Jackson's Glory Road Kill
Denial, humiliation, arrogance, racism? Who knows. But one thing is definite: If Kentucky wins that game, Pat Riley never tells Jerry Bruckheimer the story because he never becomes "Pat Riley, Hall of Fame coach" ... because he doesn't win four NBA titles ... because Magic Johnson never plays basketball ... because Magic once told Riley that if it wasn't for Texas Western's beating Kentucky in that game he never would have started playing basketball ... which means Don Haskins' story never gets told and Rupp's does, which means we never see "Glory Road" because there's no reason for it to get made. Instead Ebert and Roeper would be thumbs-upping "Birth Of A Nation II: Rupp Strikes Back."
That is from Scoop Jackson's opinion piece Walking Through the Fire. Go read the rest. I'll wait.
Finished?
What a load. Why the hyperbole? He could have said that if Texas Western lost then changes in the NCAA sport would have been delayed. But to assume all the progress happened based a single basketball game is asinine.
I think changes occurred primarily through the work of people like King, X, the protesters, the marchers, and the others like my mother who said "Enough." Sure, the basketball game sent a message, but it was a single shout in a cacophony of protest.
