Down in the west Texas town of El Paso, there is a school once known as Texas Western College but now called the University of Texas at El Paso. It probably isn’t really better known now than it was back in the day Don Haskins did the unthinkable and won the NCAA Basketball Championship using an all black lineup.

By the time I arrived at the school in the fall of 1982, Don Haskins was much older but still very much the soul of the basketball program. I remember basketball drew the most crowds even though the track team was outstanding as well. I went to as many home games as I could, often standing in long lines for tickets or having friends camp out in line overnight waiting for them to go on sale as the season came to a close and it was clear UTEP was going to the NCAA Tournament. Inside the Special Events Center, now the Don Haskins Center, there were pennants of all the victories over the years. There were many for NCAA Tournaments and NIT Tournaments but one hung alone, the NCAA Tournament Champs of 1966. I always wanted to know more about that story.

Well, last Friday I got to see the story behind that pennant hanging up all those years--through the movie Glory Road. As the story unfolded, and I saw such a nice looking actor play Don Haskins, I smiled. I must say, it would be an impossible job to find any actor who could capture the Don Haskins I saw at those games. His intensity as he rolled and swatted his hand with his programs, the hard scowls he gave his team, and the way he paced the floor and yelled at his team just cannot be matched.

Haskins was not called “The Bear” for nothing. I was amazed to find out it was his first year coaching when he got that title. I didn’t realize the courage it took for Don and the guys on the team to hang in there to get it. But I am grateful for them and all they did to prove, one more time, how truly talented and really glorious Blacks are.

Watching with my own children, ages 4 and 6, I got a new perspective as well. They couldn’t even understand why people would hate others so much. After all, they are “Czechs-Mex” kids (half Mexican and half Czech/European) who attend an inner city school and a black church. Many of their friends are black (although my daughter insists they are not black, they are brown). They still don’t know much about the history of racism or experienced much of it themselves. All they know is how other people treat them and whether or not they are fun to play with. I wish their world could stay that idyllic. But we all know, the problems faced many years ago, the constant “proof” of equality still has not done away with the problem of racism. It is not a problem of complexion but one of the heart. And that is even more difficult to change.

Glory Road is energetic and has a great story to tell. I recommend it for sports enthusiasts, historians, cultural anthropologists and people just seeking good entertainment.

Glory Road is rated PG for racial issues including violence and epithets, and mild language.