GLORY ROAD REVIEW

I went to see “Glory Road” last week  As most know, the movie focused on the Texas Western Miners, starting an all-black lineup, which went on to defeat the all-white Kentucky team for the 1966 NCAA championship, helping change color barriers throughout basketball.

I truly enjoyed the movie, but take issue with some of the dramatic license taken. Overlooked is the fact that the Kansas University Jayhawks actually beat the Texas Western Miners in the Regional semifinal game.

After defeating SMU 76-70 in the first game of the NCAA Tourney in Lubbock, Texas, the Jayhawks faced Texas-Western (now UTEP).  Sophomore JoJo White played a phenomenal game, although his teammates were sluggish.  The Miners led by three at halftime, 38-35.  White put Kansas back in contention with a three-point play with 38 seconds remaining, sending the game into overtime tied at 69. 

With time running down in overtime, the Jayhawks decided to put their fate in the hands of White, a sophomore with only eight games of major-college experience.  KU coach Ted Owens said, “We inbounded it to him, and as he started to penetrate, Texas Western did a good job of pushing him to the sideline. He pivoted on the sideline, and with one second to go, hit a 35-foot jumper”, apparently winning the Midwestern Region title for KU.  

The Jayhawks were staring at a victory and Final Four trip.  “We were going nuts, and everybody jumped up and grabbed each other,” Owens said.  The jubilation ended quickly, however, when referee Rudy Marich waved the basket off, saying that White stepped on the out-of-bounds line.  Replays later showed that he was inbounds by at least six inches.  (Remember, they were playing in Texas….). I recently spoke to Bill Mayer, long-time sports writer for the Lawrence Journal-World, who told me he was at the game, sitting in the front row, and confirmed that White was definitely in bounds.

“We would have been better off if JoJo had missed that shot because it was one of those moments of ecstasy where we thought ‘We have won it!  We have realized our dream of going to the Final Four,’” Owens said.  “It’s hard after you think you have it won to get yourself settled back down in the right mental frame of mind.  Now all of a sudden we hadn’t won and we had a second overtime.”

The Jayhawks just couldn’t get back on track after that, and bowed in the second overtime 81-80.  The loss to Texas-Western provided Owens with what he would later call his “biggest disappointment”.  “I still feel that if we had beaten Texas Western, we would have won the NCAA title,” said Owens.  His sentiments were matched by Miner’s coach Don Haskins, who said: “Kansas was the best team we faced, by far.  If we hadn’t beaten Kansas, they could have won the national championship.”

Dr. Ken Johnson
Clinical Associate Professor
Des Moines University

February, 2006