to play. Texas Western's coach Don Haskins, who recruited black players, made sure it didn't happen. had not earned degrees. The shot was good but the trail official, right behind the play, signaled White was out of bounds. Cager scored in the lane, was fouled and made the free throw to put the Miners up 74-70 in overtime. If basketball ever took a turn, that was it," said Nolan Richardson, the Arkansas coach "For that moment in (19)66, it was simply about winning a national championship. championship. According to Lattin, Haskins heard that Cager was ill many years ago and persuaded a friend to operate on Cager for free. Willie Worsley led the Miners in scoring, hitting from the outside and finishing with 18 points. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. But UTEP's trail blazing legacy is marked by more than the historic victory on March 19, 1966. Bobby Joe Hill led the Miners with 20 points. So, the All-American player had a front-row seat to what happened that night. During halftime of the Texas Western game, he reportedly referred to the Miners as coons, as ESPN reports. When pressed to provide examples of why he thinks Haskins was prejudiced, Cager laughed and replied, Youll have to see my book. Cager said he is releasing a book in a couple weeks. The game only got significant with race being a common denominator in the growth of basketball. 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. The Miners, ranked fourth in the nation, improved to 17-0 on the season with Thursday's win. Coach Haskins saved his life. 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. Don Haskins portrayed by Josh Lucas, head coach of Texas Western College (now known as University of Texas at El Paso or UTEP), coached a team with an all-black starting lineup, a first in NCAA history. The Miners led 40-33 at the half and their defense simply smothered the Sun Devils holding them to just 39.1 percent shooting from the floor and forcing 23 turnovers. Your email address will not be published. The squad also had four Anglo-Americans (Jerry Armstrong, Louis Baudoin, Dick Meyers, and Togo Railey and one Mexican-American Dave Palacio). It turned out to be one of the greatest nights in the history of college sports. "You can't measure the importance of this game and the outcome of it.". "One day, Haskinsinvited aBlack guy over to play with him," Lattin said Haskins told him. TWC outrebounded Iowa 49-36. Texas Western was never threatened and never trailed against Pan American Saturday night, Dec. 11, 1965, in front of 4,500 fans in Memorial Gym. 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. Shed led the Miners in scoring with 17 points. The Miners advanced to play Kansas Saturday night, March 12, 1966, in the Midwest Regional finals. "I call it a watershed moment in college athletics. The movie erroneously paints a picture of a team of new recruits that takes a while to gel during that 1966 season. But does the film ("Glory Road" is being released by Disney, the parent company of . Cager is out of his mind. Princeton-Dartmouth on a Friday night in January. We wanted to carry that trophy out of there," he said. Nevil Shed had to hoist up Willie Worsley so he could do the honors. There was so little madness surrounding the 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.