Glory Road --Some Reflections

Saturday night, I went to see the movie "Glory Road" in south Orlando. It is based on the true story of the Texas Western college basketball team in 1966 that made history by winning the NCAA basketball championship with five black players in the starting lineup. . The movie chronicles how their coach had come to the school the previous year having coached a girl's high school team. He was offered the job at Texas Western without much salary and had to live in the dormitory with his wife and children along with his players.
Much of the movie centered on the racism that took place against the players and the team as they traveled. Even the white coach received death threats by mail that terrified his young wife. Having lived during this time, I remember the cultural racism quite clearly and the movie is not far off in it's depiction of events. It was a brutal time to be black in America. Even though the civil rights legislation had passed Congress just a year or two before this took place, there was still much bigotry and racism in the country.One ugly incident was depicted in a diner when the team stopped in for breakfast. One player went to the restroom by himself and was jumped by several white men and beat up bloody. The whole team was outraged but the other black players took it out on their white teammates by not passing them the ball during their next game which they ended up losing. It was their only loss of the season, and their last regular season game. They pulled together in a team meeting afterwards and went into the NCAA tournament determined to make a statement for the school, the players and all black players everywhere. They get to the finals where they play the University of Kentucky coached by Adolph Rupp,the greatest coach in the nation at the time. Kentucky fielded an all white team. The coach of Texas Western purposely started five black players against them in the final game which was a first in history. The movie takes the last fifteen minutes on this final game. It came down to the last seconds but Texas Western won. Adolph Rupp and Kentucky were stunned in the upset. It was said it was the greatest game in college basketball history.
I liked the picture very much. It was somewhat simple. Not much character development of the players or coach but the director was intent on this being an inspirational story that truly made history in American sports and culture. It will never win an academy award. The acting was average but it was inspiring and it caused me to reflect on how far we have come in America and how far we have yet to go where a person is judged as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "not on the color of his skin but on the content of his character." Rating B+