GLORY ROAD - A story about what it takes to be an NCAA Tournament champion

Video Beat EXTRA EXTRA - GLORY ROAD ROCKS

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

Glory Road is a film that deals with the events of the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, in which Texas Western College coach Don Haskins led a team with an all-black starting lineup, a first in NCAA history - Recommended TV listings

Sunday September 16, 2007

IT'S ON!!! GLORY ROAD

This is a must watch. As recently as the 1960's there were university athletic teams in the USA that didn't have black players on their squads. Texas Western (now the University of Texas El Paso aka. UTEP) was one of those teams in 1966.

The film deals with the events of the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, in which Texas Western College coach Don Haskins led a team with an all-black starting lineup, a first in NCAA history.

Haskins was the coach of a girls basketball prior to taking the job at the university. He inherited a losing program and couldn't recruit top white players because of the losing reputation. With very little money (closer to NO MONEY) he went on the road and recruited quality black players that were ignored by the major universities. He searched the inner-city cities of Detroit, Michigan; Gary, Indiana; New York City and Houston Texas.

The recruits had a hard time adjusting to the desert sand and sun but more so the racist attitudes that existed at that time in Texas. That team lost only one game that season and won the NCAA TITLE by defeating the Adolph Rupp Kentucky team in the championship game.

The players on the team were David Lattin, Bobby Joe Hill, Willie Cager, Willie Worsley, Jerry Armstrong, Orsten Artis, Nevil Shed, Harry Flournoy, Togo Railey, Louis Baudoin, Dick Myers and David Palacio.

What's notable about this game and film is the star of the Kentucky squad was Pat Riley the current head coach of the NBA's Miami Heat. He is seen at the end of the film giving footnotes. Angelina Jolie's father Jon Voight plays Rupp. This is a MUST WATCH &. on the Star Movie channel in Southeast Asia.

NOTES

The real life Don Haskins was cast as an extra in the film as the gas station attendant. The real life David Lattin was cast as an extra as a military bartender.

Glory Road is also the title of Haskins' autobiography, a national bestseller released in 2005 by Hyperion Books. The book details Haskins' early life as a player and coach and the focuses on the 1966 team and the aftermath of the championship, which is not in the movie version. It was reprinted five times in its first four months of release and was selected as an "Editor's Choice" by the New York Times Book Review.

As of February 12, 2006, the film grossed a total of 40.7 million dollars in the domestic Box Office.

The film was directed by James Gartner produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and written by Chris Cleveland.

* Ben Affleck was the original choice for the role of coach Don Haskins, but had to drop out of the filming due to prior commitments.

* Chicago Bulls point guard Kirk Hinrich was cast as one of the basketball players in the film, but dropped out before filming began.

* University of Southern California coach Tim Floyd was the technical advisor for the basketball scenes in the film. Floyd worked as an assistant under Haskins at UTEP in the 1980s.

Featured Cast

Actor - - - - - Role

Josh Lucas - Don Haskins

Derek Luke -- Bobby Joe Hill

Austin Nichols -- Jerry Armstrong

Jon Voight -- Adolph Rupp

Evan Jones -- Moe Iba

Schin A.S. Kerr -- David Lattin

Alphonso McAuley -- Orsten Artis

Emily Deschanel -- Mary Haskins

Mehcad Brooks -- Harry Flournoy

Al Shearer -- Nevil Shed

Sam Jones III -- Willie Worsley

Damaine Radcliff -- Willie Cager