Glory Road



I didn't go and see Glory Road, as much as I want to see how Jerry Bruckheimer takes liberties with the story of the 1966 NCAA championship game (and how the young Pat Riley is portrayed in the story). It'll likely be a rental sometime down the road.

I did, however, read "And the Walls came Tumbling Down: The Basketball Game that Changed American Sports" by Frank Fitzpatrick on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which detailed the game, it's context, and it's implications for the future.

It is something to realize just how very different the world was 40 years ago. I know that I feel like the world is very different place since 2001, and that the difference between now and 40 years prior must be mind-boggling. Still, elements of the past persist.

If the 1966 game was a watershed moment for sports or race relations in the country, it was not only because of the fact of 5 blacks starting vs 5 whites, but because it was Adolph Rupp on the other sideline. Rupp, fairly or unfairly, came to represent the old south's way of handling race relations. The contest wouldn't nearly have been so emblematic had he not been on the other sideline.

(Notes: If you're going to see the movie, let me clue you in on some factual errors and easy misconceptions that you or your people may encounter -- Haskins did not win the title in his first year in real life, nor did he begin the practice of recruiting black basketball players in the south... texas el-paso had a good reputation in this regard prior to his arrival... he did start 5 black players much to the chagrin at first of officials at texas western... outside of the south, college athletics had already started to integrate well before the 1966 game, and black athletes such as Bill Russell had already led their schools to NCAA success)

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My NCAA "credentials" : I watch the final four every year with my NBA scout cap on. I don't like big money college athletics on principle as I believe that there are too many layers of exploitation and/or compromise for high-minded institutions like universities to participate with good conscience in.

Posted: Mon - January 16, 2006 at 05:12 PM      

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