Glory Road
I finally got around to seeing the movie about Texas Western (UTEP) and their run to the 1966 National Championship, the first school to start 5 African-American players. Being a basketball nut, I was interested in learning more about the story and seeing how it developed. Well, the movie, thanks to Disney, was no help, I was a little disappointed. I know you have to change some stories around to make a good movie, but Disney changed too much with this.
For instance:
- Don Haskins began coaching at UTEP in 1961-62, not 1965-66. And from the start, he began recruiting whites and African-Americans, looking for the best players. UTEP made the NCAA Tourney in 1963 and 64, so they weren't totally unknown. They were big underdogs going into the game despite going 27-1. They didn't have many quality wins and certainly didn't play the schedule and have the history that Kentucky had.
- Haskins never had any political objectives during the season, he felt his best players were African-Americans. It wasn't until afterward the game really became significant from a historical perspective.
- Texas Western led for the last 30 minutes of the game, sparked by Bobby Joe Hill's back-to-back steals. UK did cut the lead to one early in the 2nd half, but UTEP responded and had a 6 to 8 point working margin for most of the 2nd half. What should've been shown was Adolph Rupp, UK's coach, telling his team to foul thinking African-Americans couldn't shoot free throws. UTEP was 28/34 from the line, sealing the deal.
- I know this was a Disney production, which is probably why they didn't step on anyone's toes and showed a "safe" version. But from the majority of things I've read, Adolph Rupp was racist. He refused to recruit African-Americans. He would call newspaper reporters when looking at high school game box scores, and ask if the high scoring players were white or black. He put a lot of pressure on his team to win and thought they would, he was very confident. Also, the crowd was mostly pro-UK, which the movie showed. But they were arguably the most hostile crowd UTEP played in front of all year. Another great shot would've been panning the crowd after the game, standing in silence, stunned by the loss.
On another note, I bought the SNL Best of Belushi, Murphy, Sandler, Farley, and Ferrell for $45. What a deal!!!!
Robbie McEwen won the sprint in Stage 2 of the Tour. Thor Hushovd took back the yellow jersey, gaining 14 seconds in time bonuses throughout the day. George Hincapie & Co. were more than willing to give up the yellow, they'd just like it back later in the race.
Hopefully the weather holds up tomorrow, I'm heading to the golf course.
posted by Marty at 5:49 PM
2 Comments:
You complain about Disney distorting the facts and then suggest they should have made up some idiotic strategy on the part of Kentucky to purposely foul Texas Western (all to support some assumption that you hold about Rupp) ? Kind of far-fetched and ridiculous on your part IMO. (If you read or listened to the post-game comments from that game, you'd know that Rupp was upset the TW had shot so many free throws, wondering how that could happen given that TW had played a tough man-to-man while UK had played a passive zone most of the night.)
As for Rupp, he actually did recruit black players prior the 1966 game. In fact he was one of (if not THE) first coach in the SEC or ACC to recruit a black player and offer him a scholarship (Wes Unseld in 1964).
You talk about Disney making a 'safe' version. Actually what Disney did with regard to Rupp was more of a 'responsible' version. Bruckheimer and crew spent a lot of time researching Rupp (they actually hired researchers to look into it even though most of the myths have already been debunked), trying to find evidence of his 'widely known' (to many) racism so that they could put it in the movie. What did they find ? Nothing.
In Bruckheimer's own words. "There were no African-American athletes playing in the South. And we couldn’t find anything that he (Rupp) said on the record that was racist – ever. Even though I’ve read books that claimed he was a racist and said these things, we couldn’t find them."
Or as David Kindred, who knew Rupp well during that time has said, I keep waiting for someone to SHOW me, where Adolph Rupp once acted on the reason of race. Once, SHOW me. Don't tell me what he said, or may have said, to somebody third or fourth hand. SHOW me where he once acted on race.
The fact of the matter is that the more in-depth you look at Rupp and Kentucky in the 1950's and 1960's (if not before) from the actual historical record, the more evident that he not only did a number of positive things but was in many cases ahead of the curve.
For example in the late 1920's he coached a black player as a high school coach in Illinois. In the 1930's and 1940's he held basketball clinics for black coaches and players at historically black colleges. In the early 1950's, Kentucky played against numerous integrated teams, both at home and away. No other SEC school hosted an integrated team on its campus until nearly 15 years after Kentucky did so. During those times, Kentucky also took the place of other SEC teams a number of times in the NCAA tournament due to those teams choosing not to participate because of the issue of playing against integrated teams.
In the early 1960's Rupp asked the president of the university that he be allowed to recruit black players and suggested UK leave the SEC if need be. He was told no. During that time he made a number of positive remarks in the press concerning his desire to integrate his basketball program, which prompted literally hundreds of death threats made against him. Rupp assisted a number of black athletes in terms of receiving college scholarships and helping them making the transition to the pros.
Was Rupp perfect ? Not by a long shot. He made a number of mistakes, was arrogant, stubborn and set in his ways to be sure. It's a valid criticism that he could have done more to get a black athlete into the program sooner than he did. (Of couse it could be said that he could have done more to bring in many white athletes during that time that UK recruited but missed out on (such as Joe Fulks, Kelly Coleman, Jerry Lucas, Jeff Mullins, Bill Bradley, Larry Miller among many others etc.)
He also made a lot of enemies along the way, many of whom waited until he was dead and buried before they attacked him and his legacy, a practice that continues today.
Maybe 10-15 years ago when Rupp's critics were in full frenzy assuming negative things about him, repeating myths and rumors as verified truth and exagerrating and using 'literary license' to make up untruths about him that fit their ignorant agenda, could the everyday fan be excused for not knowing the entire story. But today, information which provides a much more complete story (both pro and con) is available. [Information BTW, which demonstrates just how unprofessional and irresponsible a number of the earlier 'journalists' were with regards to this issue. People like Curry Kirkpatrick, John Feinstein, Alexander Wolff, Frank Fitzpatrick etc. should be hanging their heads in shame IMO.]
There is no excuse for continued ignorance on this subject. I would hope that you, even as a blogger, would show some sense of responsibility and journalistic integrity to know what the hell you're talking about.
If you want to read about this topic, below is a link which covers most everything there is to know about the topic. It provides information which is both pro and con with regards to Rupp and Kentucky, and also touches on the larger issue of integration of college basketball in the South.
Link
Jon
PS, I agree with you about Disney's depiction of Texas Western and their team. I realize that there was bound to be some consolidation of the story etc., but to suggest that everything happened in one year (ie that Haskins integrated the team (he didn't), in one year (it wasn't) all at the same time (it wasn't) and then went on to win the national title (they didn't) is simply irresponsible.
Also one thing to note about Kentucky. Even though they were a big name in college basketball, the 1966 team was actually similar to Texas Western in that they weren't ranked coming into the season. In fact, Kentucky was probably a bigger suprise since the year before, UK was coming off one of their worst years (15-10) and had not really changed their players, and were severely undersized.
Texas Western had at least been invited to the NIT in 1965. And of course much is made of Texas Western being a surprise (which they were early on) but the fact of the matter is that by the tournament, Texas Western was ranked #3 in the nation, and was the highest ranked team in the Western half of the NCAA field. So it really shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone that they made it to the finals.
July 9, 2006 at 5:50 AM
Jon, I appreciate your comment. A lot of what I wrote is based on quotes and things taken from TV shows about the game. I'm not going to pretend to know more about UK basketball than you do, I think you have me beat on that.
I took the time to look at the website you sent and a lot of it was new to me. So thank you for sending me the link and I apologize for not looking into the story more, I thought I had.
July 11, 2006 at 6:25 PM
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