A Final (Four) to Remember

FOR THE WEEK OF APRIL 14 - 20, 2020 Rupptured Myth – 'Big House' and 'The Baron' A Final (Four) to remember By LUT WILLIAMS ™ BCSP Editor With this year's NCAA Final Four cancelled because of the (Then) AOL BlackVoices Columnist, COVID-19 pandemic, we thought it appropriate to look back at Edited From 2005 a Final Four – actually a final game – that no one will forget! Adolph Rupp is no hero of mine. audience that included this writer, "We knew there were five Clarence "Big House" Gaines five black Texas Western starters (black) kids," Gaines said of the is. took the floor against Kentucky's Texas Western squad. "A couple of Cover of "They Call Me Big House" When Gaines, the legendary 26-1 top-ranked squad of lilly them had gone to (North Carolina) HISTORY: "Big House" former Winston-Salem State white players dubbed "Rupp’s A&T." Actually, Neville Shed, a TIMES TO Gaines at the Final Four University basketball coach and Runts" in a game that most starting forward for Texas Western, and HBCU players on Kentucky native, was honored at acknowledge changed the face of had played for Gaines' good friend REMEMBER NFL teams. a 2004 University of Kentucky college basketball. It was the first and rival, head coach Cal Irvin basketball game at Rupp Arena – time five white starters met five at A&T. David Lattin, a center TAVARIS JACKSON DIES IN CAR CRASH; NEW the sprawling UK home court in black starters in the title game. who dominated the inside play in AD AT TENN. STATE, GOLF COACH AT HOWARD Lexington named in honor of its That Rupp already had four the game, had played for Harold WSSU Sports Photo legendary coach – it brought to NCAA championships, was seen Hunter at Tennessee State. COACH GAINES: The legendary mind the strange history of race as the grumpy head of perhaps Kentucky scoring leader Pat Winston-Salem State basketball relations in this country and how the greatest program in college Riley – yeah, that Pat Riley – coach was honored in 2004 by then Kentucky head coach Tubby Smith. sports, particularly black college basketball and was fairly or unfairly reportedly said of Lattin, "In those Gaines passed in 2005 at 81. UNDER THE BANNER sports, has impacted it. viewed as the symbol of opposition days, players didn't dunk. I hadn't WHAT'S GOING ON IN AND AROUND BLACK COLLEGE SPORTS Gaines was born in tiny to integration, only added to the seen anyone dunk. But these guys system that he used, it was almost Paducah, Ky., but had to leave drama. Never mind the fact that came out, and after they had dunked impossible to beat him at that time. TARVARIS JACKSON DIES IN CAR CRASH: the state to make his mark in life. unlike its Southeastern Conference on me about three times, I knew He was an excellent coach and an Former NFL quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, a prod- And make one he did. He was counterparts, Kentucky routinely they had a lot more to accomplish excellent teacher. uct of Alabama State, died in a car appropriately and fittingly honored played teams with black players – than we did." "The only thing that we crash in Alabama on Sunday night. He by (then) Kentucky head coach not five black starters – and likely What an understatement. I thought about him is, like with all was 36 years old. Tubby Smith (now the head coach welcomed the challenge. guess Riley had never seen a black of the coaches in the South, they all Jackson was killed when the 2012 at High Point), a black man. For me, an 11-year-old college game. were racists. Chevrolet Camaro he was driving "left In addition to the honor in basketball junkie from Danville, Only a year later Gaines would "Oh, we've gone through hell, the roadway, struck a tree, and over- Lexington, Paducah in 2017 renamed Va., as well as most of the nation, it become the first black coach to win man," said Gaines. turned," a spokesperson for the Ala- a street and erected a monument was a morality play. an NCAA basketball title of any Gaines and a legion of black bama Law Enforcement Agency told in Gaines' honor. The celebration college coaches had paved the way Jackson CNN. was part of the city's annual August for that fateful day in 1966. The former Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks Emancipation Celebration event that It had all the symbolism of a modern- By winning three straight quarterback was transported to a hospital where he was honored Gaines and his family. NAIA titles from 1957-59 at pronounced dead. The crash occurred about 7 miles south Rupp, the legendary Kentucky day Tiger Woods win at The Masters. Tennessee State, John McLendon of Montgomery, his hometown. basketball coach known as "The became the first