Quote:
Originally posted by dave30
I read Oscar Robertson's biography. It was great. I do know that there were a lot of serious issues being faced by black people then and now. However, I think that things were getting better and still continue to get better every day. Absolutely there were serious incidents of racism at that time, especially in the South, but there were many, many white people, including my parents who thought it was just flat out wrong to not treat everybody equal.
|
Things might have been getting better, but in 1966 Martin Luther King was alive. He would be killed just two years later. The March on Washington was 3 years earlier where MLK Jr. gave his famous speech. MLK was killed in Memphis, Tennessee (where I have family and the Civil Rights Museum is located at the site MLK was assassinated) fighting for a bunch of Black workers because of some serious discrimination. It was not a cake walk for anyone at that time that was of color.
Quote:
Originally posted by dave30
I'm just saying that Hollywood in general seems to go out of their way to make it look like everybody was against a team with all-black starters winning the championship. I guarantee you that there weren't many people from Texas that were rooting against Texas Western in the NCAA tournament. At least that's what my Dad told me and he was there. I was barely alive at the time, so I don't remember it. As much as fans love the underdog, I also believe they had quite a few fans rooting for the upset. Black players were beginning to dominate the NBA and the fans were certainly beginning to show acceptance. It takes time for some people to change their views, and some never do, but I think on the whole Texas Western did help a lot of people to change their views for the better.
|
I do not think the movie tried to portray that everyone in Texas was against them. The movie was showing that many forces were not accepting of Black players. The University of Alabama Football team played an integrated USC team for the first time in 1970. Alabama did not have any Black players on the team in 1970 when this game was played. I agree that some things to the story was portrayed was has a Hollywood feel to it, but the events were basically true, but spliced together to make the story move. But to suggest that these things did not ever happen and there was total acceptance of Black players is absurd. Emmitt Teal was killed for doing something that was not completely unacceptable in Chicago that got him killed in Mississippi. Let us not make it sound like everything was just peachy and the movie was a fabrication of someone's imagination.
Peace