March 19, 1966.

Happy Golden Anniversary Miners!!

Happy Birthday Glory Road

ESPN actually did a nice piece on it.

There is an even better on CBS Sports Net.

A Great and Highly Significant Moment in American Sports History!
Go UTEP!

Congratulations UTEP on the 50th anniversey of a generation changing college athletic win. I know the time lapse of a 1/2 a century should make passions lessen but - Thank you for beating UK in the process

We appreciate your great accomplishment!!!

kudos and to that!!!....monumental that was....

I was still crappin' diapers, but experienced the impact as a displaced 'yankee' moving to the south at the age of 9 in '74....

the irony is how racially disruptive things are outside of the south today......irony that is.....

Still awesome after 50 years.

Glory Road is still my favorite basketball movie of all time. For UTEP fans or anyone that knows, how historically accurate is the movie? Does it take many artistic freedoms?

(03-19-2016 08:04 PM)Surbadger Wrote:  Glory Road is still my favorite basketball movie of all time. For UTEP fans or anyone that knows, how historically accurate is the movie? Does it take many artistic freedoms?

It's actually a pretty difficult movie for me to watch because I grew up with the story. The players say that it's about 85% accurate, which I think might be stretching it a bit. The biggest inaccuracy was, as Jimbo Bowden said at Coach Haskins' memorial service, that was the extreme G rated version of Coach Haskins. But I guess it was a Disney movie. You get the idea that Texas Western was just another school resisting integration, when it was the first school in the former Confederacy to integrate and the sports teams were already integrated by the mid-50s. Coach Haskins was a girls high school coach that started in 1965. That's a partial truth. Coach Haskins coached boys and girls in high school but began 1961. In fact, he often said he thought he should have already had a championship in 1964 with Bad News Barnes.

As for the season, they never really struggled as much as the movie portrays. They were blowing nearly everyone out. The movie has TWC beating Kansas in the semis with Jerry Armstrong shutting down JoJo White. We actually beat Utah and Armstrong shut down Jerry Chambers. Chambers, despite losing both Final Four games, was the tournament MOP. Finally as for the Kentucky game, again not nearly as close as portrayed. They got close a couple of times, but we were up 13 with 2:00 left.

As for the racial stuff, some of it was real, some of it not. The more visceral scenes like in Roswell (?) were definitely fictionalized. The more subtle ones, like people questioning why Haskins was playing so many African-Americans was true. But, things like that actually happened more after the championship than during.

Some of the things that were true. Willie Cager's heart condition. Harry Flournoy's mom coming to town and forcing him to answer questions in class (maybe a half truth). Haskins packing Nevil Shed's suitcases and handing him a plane ticket home. And, if you missed it, Haskins had a cameo as a gas station attendant. "You want me to fill this thing up?" That's a SAG card right there.

There you go. Hope that doesn't ruin the movie.

(03-19-2016 08:04 PM)Surbadger Wrote:  Glory Road is still my favorite basketball movie of all time. For UTEP fans or anyone that knows, how historically accurate is the movie? Does it take many artistic freedoms?

Growing up as a ball kid for UTEP basketball I felt lukewarm about the movie. I worked with Willie Cager for a time and my father was friends with the entire team, had dinner with them after the premier in El Paso. I asked Willie if Shed actually got beat up and he said to me, "What kind of fools do you think we were? We never went anywhere alone and Bobby Joe and I always had a switch blade with us." The thing that bothered me the most was the way the movie portrayed the players being treated in El Paso. That stuff just never happened but I guess it was included to make you cheer for the team even more. I also remember being scared to death of Haskins as a kid until I attended his basketball camp and got hurt. He took me to see the trainer and it was a walk I will never forget.

From the Sports Illustrated vault -- an article by Frank Deford from March 1966.

Go-Go with Bobby Joe

(03-19-2016 09:22 PM)stanman505 Wrote:  Growing up as a bad kid for UTEP basketball I felt lukewarm about the movie. I worked with Willie Cager for a time and my father was friends with the entire team, had dinner with them after the premier in El Paso. I asked Willie if Shed actually got beat up and he said to me, "What kind of fools do you think we were? We never went anywhere alone and Bobby Joe and I always had a switch blade with us."

I've heard that basic reaction over and over again from a lot of people -- some Miner fans, some not -- over the past 10 years since it came out. The movie has a sweet message and does reflect a little of the broader realities of that era. But (yes) it is a heavily fictionalized account.

It's one of those situations where some people feel that criticizing the movie is equivalent to criticizing Haskins, or his players, or diminishing the memory of that season, or of the final win against UK. To me those things are not equivalent at all (not even close) but others feel differently.