1965–66 Texas Western Miners men's basketball team

American college basketball season January 2026 August 2023 1965–66 Texas Western Miners Basketball 250px UTEP_1966_basketball.jpg Independent 3 3 28–1 Don Haskins 5th Moe Iba 4th Memorial Gym NCAA tournament National champions National Championship Game W Won 72–65 vs. Kentucky The 1965–66 Texas Western Miners basketball team represented Texas Western College, now the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), led by Hall of Fame head coach Don Haskins. The team won the national championship in 1966, becoming the first team with an all-black starting lineup to do so.https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/texas-western-defeats-kentucky-in-ncaa-finals Texas Western defeats Kentucky in NCAA final History.com November 16, 2009 November 5, 2022 The Miners only lost one game, a road loss to Seattle by two points. They won their games by an average of 15.2 points. The Miners beat 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.https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=RqtVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NOEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1720%2C4327832 Eugene Register-Guard Oregon Associated Press Texas Western shocks Kentucky in final March 20, 1966 1Bhttps://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mwEyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=2OgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6580%2C1545138 Spokesman-Review Spokane, Washington Associated Press Hill and friends flummox favored Kentucky by 72-65 March 20, 1966 1, sportshttps://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_P9NAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5YsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7118%2C1191105 Free Lance-Star Fredericksburg, Virginia Buttram Bill Texas Western's 'game' beats Kentucky March 21, 1966 12 The team was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 Hall Of Famers – 1966 Texas Western https://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/1966-texas-western/ Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame 28 January 2017 and inspired the book and film Glory Road. Roster 1965 Texas Western Miners y Willie Cager y 10 F 6 5 SO New York City, NY Bobby Joe Hill y 14 G 5 10 JR Detroit, MI Dave Palacio 15 G 6 2 SO El Paso, TX Jerry Armstrong 52 F 6 4 SR Eagleville, MO Louis Baudoin 22 F 6 7 JR Albuquerque, NM Orsten Artis y 20 G 6 1 SR Gary, IN Willie Worsley y 24 G 5 6 SO New York City, NY Togo Railey 25 G 6 0 JR El Paso, TX Dick Myers 31 F 6 4 JR Peabody, KS Nevil Shed y 32 C 6 8 JR New York City, NY David Lattin y 43 C 6 6 SO Houston, TX Harry Flournoy y 44 F 6 5 SR Gary, IN Don Haskins (Oklahoma A&M) Moe Iba (Oklahoma State) After the championship The 1965–66 Texas Western basketball team faced many issues due to racism. 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.Wetzel Dan The Long and Winding road https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=dw-texaswestern011206 Yahoo Sports 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.Eagen Matt Breaking the Barrier Courant staff writer The Courant As for their professional outlooks following this season, only one of the players from this team (David Lattin) would end up playing in the NBA, being selected as a Top 10 pick by the San Francisco Warriors in the 1967 NBA draft. After spending a year in San Francisco, he would be called up by the Phoenix Suns in the 1968 NBA expansion draft and play a season with them before spending the rest of his professional career in the early 1970s in the rivaling upstart American Basketball Association, playing his final years with the Pittsburgh Condors and Memphis Tams before retiring in 1973. Another player named Willie Worsley would later join the ABA, though he would play for the New York Nets in only the second season of the ABA's existence before retiring altogether. A couple of other players in Willie Cager and Nevil Shed would also get drafted in the NBA as well, though unlike with Lattin, neither would play in the NBA properly. Finally, the rest of the roster would not even touch the NBA or the ABA themselves following this season onward. Schedule 1965–66 Statistics and Results https://web.archive.org/web/20090326050208/http://utepathletics.