1965-66

UCLA lost the AAWU (now Pac-10) title to Oregon State in 1965–66 and couldn't defend its NCAA crown. That opened the door for Texas Western (now UTEP) to emerge from the western half of the tournament draw and meet top-ranked Kentucky for the championship.

Kentucky, NCAA champions four times under Adolph Rupp, came to College Park, Md., looking to give its legendary coach an unprecedented fifth national title.

It wasn't to be. Kentucky, with five white starters, was upset by Texas Western, which started five blacks, 72–65. The Miners, led by Bobby Joe Hill and center Dave “Big Daddy” Lattin, won the game at the foul line with 28 points.

It was a watershed game for black players. Afterward, all colleges started recruiting blacks. Three years later, even Rupp had broken the color line.

Meanwhile, Player of the Year Cazzie Russell led No.9 Michigan to its third straight Big Ten title, but the Wolverines lost to Kentucky in the Mideast final.

Final AP Top 10 (Writers' poll taken before major tournaments. From 1962–63 through 1967–68, AP ranked only 10 teams).

Note: Texas Western won the NCAAs.

Second 10 (Taken from final UPI coaches' poll).

Note: Brigham Young won the NIT.

Consensus All-America (By position, in alphabetical order)

First Team

·         Dave Bing, Syracuse

·         Clyde Lee, Vanderbilt

·         Cazzie Russell, Michigan

·         Dave Schellhase, Purdue

·         Jimmy Walker, Providence

Second Team

·         Louie Dampier, Kentucky

·         Matt Guokas, St. Joseph's-PA

·         Jack Marin, Duke

·         Dick Snyder, Davidson

·         Bob Verga, Duke

• Walt Wesley, Kansas

AP POLL

1. Kentucky
2. Duke
3. UTEP
4. Kansas
5. St. Joseph's
6. Loyola-Chicago
7. Cincinnati
8. Vanderbilt
9. Michigan
10. W. Kentucky

UPI COACHES POLL

1. Kentucky
2. Duke
3. Texas-El Paso
4. Kansas
5. Loyola-Chicago
6. St. Joseph's
7. Michigan
8. Vanderbilt
9. Cincinnati
10. Providence

NCAA Results

First Round
St. Joseph's 65, Providence 48
Davidson 95, Rhode Island 65
Dayton 58, Miami (Ohio) 51
Western Kentucky 105, Loyola (Ill.) 86
Texas Western 89, Oklahoma City 74
Houston 82, Colorado State 76
Regional Semifinals
Duke 76, St. Joseph's 74
Syracuse 94, Davidson 78
Kentucky 86, Dayton 79
Michigan 80, Western Kentucky 79
Texas Western 78, Cincinnati 76 (OT)
Kansas 76, Southern Methodist 70
Oregon State 63, Houston 60
Utah 83, Pacific 74
Regional Third Place
East: St. Joseph's 92, Davidson 76
Mideast: Western Kentucky 82, Dayton 68
Midwest: SMU 89, Cincinnati 84
West: Houston 102, Pacific 91
Regional Finals
East: Duke 91, Syracuse 81
Mideast: Kentucky 84, Michigan 77
Midwest: Texas Western 81, Kansas 80 (2 OT)
West: Utah 70, Oregon State 64
National Semifinals
Kentucky 83, Duke 79
Texas Western 85, Utah 78
National Third Place
Duke 79, Utah 77
Championship Game
Texas Western 72, Kentucky 65

Texas Western leaders: F-C Nevil Shed, Jr.; F Harry Flournoy, Sr.; C David Lattin, So.; G Bobby Joe Hill, Jr.; G Orsten Artis, Sr.; G Willie Worsley, So.; F Willie Cager, So.

All-NCAA Tournament Team

Top 10

All-America Team

Leaders
Team
Offense: Syracuse, 99.0
Defense: Oregon State, 54.5
Individual Scoring

Rebounding

Notes

• Texas Western was later known as Texas-El Paso.

