Film Is a Story Worth Retelling

The best thing about “Glory Road” is it has people talking again about the 1965-66 Texas Western basketball team.

The movie, out this Friday, might fictionalize some elements and compress others for the sake of time, but at its core it tells one indisputable truth: In 1966, Texas Western became the first team to win the NCAA tournament with an all-African American starting five, at a time when there were no black players in the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast or Southwest conferences.

Recognition came slowly for the team. The players didn’t appear on the Ed Sullivan Show, as NCAA champions customarily did at the time, and you can guess why. They didn’t get championship rings until an El Paso jeweler provided some 20 years later.

So it was good to see them getting the full Hollywood treatment, walking the red carpet into the theater, then assembling onstage after the premiere of “Glory Road” last week. Coach Don Haskins, the man who broke convention simply by choosing the five players he thought would give him the best chance to win, couldn’t attend because he was ill.

“Probably the only chance in my lifetime that I would have a chance to see a grand premiere,” Haskins said by phone from El Paso on Sunday. “I’ve watched the thing once. I was very, very happy with the movie.”

The one thing Haskins wishes the movie could have found a way to include was his teenage friendship with Herman Carr, the first black person he really got to know growing up in Enid, Okla. They worked together at a grain store. While hauling feed bags one hot day, they went out to get a drink, and for the first time Haskins realized the absurdity of the separate drinking fountains.

“That made me really think,” Haskins said.

One fictionalization: When the team returns to a hotel to see their rooms ransacked and epithets painted on the walls.

“That didn’t happen,” Haskins said. “We had a hell of a lot of things happen. A lot of trash talk behind the bench. You’ve got some rude fans. They were calling names. I had a rule with the players: If [the fans] ever made me turn around, they could turn around. But if they didn’t catch me turning around, they couldn’t turn around.”

The game happened years before I was born, so I can’t add any perspective. Here are the words of those who lived through it.

Harry Flournoy: “I look at the sacrifices that we had to make in order to make that happen. I look at the fact that we had to go through a lot. I look at the fact that we had to endure a lot of [negativity]. But I also look at what we did, what we accomplished.

“When you go back to those days and you realize we had a lot of quota systems. And you realize we had a coach who did not buy into that quota system. He could have only recruited four black players. That way he wouldn’t have had the ‘problem’ starting five black players. But he recruited six of us. And he had the nerve, the guts, to play who he thought was his five best players.

“And when you look back you can see where people [now] are not looking at the colors so much, not looking at the size so much, but at the talent, what you can do to help them advance their business. Not just the basketball or football or baseball teams ... it goes beyond that. It goes into the business world. It goes into teachers. It goes into a lot of different things.

“I’m proud to have been a part of that situation, proud to have been a part of the solving of the problem.”

David Lattin: “The most important thing is that we won. We were playing for different reasons than the Kentucky team. They were playing for a ring or a watch. We were playing because we had to win. We had to prove. There had been a stigmatism that we were incapable of winning at that level because of the color of our skin, which was, of course, ridiculous. So we had something to prove.”

Willie Cager: “I can say it feels good inside. It helped racial relations in our country. It helped youngsters to be recruited by all universities in this country. That’s my legacy and I’m certainly happy to be a part of it.”

Assistant coach Moe Iba: “The movie is a good movie, but it doesn’t tell the story of how much heart and dedication these young men had. The thing I remember about all of them is what great athletes they were. This basketball team in 1966, let’s say they played today and they had the same talent they have today, this team could play today with any team in the country.

“It was an honor to be a part of it. It was a heck of a basketball team and a heck of a run, and they had a lot to be proud of.”

Nevil Shed: “Our kids today have to really remember that the things that people did for them yesterday have a story for them.

“The kids that think that, ‘We’ve got it made, it’s an easy society for us,’ there was a whole lot going on yesterday. There were a lot of sacrifices. But we were a team of confidence. We were prepared for every game we went into.

“I used to love to hear people talk about wait till you play this team or wait till you play that team. The most enjoyable comment was, ‘If you could just stay with that team, at the end of the game they’re going to fold under pressure.’ We were under pressure all the time and we prevailed as winners.

“I’m hoping [the movie] will be a teaching tool for people of color. For the people 40 years [and] above, they have a good idea as to how it was back then, the ‘60s. For people of color 39 and under, it’s a teaching tool to let them know how it was then.”

Jerry Armstrong: “I came from a small farming community in Missouri. I hadn’t been around blacks. Hadn’t played against them. To me it was all about making the team. The fellowship I had with these great athletes -- and they were great athletes, and great people -- I think that’s the most important issue that we’re dealing with here. It was a sign of the times, but they were great individuals. It was a breakthrough for the black athletes to start being recruited in the Southern states.”

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.