Kenny Marchant: “today I recognize the 40th anniversary of Texas Western's 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship. The title game had a…”

“today I recognize the 40th anniversary of Texas Western's 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship. The title game had a profound impact on the state of racial integration in sports and civil rights in America. On March 16, 1966, Coach Don Haskins led the first ever all-Black starting lineup to play in a major championship contest in a victory over the heavily-favored Kentucky Wildcats. Coach Haskins played high school basketball in Enid, Oklahoma, and in college at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State). He then became a successful high school basketball coach in Texas. Haskins was a coach at Dumas High School before becoming the head of the men's team at Texas Western College, now the University of Texas at El Paso, in 1961. Haskins coached the Miners to 33 winning seasons over the course of his career with the Miners. He won seven Western Athletic Conference championships, four Western Athletic Conference tournament titles, and made 21 post-season appearances. He established a proud winning tradition in the community of El Paso that still exists today. Coach Haskins was voted in to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997. The Texas Western Miners' victory was a watershed moment for diversity in college athletics. It helped expand the civil rights movement into the realm of sports. On January 13, 2006, Walt Disney Pictures released Glory Road, which tells the story of the historic 1966 season and pays tribute to the dedication and bravery of Coach Haskins.”