• BYU (20-5) defeated NYU 97-84 to win the NIT championship.

NAISMITH HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

1966
*Everett S. Dean, Coach
*Joe Lapchick, Player

Texas Western stuns Kentucky

The contrast was as stark as black and white. At a time when race relations had become a major national issue, it escaped nobody's attention that the NCAA championship game between Kentucky and Texas Western pitted an all-white aggregation against five black starters.

That one team represented the basketball mainstream and the other was unknown served to heighten the difference between the opponents.

Kentucky was in pursuit of its fifth championship under coach Adolph Rupp, and the smart money said that only Duke among the other Final Four qualifiers would be able to stop the Wildcats. After all, the traditionally strong Blue Devils were ranked second in the nation and were making their third trip to the national semifinals in four years.

It's true Texas Western (now Texas-El Paso) was ranked third in both wire-service polls, but the Miners appeared to be interlopers on the national scene. Theirs was not a well-known program, and for good reason.

In amassing a 23-1 record during the regular season, the Miners had not beaten a single Top 10 team. As an independent, they could boast of no conference championship. And in the Miners' only two previous trips to the NCAA Tournament, they had been eliminated before the regional finals.

Nor did they have a transcendent star. The Miners were a collection of quick inner-city dunk artists from New York, Detroit, Houston and Gary, Ind., whose presence suggested a schoolyard game was about to break out at any moment.

The impression of many was that they had to be uncoachable, if not incorrigible. It was a decidedly false impression.

Despite their talent for running and jumping, the Miners were dedicated almost fanatically to defense. Don Haskins, their strong-willed coach, would have it no other way. He had played under the legendary Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M and had carried his coach's values of hard work and discipline with him to El Paso. Practices at Texas Western were strenuous, to say the least.

"Every day after practice," said Bobby Joe Hill, the Miners' floor leader, "I wanted to shoot him."

But the hard work paid off for the Miners. After being hounded relentlessly in practice, they inflicted more of the same on opponents. "My God," Haskins said, "could they do that."

The Miners were accorded little respect at the start of the tournament. Their schedule had not been difficult -- Eastern New Mexico, Pan American and South Dakota were among the victims -- and they appeared to be regressing when they lost their final game, by two points, to Seattle.

"Best thing that ever happened to us," said Hill, who sensed his team was growing complacent.

Texas Western proved its mettle in the Midwest Regional. After routing Oklahoma City, the Miners clawed past a strong Cincinnati team, 78-76, in overtime and then overcame a favored Kansas team featuring JoJo White and 6-foot-ll Walt Wesley, 81-80, in double overtime.

David "Big Daddy" Lattin, Texas Western's bruising 6-7 center, had difficulty defending the huge Wesley in the latter game. Hill, a cocky 5-10 guard, said he would take care of the big man.

"Every time Wesley put the ball on the floor," Lattin said, "Bobby Joe would grab it away."

Still, two victories by a total of three points weren't enough to convince people the Miners were of championship caliber. Duke had overpowered St. Joseph's and Syracuse in the East Regional, and Kentucky had been even more impressive in beating Dayton and then Michigan (putting an end to consensus All-American Cazzie Russell's brilliant college career) in the Mideast. These two, both all-white teams, appeared to be the class of the Final Four.

Their semifinal game strengthened that conviction. With its finest shooter, guard Bob Verga, weakened by illness and unable to contribute much more than spirit, Duke put up a tremendous struggle. And Kentucky, with its own sick-bed case in forward Larry Conley, received maximum effort and prevailed, 83-79, to win the Eastern championship.

In the Western battle, the Miners had a relatively easy time subduing Utah, 85-78, despite 38 points by Jerry Chambers, the tournament's high scorer and outstanding player.

The Wildcats had been dubbed "Rupp's Punts" because, like UCLA's first championship team, they didn't have a starter taller than 6-5. But they were quick, shot well and displayed exceptional teamwork. Rupp seemed inordinately fond of them and they of him. It was the public perception that this might be his last hurrah in the championship spotlight.

