Caleb

Caleb

7th grade

Mr. De Groot 

March 15, 2023

                                                                                          Basketball Changes America 

         Winning is what everyone wants, but only the good teams Win it all, but who is the best basketball team of all time? Is it the Chicago Bulls, the Warriors, the Connecticut team, or is it someone else? The best basketball teams are always the hard working teams, and the teams that know how to win. The hard working Texas Western Miners won a NCAA Division 1 championship (March Madness) though the Americans hated them.. The Texas Western Miners changed people’s views as they won the 1967 NCAA championship.

  In 1961, Coach Don Haskins started as a coach for the Texas Western Miners. Coach Haskins had been a girls basketball coach in Dumas, Texas for almost 10 years. He won many games, and some of the girls he coached played division 1 basketball. After winning another Championship with the girls team, he was interviewed by the Texas Western sports staff. He got the job almost right away, but there were some hardships because the school was so poor. He had to live in the dorms with his family. He got very little payment, only about $600 from the Booster club. He still wanted to be a basketball coach no matter what it took. (Mark, Utep Staff)

      Haskins was a gruff coach and he wanted to win. He ended his first season with an record of 18-6, but they didn’t get to the NCAA tournament (March Madness). The next season the Miners had a record of 19-7, again not enough to lead them to march madness. During the end 1965-66 season Haskins grabbed some new players to add on to the team. He was hoping to do better next season. (Sports Reference, Utep Staff).

Don Haskins' record was looking okay, but okay wasn’t enough for him. Haskins' record from 1961-1965 was 78-25. Twenty-five losses was too much for him, and he knew if he wanted a  championship, he would have to take a different route. With no budget for recruiting, Coach Haskins went all over the country to find players with great potential. One of the first stops was Gary, Indiana. Haskins found just what he was looking for. Coach Haskins found a quick athletic guard named Orstin Artis. Artis was a great shooter with good ball handling skills, and Haskins knew that he could give his team a great advantage. One of Artis’ friends, a strong, tall, athletic big-man named Harry Flourney, was next on coach Haskins' list. Flourney was going to help the team, but coach Haskins did not know how much. (Sports Reference, Utep Staff)

Now the coach had some good rebounders and good fast guards, but none of the big-men had good ball handling skills. That all changed after going to the South Bank in New York. Three players, two of them posts with good ball handling skills, were recruited to Texas Western. Willie Cager, Nevil Shed, and Willie Worsley did not get much for a scholarship, but they wanted to go to college so badly that they still went. Everything was looking good for the coach, but there was only one problem: 7 of the 12 players were black. Americans thought that the black people were bad just because the color of their skin was different. When Coach was asked about this he said to the UTEP staff, “I am just playing the best players I have, and they happen to be black. (Mark, Utep Staff)

          This amazing team won the NCAA championship, and we considered it the one of the best teams ever. Texas Western changed people’s views as they won the 1967 NCAA championship.

(UTEP STAFF)

UTEP STAFF. Glory Road. 2024, www.utep.edu/glory-road/the-team/ .

(GALE)

"DRIBBLING THROUGH HISTORY." Cincinnati Post [Cincinnati, OH], 23 Jan. 2006, p. A10. Gale OneFile: News, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A141216936/GPS?u=iowaec&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=78c97368 . Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

(Honeycutt) 

Honeycutt, Kirk. "'Glory Road'." Hollywood Reporter, vol. 392, no. 30, 9 Jan. 2006, pp. 8+. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A141584228/GPS?u=iowaec&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=1f6fcf65 . Accessed  20 Feb. 2024.

(Whicker)

Whicker, Mark J. Glory Road Commentary , edited by LJ World, Lawrence Journal-World, www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/jan/16/commentary_glory_road_follows_wrong_path/  . Accessed 15 Mar. 2024 

Clarkson, Rich NCAA Archive, getty Images, December 29  2021https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/david-lattin-of-the-texas-western-miners-is-guarded-by-pat-news-photo/1237448893?adppopup=true  

March 21, 2024