The Baron & the Bear : Rupp's Runts, Haskins's Miners, and the season that changed basketball forever / David Kingsley Snell ; foreword by Nolan Richardson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Snell, David Kingsley, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rupp, Adolph, 1901-1977.

Rupp, Adolph.

Haskins, Don, 1930-2008.

Haskins, Don.

Kentucky Wildcats (Basketball team)--History.

Kentucky Wildcats (Basketball team).

University of Kentucky--Basketball--History.

University of Kentucky.

Texas Western Miners (Basketball team)--History.

Texas Western Miners (Basketball team).

Texas Western College--Basketball--History.

Texas Western College.

NCAA Basketball Tournament (1966 : University of Maryland).

NCAA Basketball Tournament.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (313 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2016]

Summary:

In the 1966 NCAA basketball championship game, an all-white University of Kentucky team was beaten by a team from Texas Western College (now UTEP) that fielded only black players. The game, played in the middle of the racially turbulent 1960s--part David and Goliath in short pants, part emancipation proclamation of college basketball--helped destroy stereotypes about black athletes. Filled with revealing anecdotes, The Baron and the Bear is the story of two intensely passionate coaches and the teams they led through the ups and downs of a college basketball season. In the twilight of his legendary career, Kentucky's Adolph Rupp ("The Baron of the Bluegrass") was seeking his fifth NCAA championship. Texas Western's Don Haskins ("The Bear" to his players) had been coaching at a small West Texas high school just five years before the championship. After this history-making game, conventional wisdom that black players lacked the discipline to win without a white player to lead began to dissolve. Northern schools began to abandon unwritten quotas limiting the number of blacks on the court at one time. Southern schools, where athletics had always been a whites-only activity, began a gradual move toward integration. David Kingsley Snell brings the season to life, offering fresh insights on the teams, the coaches, and the impact of the game on race relations in America.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Foreword

Prologue

1. A Drop of Water

2. "No Good, Even If It Goes!"

3. A New Direction

4. Brothers against the Bastard

5. The True Religion

6. The Big Change

7. A Synchronized Leap

8. Finding His Team

9. He Didn't Recruit

He Chose

10. Never Gave It a Thought

11. Intensity, Thy Name Is Adolph

12. The Haskins Way

13. "Quite Improbable"

14. The Games Were the Break

15. Seeing Things I Really Like

16. Things That I Can't

17. Give Iowa a Try

18. Neutral- Court Advantage

19. The Break from Hell

20. "T he Secret of Basketball"

21. Togo Time

22. Clyde and the Commodores

23. They Could Be Very Good

24. The Naked Truth

25. Working Hard and Hardly Working

26. Tennessee Two- Step

27. Seattle Surprise

28. The Mountain Man and Cazzie

29. Time and Overtime

30. Larry Conley's Ass

31. The Runnin' Utes

32. The Real Championship Game

33. The Smart Money

34. And Then There Was David

35. An Unreal Thing

36. A Matter of Pride

37. He Changed Basketball

Epilogue

Where Are They Now?

Acknowledgments

Appendix: 1965- 66 Team Rostersand Season Results

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-8032-9649-5

0-8032-9647-9