Glory Road

I was a Texas Western graduate in 1966 and attended the school all four previous years that Don Haskins ("the Bear") coached the basketball team. Of course, Coach Haskins came to TWC in 1961 and built his team over 5 years, not in one year as the movie tells it. I went to every home game in 1965-66 and remember every one as if it were yesterday. I watched all of the away games that were televised, including all of the games the Miners played in the NCAA tournament. Even though the producers of "Glory Road" took considerable artistic license, the story is mostly true. Here are some facts. The Miners blew away fourth ranked Iowa during a holiday tournament that season. It wasn't even close as the movie depicts it. The great comeback was against New Mexico in the "Pit". When Hispanic guard David Palacio came in to play in the second half, the team seemed to settle down and came from a 20 point deficit to win in overtime. The incredibly close game, and probably best game in America that year between the true best college teams in America was the Regional final between third ranked TWC and fourth ranked Kansas (not #1 Kentucky and #2 Duke in the final four semifinal), when Jo Jo White made that last second basket in overtime with his foot on the base line. The Miners went on to beat Kansas 81-80 in double overtime. Then the Miners beat Utah in the first game of the final four. If white player Jerry Armstrong hadn't defended against Utah's great Jerry Chambers, a black player, the Miners probably wouldn't have made it to the championship game against Kentucky. Chambers was beating every defender badly, including Lattin, Shed, and Flournoy, until Armstrong was put in to cover him. Chambers finished with 38 points, mostly in the first half and was the tournament's MVP.

Coach Haskins is beloved by every El Pasoan, whether living in the city now or not, and is a true American treasure. It's wonderful for the rest of the country and the world to finally learn about "the Bear" and his great 1966 Miner team that El Paso has known and loved for 40 years. It's much more than a basketball story, it's a story about tolerance and what hard work and discipline can do through the leadership and determination of a great coach and human being.

The acting was superb, especially Josh Lucas' performance as "the Bear". His performance was spot on. The young actors playing on the team were outstanding. The early tensions shown between the black and white players in the movie did not exist according to the real players on that team. The book "Glory Road" is a must read, because it tells the true story told by "the Bear", Don Haskins, himself. I also recommend David Lattin's book "Slam Dunk to Glory". The producers should have shown the real life characters, including Coach Haskins, Pat Riley, and some of the actual 1966 players earlier in the credits, because most of the audiences leave the theater without knowing they're going to be interviewed. I thought that was the most interesting part of the movie. The movie and the story deserve a perfect 10. I hope it wins some awards.

"Glory Road" tells the true story of Don Haskins, the basketball coach for Western Texas College, who in the mid 1960's, broke the color barrier in the NCAA by being the first to feature a majority of black players on his team. The movie chronicles the obstacles he and his players faced, as well as their ultimate triumph when the team won the national championship in 1966.

"Glory Road" worships at the altar of just about every underdog-sports-movie cliché one can imagine, yet the viewer can't help getting caught up in its story anyway. The scenes in the first half of the movie definitely have a familiar ring to them, as we see the coach first alienating his players with his hardnosed tactics, then winning them over by building comradeship and showing them how much they can accomplish when they work together as a team rather than as individuals. However, as with "Remember the Titans," "Glory Road" is more interested in examining the social background of its time period than in merely telling yet another sports-oriented David and Goliath tale. The second half of the film concentrates more on the overt racism the team members face and the surprising courage they and their coach demonstrate in confronting it (could this really be set a mere 40 years ago?). The young actors are uniformly excellent, but it is Josh Lucas as Coach Haskins who delivers the powerhouse performance here. And director James Gartner manages to keep the film moving at a fast clip, never allowing it to get bogged down in message-mongering or overt preachiness.

Almost in spite of itself, "Glory Road" turns into a genuinely inspiring story about courage and determination in the face of societal pressure and incalculable odds. And that's pretty much what sports stories, familiar though they might be, are really all about.

Josh Lucas stars in "Glory Road," a 2006 Disney film, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

The film purports to tell the true story of Don Haskins, the basketball coach led the Texas Western Miners to a National Championship victory in 1966.

From what I know, there is a lot of dramatic license taken here, though it remains an inspiring story, and the basketball game played at the championships was very exciting. Also, at the end of the film, there are interviews with the real-life players and with Haskins himself as the credits are rolling.

Haskins recruited players with no regard to color, forming a team with 7 blacks and 5 white players. He wasn't the first person to have black players on a team. I think what made him stand out were the numbers and the fact that at the championship, the starters were black and everyone on the Kentucky team was white.

The film shows Haskins as an extremely tough coach, and his insistence that there be no "showboating" However, during a losing game (and I have no idea if this is true) one of the black players told Haskins that they should be allowed to play "their game" which included some showboating, I guess. Haskins said okay and the team went on to win.

In the championship game, they went up against Kentucky, coached by Ed Rupp (Jon Voight) who is portrayed as a racist. However, he went on to draft black players and is considered one of the greatest coaches in college basketball.

Josh Lucas plays Haskins, and he does a great job as a tough, determined coach. He was the reason I rented this film as I liked him on his ill-fated TV show, The Firm. He really carries this movie. Jon Voight, Emily Deschanel (Haskins' wife) have small roles as the focus is on the team players.

The actors on the team all did a wonderful job. The film shows the hatred and prejudice against them but also the eventual acceptance. In the film, there are problems within the team when the new players first arrived, though I understand that wasn't really the case.

Like all of these underdog films, it's inspiring with exciting, moving, and dramatic moments. Recommended.

In 1965, the coach of the high school girl basketball team Don Haskins (Josh Lucas) is invited by the Texas Western Miners to be their coach. Despite the lack of budget, Haskins sees the chance to dispute the NCAA and moves with his wife and children to the college dormitory. He recruits seven talented and rejected black players to play with five Caucasian players and formed a legendary team that wined the 1966 national championship against the powerful Kentucky.

"Glory Road" is an engaging film with a great message based on a true story. In a period when the racism was explicit in the USA, Don Haskins challenged many people with his team of black players implementing discipline and training and winning the NCAA against all the odds. The film shows the difficulties and prejudice the players were submitted and how they superseded all the relationship problems proving that they were equal to (or even better than) the white players. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Estrada para a Glória" ("Road to the Glory")

Whether you are a fan of basketball or not, this film touches on so many different topics. A show about real life, portrayed by some dynamic actors. Oh my, Josh Lucas, the coach was amazing on film as well as the "real coach" he portrayed. How wonderful he was to be "color blind" when coaching the game of basketball, down in the south where there was so much cruelty and prejudice.

This was a heartfelt movie where often, I got upset to see how cruel people would be to others, just because of the color of their skin. I am "white" though not white like this screen, lol, and raised in Los Angeles during the late 60's/70's and just never understood why people would not like you, without even knowing you just because of your looks/race.

Anyway, go see the movie, it is great! The beautiful tatyana ali who was on since a child Fresh Prince of Bel Air, I almost did not recognize her.....she did such a marvelous job acting in the role of Tina!