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Witness History

Black basketball pioneers - Texas Western

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.41.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1966, an all-black team went head-to-head with an all-white team for the National College Basketball championship - one of the biggest prizes in American sport. To much surprise, the African-Americans of Texas Western College defeated the University of Kentucky, then the number one team in the country. The game is now regarded as breaking the colour barrier in US basketball. In 2016 Nija Dalal-Small spoke to Nevil Shed, one of that groundbreaking Texas Western team. The programme is a Sparklab Production for BBC World Service.

PHOTO: Texas Western celebrate their victory in 1966 (Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0

Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless

0:06.8

searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the

0:11.8

telly we share what we've been watching

0:14.0

Cladie Aide.

0:16.0

Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.

0:19.0

Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.

0:21.0

And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less

0:24.9

searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC Sounds Thanks for downloading the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service.

0:39.4

All this week we're looking back through our archives to bring you first-hand accounts of key

0:43.8

moments in black American history. In 1966 an all-black team went head-to-head

0:50.0

with an all-white team for the USA's National College Basketball Championship,

0:55.5

one of the biggest prizes in American sport.

0:58.2

To widespread surprise, the African Americans of Texas Western College defeated the University of Kentucky, then the number

1:05.8

one team in the country. The game is now regarded as breaking the color barrier in U.S basketball.

1:12.1

In 2016, Nizia de Lall small spoke to Neville Shedd of Texas

1:16.7

Western.

1:17.7

It's the 19th of March, 1966.

1:24.0

At Cole Fieldhouse Basketball Court in Maryland,

1:27.0

the college basketball season is reaching its climax.

1:30.0

It's the final of the NCAA championship, one of the biggest events in American sport.

1:36.0

Charles Martin, now a professor of history and sports historian at the University of Texas at El Paso,

1:42.0

watched the game on a black and white television in his South Texas dorm room.

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