Real racists in Texas in the 1960s? Nawwwww.
Filed under: Comedy, Sports, Movie Marketing, Politics
This is one of the more bizarre movie-related brouhahas I've heard
of. Officials at Texas A&M University want Walt Disney Company and the filmmakers and writers
associated with the film Glory Road to apologize for falsely
depicting the school as having racially-charged scenes take place there.
The film is based on a true story about the Texas Western Miners, who in 1966 made athletic history by becoming the first team with an all-black starting lineup to win the Championship game. The movie, says the university, contains a scene of a "completely fabricated" game beween the Miners and East Texas University, the name of Texas A&M Commerce at that time.
In the movie, East Texas fans are potrayed as redneck racists, throwing drinks and yelling racial slurs, and those events, the university claims, really didn't happen. Okay, is it just me, or is this the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard of? Well, okay, maybe not THE most ridiculous, but pretty high up the ladder on the scale of ridiculous things. Does anyone out there not find it conceivably true that there were racists at East Texas University in 1966, who might have been somewhat displeased to have their team playing (and getting beat by) a team led by all-black starters? Anyone? Anyone?
I'd have a hell of a lot more respect for said A&M-Commerce officials if they grew some spines and just said, "You know what, there probably were people from East Texas in 1966 who were racist, and we regret any harm, emotional, physical or otherwise, that may have resulted from racism." Don't try to pull the whole, "Why, racists at East Texas? I say, old chap, you must be joking. There have never been racists at East Texas. Good heavens, no." Yeesh.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-11-2006 @ 12:39PM
Curt Morgan said...
No one can argue that there weren't racists in Texas in the 1960s, anymore than they can argue there aren't racists in New York or Sheboygan today. But that isn't the issue. "Glory Road" portrays the East Texas fans as yelling racial ephithets at the team and later shows the players discovering their hotel rooms vandalized with racist grafitti. The film is "based on a true story." Those events either happened - or they didn't. If they didn't, why does the film say they did? Race is one of the most volatile issues in this country, and it doesn't need lies and distortions to inflame it - just to sell a movie.
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2-11-2006 @ 8:38PM
Blair Case said...
Glory Road, as you might imagine, is tremendously popular here in El Paso. Most El Pasoans consider the movie a accurate enough protrayal of Texas Western's championship season. However, some of the scenes, including the one in which a Miner player is beaten up in a restroom, are fiction. There was virtually no racial disension on the squad. Texas Western had black players before Coach Don Haskins arrived. Haskins started an all-black lineup at various times during the season, not just in the championship game. The starting lineup depended on the matchups. He did not make a speech to the team before the Kentucky game to declare his intent to start an all-black lineup to make a point about racism. In his autobiography, he writes that he decided to start an all-black lineup because he decided to go with an extra guard because of Kentucky's small size. I have lived in El Paso for the past 25 years, but I lived in East Texas during Texas Western's champtionship season. I saw one of Texas Western's games in Dallas and there were no racial epitaphs; however, the prevailing wisdom in East Texas was that Haqskins had gone out and recruited hoods from ghetto neighborhoods. Actually, the black members of the championship team not only graduated but went on to successful carrers on and off the basketball court. Although the movie exaggerates the very real racial animosity the Miners faced, I though the movie more accurate than most films that claim to be based on or inspired by true events.
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2-16-2006 @ 7:29PM
jim hardy said...
There is a wonderful column in today's Dallas Morning News by James Ragsdale about the issue. Ragsdale interviewed two members of the East Texas team (one black and one white).
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