Some critics are claiming the contemporary racial implications were minor in 1966:
As to whether the game had social implications for sports and American society, that may well be true, but only in retrospect."I did the game,'' Cawood Ledford, Kentucky's legendary radio broadcaster, told the Cincinnati Post, "and in all the press conferences and interviews, I never heard a word about the racial issue. Not a whisper. It wasn't until several years after the game was played that it dawned on somebody that this had been a game of significance.''
"It was supposed to be such a big moment for integration, but that's all just BS,'' Thompson told Einhorn. "The game was in College Park, Md., and I was here at the time and nobody was talking about it as a big deal. Sure, in the black community, we quietly said, 'Good,' but nobody was running around saying how great it was.''
All of which is probably true from their perspective. But Don Haskins received 40,000 pieces of hate mail after the game.
Roger Ebert review here.
Posted by Walter at January 13, 2006 08:38 AMI thought the movie was fantastic, and although there are some "Hollywood" inaccuracies, that doesn't change the impact that game had on our culture.
I had the pleasure of interviewing David Lattin after a special screening at last week's NCAA Convention, and we discussed some of his experiences and how that game changed his life. You can find the interview, as well as some other discussion on Glory Road at the NCAA's Blog - the Double-A Zone (www.doubleazone.com).
Posted by: Josh Centor at January 13, 2006 09:58 AM