It’s 1965. Vietnam was on television, and so was Lyndon Johnson. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading the Civil Rights movement, and racism in America was both subtle and overt, particularly in the Deep South. Bouffant hairdos. Motown sound on the radio. And college basketball was a white man’s game.
It’s not that there weren’t some black players. But the ones who toughed out the taunts from the stands had to endure the unwritten expectations of Division One competition: You can play one black at home, two on the road, and three if you’re desperately behind. But a whole team of blacks would be undisciplined, would only be capable of the “playground” game, no teamwork, all “showboating.”
Don Haskins was a successful high school girls’ basketball coach. Sure, he had dreams of coaching a men’s program at the college level, and he was amazed when he was offered the position at Texas Western (now the University of Texas at El Paso). He didn’t realize they had no recruiting budget, little talent to work with, and few expectations even of itself. He set out to change all that. He wanted to go recruit some good players. So he scoured the playgrounds, not only in Texas, but also in places like Gary, Indiana, and Harlem. He told those black kids that if they followed his program, they would play. And so a dedicated group of seven black players all accepted scholarships. And Haskins (played capably by Josh Lucas) went about trying to shape them into a team.
It’s a delicate thing, trying to represent the racism of an earlier era. Overdo it, and it’s going to look like a caricature (like the Confederate flag-waving at the game with Kentucky, which by all accounts was not part of their tradition). Underplay it, and it’s not going to feel realistic to the participants themselves (many of whom made cameo appearances after the credits rolled at the end). “Glory Road” seems to play the ambiguities just right. There was tension when the coach wouldn’t allow dunking, or behind the back dribbling, claiming that was undisciplined. (He later understood that a powerful slam dunk makes a competitive statement, and creative dribbling increases the offensive arsenal.) It was a sensitive issue and a volatile time.
God is mentioned a couple times, once when a recruit’s mother asks about the coach’s personal religion. (He admits he doesn’t have any, but promises to look after the boy, anyway.) And in the locker room before the final, championship game, one of the players is portrayed as offering prayer with the team before the game. It’s sincere, it’s touching, and it stirs the spiritual sensibility. And maybe it really did happen that way.
What’s incontrovertible is that Texas Western won the national championship that year, beating a heavily-favored Kentucky team in the 1966 NCAA finals. Pat Riley was on that Kentucky team, and he appears during the closing credits of this film to affirm the validity of the account, and also to reinforce the idea that this was not only a very good basketball team, this was a very special group of talented players who understood that they were playing for much more than merely winning a game.
The performances in “Glory Road” are top-notch (most of the actors had to be great athletes, as well), the story holds together well (nothing like winning a national title for plot movement), and along the way our guys learn to be teammates, and friends, and to care about each other. Yes, it sounds hackneyed and formulaic, but this one really happened. Despite a little rowdy collegiate partying in a color-blind Old Mexico, it’s mostly about family values, as well. Nicely done!
Questions For Discussion:
1) Where have you witnessed racism? What was your response?
2) Have you ever been discriminated against? What was your response?
3) Can a basketball team represent equality for a whole culture?
Ron Salfen is pastor of First Church in Terrell, Texas.