1965–66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team

Texas Western Miners men's basketball
1965–66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball
NCAA Tournament, Champions
Conference	Independent
Ranking
Coaches	No. 3
AP	No. 3
1965–66 record	28–1
Head coach	Don Haskins (5th season);
Assistant coach	Moe Iba
Home arena	Memorial Gym

The 1965–66 Texas Western Miners basketball team represented Texas Western College, now the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), and was coached by Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins. The team made history by winning the national championship in 1966, becoming the first team with an all-black starting lineup to do so.

The Miners defeated Kentucky (an all-white program until 1969) 72–65 in the historic championship game, played on Saturday, March 19, at Cole Field House on the University of Maryland campus in College Park, a suburb of Washington D.C.[1][2][3]

The team was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 [4] and inspired the book and film Glory Road.

Roster

Name	#	Position	Height	Year	Hometown
Jerry Armstrong	21	Forward	6−4	Senior	Eagleville, MO
Orsten Artis	23	Guard	6–1	Senior	Gary, IN
Louis Baudoin	22	Forward	6–7	Junior	Albuquerque, NM
Willie Cager	11	Forward	6–5	Sophomore	New York City, NY
Harry Flournoy	44	Forward	6–5	Senior	Gary, IN
Bobby Joe Hill	14	Guard	5–10	Junior	Detroit, MI
David Lattin	42	Center	6–6	Sophomore	Houston, TX
Dick Myers	31	Forward	6–4	Junior	Peabody, KS
Dave Palacio	15	Guard	6–2	Sophomore	El Paso, TX
Togo Railey	25	Guard	6–0	Junior	El Paso, TX
Nevil Shed	33	Center	6–8	Junior	New York City, NY
Willie Worsley	24	Guard	5−6	Sophomore	New York City, NY

After the championship

The 1965–1966 Texas Western basketball team faced many issues because of their race. For example, when they won the championship no one brought out a ladder for them to cut down the net. Nevil Shed had to hoist up Willie Worsley so he could do the honors.[5] Also, they were not invited on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was customary for the NCAA Champions. Texas Western's (UTEP's) winning the basketball national championship helped promote the desegregation of athletics in the Southeastern Conference which had its first black basketball player in 1967.[6]

Schedule

[7]

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site city, state
1965/12/04*		Eastern New Mexico	W 89–38	1–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1965/12/09*		East Texas State	W 73–51	2–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1965/12/11*		Texas–Pan American	W 67–47	3–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1965/12/14*		Weber State	W 74–63	4–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1965/12/17*		Fresno State	W 75–73	5–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1965/12/18*		Fresno State	W 83–65	6–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1965/12/21*		vs. South Dakota Rock Island Tournament	W 88–42	7–0	Rock Island, IL
1965/12/22*		vs. Nevada Rock Island Tournament	W 86–49	8–0	Rock Island, IL
1965/12/29*		Loyola (New Orleans) Sun Bowl Tournament	W 93–56	9–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1965/12/30*		#4 Iowa Sun Bowl Tournament	W 86–68	10–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1966/01/03*		Tulsa	W 63–54	11–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1966/01/06*	No. 9	Seattle	W 76–64	12–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1966/01/27*	No. 6	at Arizona State	W 84–67	13–0	Tempe, AZ
1966/01/29*	No. 6	West Texas State	W 69–50	14–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1966/02/01*	No. 6	New Mexico State	W 104–78	15–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1966/02/04*	No. 6	at Colorado State	W 68–66	16–0	Fort Collins, CO
1966/02/10*	No. 4	at Arizona	W 81–72	17–0	Bear Down Gym Tucson, AZ
1966/02/12*	No. 4	at New Mexico	W 67–64^OT	18–0	Johnson Gymnasium Albuquerque, NM
1966/02/14*	No. 4	Arizona State	W 69–67	19–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1966/02/19*	No. 3	at Texas–Pan American	W 65–61	20–0	Edinburg, TX
1966/02/24*	No. 3	at West Texas State	W 78–64	21–0	Canyon, TX
1966/02/26*	No. 3	Colorado State	W 72–55	22–0	Memorial Gym El Paso, TX
1966/03/02*	No. 2	at New Mexico State	W 73–56	23–0	Las Cruces High School Las Cruces, NM
1966/03/05*	No. 2	at Seattle	L 72–74	23–1	Seattle, WA
NCAA Tournament
1966/03/06*	No. 2	vs. Oklahoma City NCAA Midwest Regional Quarterfinal	W 89–74	24–1	WSU Fieldhouse Wichita, KS
1966/03/11*	No. 3	vs. Cincinnati NCAA Midwest Regional Semifinal	W 78–76^OT	25–1	Lubbock Municipal Coliseum Lubbock, TX
1966/03/12*	No. 3	vs. #4 Kansas NCAA Midwest Regional Final	W 81–80^2OT	26–1	Lubbock Municipal Coliseum Lubbock, TX
1966/03/18*	No. 3	vs. Utah NCAA National Semifinal	W 85–78	27–1	Cole Field House College Park, MD
1966/03/19*	No. 3	vs. #1 Kentucky NCAA National Final	W 72–65	28–1	Cole Field House College Park, MD
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Standard Time.

References

"Texas Western shocks Kentucky in final". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). Associated Press. March 20, 1966. p. 1B.
"Hill and friends flummox favored Kentucky by 72-65". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Associated Press. March 20, 1966. p. 1, sports.
Buttram, Bill (March 21, 1966). "Texas Western's 'game' beats Kentucky". Free Lance-Star. (Fredericksburg, Virginia). p. 12.
"Hall Of Famers – 1966 Texas Western". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
Wetzel, Dan. "The Long and Winding road". Yahoo Sports. Yahoo Sports.
Eagen, Matt. "Breaking the Barrier". Courant staff writer. The Courant.
1965–66 Statistics and Results Archived 2009-03-26 at the Wayback Machine, University of Texas at El Paso, retrieved 2009-07-09

UTEP Miners men's basketball
Venues	Memorial Gymnasium (1961–1976) Don Haskins Center (1976–present)
Rivalries	New Mexico State
Culture & lore	Paydirt Pete Glory Road "Miners Fight"
People	Head coaches Statistical leaders
Seasons	1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21
NCAA national championship in bold

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2007
Coaches	Van Chancellor Pedro Ferrándiz Phil Jackson Mirko Novosel Roy Williams
Referees	Mendy Rudolph
Teams	1965–66 Texas Western Miners

1965–66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team

Roster

After the championship

Schedule

References

Further reading