The 1965-66 Texas Western University Men’s Basketball Team
Basketball was an integrated sport by the mid-1960s, but the notion persisted that Black players were mainly interested in “showboating” and needed the steadying hand of white leadership. That notion came to an end when Texas Western used an all-Black starting lineup for the first time in NCAA championship history on March 19, 1966, to beat all-white Kentucky for the national title. After that, it was not long before all-white teams started integrating their squads, forever changing the game.
