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First all black team (starters) wins NCAA championship....
SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN, Springfield, Massachusetts, March 20, 1966
* Texas Western upsets 4-time NCAA champs Kentucky in NCAA basketball championship
* First-ever all-black team (starters) to win the title
A great newspaper--and from the founding city of the sport of basketball--reporting, quite modestly, on the front of the sports page, the upset of four-time NCAA champions Kentucky by Texas Western.
Note also the banner headline on the front page of the sports section announcing: "Brigham Young Tops NYU In NIT Final" with a related celebratory photo (see). While history would show this game to be noteworthy, the NIT was most definitely the more prestigious of the two tournaments at the time, and received the greater coverage.
The significant is noted on the website: "ESPN Classics" with: "Walking toward the red "M" at center court, in their orange uniforms and white Converse All-Stars, are the five starters for Texas Western. They are all black. Until that moment, at the height of the civil-rights era, no major-college team had ever started five blacks in an NCAA championship game. In fact, until Texas Western coach Don Haskins did it earlier that season, no major-college team had ever started five blacks in ANY game. For the first time that night, on the edge of the Mason-Dixon Line, a major American sports championship would be contested by one team that was all-white and another whose starters were entirely black." As history would tell, and as reported in this newspaper, Texas Western would go on to win.
Complete in over 70 pages and in very nice condition.
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