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/archive/041607aah.html 2009-03-26 , University of Texas at El Paso, retrieved 2009-07-09 no no yes |- !colspan=9 style=UTEP Miners|Regular Season December 4, 1965 89–38 yes 1965 men Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds Eastern New Mexico Memorial Gym El Paso, TX 1–0 December 9, 1965 73–51 yes 1965 men East Texas State Lions East Texas State Memorial Gym El Paso, TX 2–0 December 11, 1965 67–47 yes 1965 men Pan American Broncs Pan American Memorial Gym El Paso, TX 3–0 December 14, 1965 74–63 yes Weber State Memorial Gym El Paso, TX 4–0 December 17, 1965 75–73 yes 1965 men Fresno State Bulldogs Fresno State Memorial Gym El Paso, TX 5–0 December 18, 1965 83–65 yes Fresno State Memorial Gym El Paso, TX 4,601 6–0 December 21, 1965 88–42 yes 1965 men South Dakota Coyotes South Dakota yes Rock Island Fieldhouse Rock Island, IL Mississippi Valley Cage Classic First round 7–0 December 22, 1965 86–49 yes 1965 men Nevada Wolf Pack Nevada yes Rock Island Fieldhouse Rock Island, IL Mississippi Valley Cage Classic Championship 3,600 8–0 December 29, 1965 93–56 yes 1965 men Loyola Wolf Pack Loyola (LA) Memorial Gym El Paso, TX Sun Bowl Tournament 9–0 December 30, 1965 86–68 yes Iowa 4 Memorial Gym El Paso, TX Sun Bowl Tournament 10–0 January 3, 1966 63–54 yes 1965 men Tulsa Golden Hurricane men's basketball Tulsa Memorial Gym El Paso, TX 11–0 January 6, 1966 76–64 yes 9 1965 men Seattle Chieftains Seattle Memorial Gym El Paso, TX 12–0 January 27, 1966 84–67 yes 6 yes 1965 men Arizona State Sun Devils Arizona State Sun Devil Gym Tempe, AZ 13–0 January 29, 1966 69–50 yes 6 1965 men West Texas State Buffaloes West Texas State Memorial Gym El Paso, TX 14–0 February 1, 1966 104–78 yes 6 1965 men New Mexico State Aggies New Mexico State Memorial Gym El Paso, TX 15–0 February 4, 1966 68–66 yes 6 yes 1965 men Colorado State Rams Colorado State South College Gymnasium Fort Collins, CO 16–0 February 10, 1966 81–72 yes 4 yes 1965 men Arizona Wildcats Arizona Bear Down Gym Tucson, AZ 17–0 February 12, 1966 67–64 yes 4 yes 1965 men New Mexico Lobos New Mexico Johnson Gymnasium Albuquerque, NM OT 18–0 February 14, 1966 69–67 yes 4 Arizona State Memorial Gym El Paso, TX 19–0 February 19, 1966 65–61 yes 3 yes Pan American Edinburg, TX 20–0 February 24, 1966 78–64 yes 3 yes West Texas State Canyon, TX 21–0 February 26, 1966 72–55 yes 3 Colorado State Memorial Gym El Paso, TX 22–0 March 2, 1966 73–56 yes 2 yes New Mexico State Las Cruces High School Las Cruces, NM 23–0 March 5, 1966 72–74 yes 2 yes Seattle Seattle Center Coliseum Seattle, WA 23–1 |- !colspan=12 style="background:#UTEP Miners 1;"| NCAA Tournament March 6, 1966 89–74 yes 2 1965 men Oklahoma City Chiefs Oklahoma City yes WSU Fieldhouse Wichita, KS Regional quarterfinal 24–1 March 11, 1966 78–76 OT yes 3 1965 men Cincinnati Bearcats Cincinnati yes Lubbock Municipal Coliseum Lubbock, TX Regional semifinal 25–1 March 12, 1966 81–80 2OT yes 3 Kansas 4 yes Lubbock Municipal Coliseum Lubbock, TX Elite Eight 26–1 March 18, 1966 85–78 yes 3 Utah yes Cole Field House College Park, MD National semifinal 14,253 27–1 March 19, 1966 72–65 yes 3 Kentucky 1 yes Cole Field House College Park, MD National Championship 14,253 28–1 AP Poll Mountain time References Further reading Fitzpatrick, Frank. And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Basketball Game That Changed American Sports (2000) Haskins, Don with Dan Wetzel. Glory Road: My Story of the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship and How One Team Triumphed Against the Odds and Changed America Forever. New York:Hyperion, 2006. 254 pp. No index. 1-4013-0791-4. Hutchison, Phillip. "The legend of Texas Western: journalism and the epic sports spectacle that wasn’t." Critical Studies in Media Communication 33.2 (2016): 154–167. Sanchez, Ramon. Basketball's Biggest Upset: Texas Western Changed The Sport With A Win Over Kentucky In 1966 (1991) excerpt, game by game details—and play-by-play for championship game. Texas Western Category:UTEP Miners men's basketball seasons Category:NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament championship seasons Category:NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four seasons Texas Western Category:Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees