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1966 NCAA Championship Game Net From Willie Worsley
Nolan Richardson, the Arkansas coach, called it "The Beginning" and elaborated, "Any black person who was around at that time, you have to remember 1966." On March 19, 1966, Don Haskins taught all of college basketball a lesson. It was the night that his starting lineup of five African-American basketball players at tiny Texas Western in El Paso stunned Adolph Rupp's Kentucky 72-65 for the NCAA championship. Since that night, every single team that participated at a high level of college basketball has disposed of any racial restrictions on their team. To Haskins it wasn't about black versus white. It became what it was intended to be. Put your best players out there. Period. It was not unusual then to have a star basketball player on your team that was black. Bill Russell had led San Francisco to an NCAA title ten years earlier. But Texas Western's five starters in the 1966 NCAA title game became symbolic of the game's racial evolution. Remember that in 1966 racial tensions were running blazing hot in America. They played against an all-white Kentucky team coached by Adolph Rupp. Rupp's teams had won four NCAA championships, had never had a black player, and their fans carried Confederate flags and sang "Dixie." The symbolism of starting five black players against a Rupp coached team was blatantly obvious to everyone connected with college basketball. From the game that changed college basketball and America comes this game used net from that historic night. The net is in outstanding condition, having been saved since that momentous night by Willie Worsley, the black player who replaced a white man in the starting lineup that night. He has consigned it for this auction. This is sports history. This is part of the history of racial relations in this country. This is special. LOA from Mr. Willie Worsley stating he, himself, cut this very net down on the evening of March 19, 1966. A truly important artifact.
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