Glory Road Movie

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Oscar Del Rio APUSH 05/17/10 Period 3 “GLORY ROAD” “Glory Road" was based on a true story of Texas Western's Coach Don Haskins, leading the first all-black starting lineup team to the 1966 NCAA national basketball championship title. Coach Haskins has a lot going against him: first, Texas Western has a poor basketball program, and second, he cannot recruit good white players to the team. Coach Haskins goes to the Northern cities from Gary, Indiana to the Bronx in order to recruit talented black players from the streets to play for his team. At the time there were no black players playing Division 1 basketball in the South this included the ACC, SEC, and SWC leagues. Seven blacks and five whites made up the legendary 1965-66 Texas Western Miners. The black players had to adjust to his coaching, and not play street basketball. The team and coach were mocked and ridiculed for their showboating and flaunting of black players on the court throughout the entire season. In 1966, American cultural and sporting mythology insisted at least one white starter was necessary for success. Black athletes, prevailing wisdom implied, needed the steadying hand of a white teammate. Otherwise, games would dissolve into chaos. Whites then thought that if you put five blacks on the court at the same time, they would somehow revert to their native impulses. It was said no five colored players could ever defeat five white players. Coach Haskins though didn’t see color when he evaluated the skill of all of his players, and choose who played in the game. With courage and determination, Coach Haskins changed basketball history against all odds, when his underdog team beat the powerhouse Kentucky team with five starting colored players, a first in NCAA Basketball. It was like David vs. Goliath. Through this they were able to make a statement that blacks,
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