No I haven’t filled out a bracket, but I have tipped my hat to March Madness by dedicating my monthly article at romancingthejock.com to an interview I had with one of the starters from the 1966 NCAA Championship team, the Texas Western Miners and the subject of the Disney Film Glory Road. I’ve provided a piece of the transcript below:
Harry Flournoy’s road to glory wasn’t without a few bumps in the road
America is knee-deep in March Madness. People have filled out their brackets and many are already crying in their cups. So, I thought it would be appropriate to dedicate my post this month to an interview with Harry Flournoy.
To many of you, the name wouldn’t ring a bell. That’s not all too surprising, considering Harry and his teammates made their mark on sports history almost forty-seven years ago. Harry Flournoy, along with four other all-black starters, led Texas Western College to the 1966 NCAA men’s basketball title against an all-white starting Kentucky squad.
For some time after clenching the title, the Miners fell into obscurity. And it wasn’t a coincidence. The media basically did its best to make sure the team was forgotten. If there were write ups or press, such as James A. Micehner’s Sports in America, the coach was discredited or the team was painted as a bunch of jailbirds or “ragamuffins”. And it wasn’t until 2006, that the team’s contributions were finally seen in a positive light through coach Don Haskins autobiography, Glory Road and Disney movie of the same name.
Despite the hatchet job the team received, none of them seem bitter. Maybe its because they are simply products of a society that shaped them. Here’s an edited transcript of the three-hour interview I had with Harry recently:
You were born in Gary, Indiana. Was growing up in Midwest much different from growing up in the South?
There was a term called de facto segregation. There were no Jim Crow signs, but Gary Indiana was essentially a southern town in a northern location. At the age of seven, I attended an integrated elementary school because my mother wanted me to have the same resources and materials as white students. And as you can probably guess, my school years as one of the only black children enrolled wasn’t a bed of roses. I didn’t have any friends. I couldn’t get anyone to talk with me or play with me. During recess, I never played with the other kids, but sat by myself at the edge of the playground.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t just my classmates who treated me differently. One time, during recess, a student from the neighboring high school walked over from his school and spat on me. As a seven-year old and not really knowing how racism worked, I told my teacher. She told me, “It was my parent’s fault. Races should remain separate because blacks didn’t want an education.”
The only thing that got better during my time in Gary, Indiana’s school system was my attitude. As a got into high school and got better in sports, I’d learned to isolate myself from it (discrimination).
You didn’t get into organized sports until high school. Why the late start?
I started to take basketball more seriously because there was a girl I liked. I used to play with her older brother at the YMCA. I told him of my interest and he gave me an ultimatum–if I didn’t play basketball I couldn’t see his sister. My feelings for the girl faded, but not my love for basketball. I started to like the camaraderie, and it didn’t hurt at all that the girls used to line up against the fence.
What were your initial plans after graduating from high school? Were you looking to continue playing in college?
My mother only went as far as the 8th grade and my father’s highest education was the sixth grade. Expectations were high that I attend college. I was a B student in high school, so there was no question I couldn’t handle the workload. I quickly found out I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t take the SAT because no one told me about it. The only way I learned about college entrance exams was doing a college go see. I wasn’t surprised. My guidance counselor wasn’t my biggest cheerleader. I remember to this day his reaction when I told him I wanted to study business administration. With a blank expression, he said, “I think you would be better off going to Trade School and get a good skill like in mechanics and then get you a job in the steel mills.”
And despite what you may think, I wasn’t highly recruited out of high school. I was lacking in fundamentals. Of course, it didn’t keep me from beating down everyone’s door for a full ride. I called Michigan State, Cincinnati, even USC but all of their athletic scholarships had already been promised to other athletes. I found out later that there were a lot of schools interested in me. I didn’t find out about them until my last day of school when my basketball coach handed me a stack of letters while I was cleaning out my locker.
READ THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW AT ROMANCINGTHEJOCK.COM
Don’t forget Jezebel comes out on Saturday!!! Check back for links to buy:)