coach to accomplish Jackson joined Tennessee State as the Tigers' quar- Baron," built the Wildcats into that feat and also forced integration terbacks coach in 2019 after coaching at Alabama State, perhaps the nation's premier Texas Western methodically kind when his Earl Monroe-led of tournament accommodations his alma mater, for a year. During his 10-year career with program winning a then-record 876 took apart Rupp and his 'Runts' on Rams won the 1967 Small College when he threatened to not bring the NFL, he accumulated 45 career touchdowns. games from 1930 to 1972. March 16, 1966, never surrendering title. He went on to win 828 games his defending champion team back Oft-remembered for his the lead after going up early en in his 47-year career, all at WSSU, to the tournament in 1958 unless PURYEAR TO LEAD HOWARD GOLF: staunch opposition to integration, route to a stunning 72-65 victory. which ended with his retirement in they stayed in the same hotel as the Howard University has hired experienced golf coach he got what some consider his Using seven black players and no 1993. other teams. Samuel Puryear Jr. to lead its new program. comeuppance in the 1966 NCAA whites for the entire game, Don Gaines led the Rams to McLendon and his cohorts Puryear, who has coached at Stan- Championship Game at Cole Field Haskins' squad ran around, past, 18 20-win seasons and 11 then worked to end the practice of ford, Michigan State and Queens Col- House against Texas Western. through and over the UK darlings. Central Intercollegiate Athletic putting all the black college teams lege, played collegiately at Tennessee Before a national television Though black players had been Association (CIAA) titles. When in the same district – the infamous State and will now head Div. I men's part of NCAA championship teams he retired from WSSU in 1993, District 29 – where they had to beat and women's golf programs that NBA dating back to the early 1950s, only Rupp had amassed more each other before taking on the star Stephen Curry announced in Au- Kentucky's dismantling by an all- wins. Gaines was inducted into the predominantly white schools. gust that he would fund for the next black squad on such a national Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. This, no doubt, opened the six years. The program begins with the stage buried another bastion of Asked if Rupp's reputation as doors for Grambling State under Puryear 2020-2021 school year. white invincibility. It had all the a racist was justified, Gaines said Fred Hobdy to win the 1962 NAIA A native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Puryear symbolism of a modern-day Tiger there's no doubt. crown and Prairie View A&M became the first African-American head coach at a Power Woods win at The Masters. "I know it was true. I was under LeRoy Moore to come 5 school when he was hired at Michigan State in 2008. Gaines was there, along with raised in Kentucky," said Gaines. away with the title in 1963, not to many of his black college coaching "I waited tables. I was a bellhop." mention Gaines' title in 1967. To date, his coaching career has produced one national peers. The Central Intercollegiate In other words, he had seen it It also opened the door for championship – the 2006 NCAA Championship while an Athletic Association (CIAA), firsthand. Smith 30 years later to become assistant at Stanford – one Big Ten Championship, two to which WSSU then (and now) "The man (Rupp) was an the head coach at Rupp's former Coach of the Year honors, two Conference Carolina titles belongs, was having its annual excellent teacher," said Gaines, school. and two South Atlantic Conference championships. meeting in Washington, D.C., along who attended one of Rupp's Thank God for coaches like At TSU he played under Coach Catana Sparks, the University of Kentucky Sports Photos with the National Association of clinics at the University of Illinois- Gaines and for coaches like Tubby first woman to coach a men's Division I golf team, a story Basketball Coaches that always Carbondale. "I guess that with the Smith who remembered and on which the movie "From the Rough" was later based. LYNCH: Adolph Rupp (r.) with lead- ing scorer, forward Pat Riley (#42). meets on Final Four weekend. personnel that he had and with the honored them. NEW TENNESSE STATE AD: Tennessee State University has found its replace- ment for Teresa Phillips as TSU Presi- Best HBCU studs for all 32 NFL teams dent Glenda Glover announced Dr. With the NFL Draft coming up on April 23-25, ESPN ran a story last Wednes- The Browns drafted Kelly out of Morgan State in the eighth round of the 1964 draft.

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