Haskins, meanwhile, was enjoying his first hurrah.

"Mr. Rupp is 64, and he made it a lot of times," the Miners' burly 36-year-old coach said the day before the title game at Cole Field House on the Maryland campus. "But it's probably going to be just once in a lifetime for me."

Kentucky opened in a zone, which was what Haskins expected. He had one little surprise for the Wildcats, electing to start 5-6 Willie Worsley in place of 6-8 Nevil Shed and employ a three-guard offense to counteract Kentucky's speed.

With Lattin and 6-5 Harry Flournoy in the game, he wasn't concerned about rebounding. The addition of Worsley to Hill and 6-1 Orsten Artis in the backcourt would enable Texas Western to better control the pace of the game. The three guards each would play 40 minutes.

In the Kentucky dressing room, Rupp asked, "Who's captain tonight?" Conley said the honor belonged to high-scoring forward Pat Riley, who would be celebrating a birthday the next day.

"All right then," Rupp said, "let's have a birthday present for him."

But there would be no present.

Almost from the start, it was clear that the Miners were quicker and fresher than the Wildcats and that their defense had been badly underrated. The game turned on a sequence near the midpoint of the first half. With his team leading, 10-9, Hill stole the ball from guard Tommy Kron, dribbled half the length of the court and made a layup.

Seconds later, guard Louie Dampier, Kentucky's brightest star, brought the ball to the midcourt line and tried to maneuver around Hill. He failed. Hill picked off the dribble and went all the way for another uncontested layup.

Kentucky never fully recovered from those affronts, as well as thunderous dunks by Lattin and Willie Cager, an aptly named reserve forward. Still, they hung in on the shooting of Dampier and Riley, who scored 19 points each.

After whittling Texas Western's lead down to three points (34-31) at the half, Kentucky pulled to within one point on three occasions, the last (46-45) with 12:26 to play. Moments later, with the Miners up by two, the Wildcats had three consecutive shots to tie -- and missed them all.

As time slipped away, they had no choice but to foul. And Texas Western was tremendous from the free-throw line, making 28-of-34 attempts. Kentucky, meanwhile, shot only 13 free throws, sinking 11. Though the Wildcats made five more baskets than the Miners, they couldn't compensate for the free-throw disparity.

Two foul shots by Cager gave the Miners their biggest advantage of the game, 68-57, and they went on to win, 72-65.

Hill, the junior with the fast hands, finished with a game-high 20 points. He was the only Texas Western player selected to the all-tournament team. Even in victory, the Miners were largely anonymous.

For his part, the coach felt humble.

"I'm just a young punk," Haskins said. "It was a thrill playing against Mr. Rupp, let alone beating him."

Even John Wooden was impressed by Texas Western's poise.

"To take a bunch of seemingly undisciplined kids and do what Don Haskins did," the UCLA coach marveled, "is one of the most remarkable coaching jobs I've seen."

But Haskins didn't think it was so remarkable, perhaps because he never considered his players undisciplined. Nor did he think there was anything special about starting five black players. (None of Texas Western's five white athletes played against Kentucky.)

"It wasn't the first black team we played with," he said. "And it wasn't the first black team in the country. There were others.

"I never thought a thing about it, but after we won the title with five black guys, everybody made a big deal out of it.

"You play your five best guys."

Nevertheless, the game became a racial topic that stirred the nation. Haskins said he received thousands of pieces of hate mail, most of it from the South, and not all of it from whites. The blacks who wrote accused him of exploitation. So he took it from both sides.

"There was a time," he said, "when I almost wished we hadn't won."

But Texas Western's victory had a positive effect on college basketball. Shortly thereafter, Rupp began recruiting black players and big-time programs throughout the South changed their unwritten policies. A barrier had fallen, quietly, thanks to a small group of young men and a demanding coach from an unheralded school in west Texas.