Glory Road (with a pothole) ...

Allow us to present a classic instance--the movie, Glory Road: "How a single game in 1966 changed the entire course of racism in basketball."

We can visualize how those baby minds in Hollywood started churning when somebody told them how the NCAA championship basketball game of 1966, between vaunted Kentucky and upstart Texas Western, "wiped out racism and brought democracy to the sport."

The game was played at Cole Field House on the campus of the University of Maryland. And the incident that set off the time bomb was the decision of the Texas Western coach, Don Haskins, to start five black players.

It took courage to do this in the volatile 1960's, but not the kind that wins Congressional Medals of Honor. We didn't have to research anything to come to his conclusion. We had been living with the game all of our lives and had actually seen that memorable contest in person.

Remember, now, this was 1966, not 1936, '46, or '56. At this point in American sport, most of our colleges were freely recruiting black players and utilizing them as starters.

After all, this wasn't the case of Jackie Robinson becoming the first black player in the major leagues. That was pure history in the making. But by 1966, basketball was full of dominating black athletes like Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Walt Bellamy, Oscar Robertson, Elgin Baylor, Hal Greer, Earl Monroe, Sam Jones, K.C. Jones, Lenny Wilkens, Connie Hawkins, Guy Rodgers, Paul Silas, Walt Frazier, etc., etc.

In short, when Kentucky played Texas Western (which is now the U. of Texas at El Paso) black players were no longer a novelty anywhere, and you could sit back and enjoy watching them without counting how many of them were on the floor.

The history had already been made. In fact, Glory Road was actually getting a little crowded.