Game Changer at the White House

[bigtree]

tweeted by, Valerie Jarrett ?@vj44 11 Jul
In 1963 a governor refused to let the Ramblers play, today the President welcomed them w/ open arms. Read more: http://wh.gov/laxwD#.Ud9bd6bQjs4.twitter …



President Barack Obama greets members of the 1963 Loyola University Chicago Ramblers NCAA Championship men's basketball team in the Oval Office, July 11, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)


Game of Change Comes to the White House

On March 15, 1963, the Ramblers played Mississippi State in a regional semifinal game known as the Game of Change.

The year: 1963, right in the midst of the Civil Rights movement. The team: The Loyola Ramblers, coached by George Ireland. The controversy: The Ramblers started four African-American players on the “Iron Five” lineup, even though the unwritten rules of college basketball allowed only two African-American players to start, and an unwritten law in Mississippi wouldn’t allow play against integrated teams.

Earlier in the year, the Ramblers had won 20 consecutive games and earned a tournament berth. The Game of Change took place in East Lansing, Michigan. The all-white Mississippi State team snuck into Michigan in defiance of an injunction issued by the Governor of Mississippi that was intended to prohibit the game.

Judy Van Dyck, the daughter of the Head Coach, George Ireland, accompanied the team today. She told me that she remembered her father saying, with tears in his eyes, that the time had come for change, that these were his kids, and he wanted to make a difference so that no other kids would have to go through what they went through.

And that’s just what happened.

The Ramblers won 61-51. Before tip-off, photographers captured one of the great moments in college sports history when Loyola captain Jerry Harkness, and Mississippi State captain Joe Dan Gold shook hands at center court. The team gave President Obama a framed copy of that famous photo today.

The Ramblers went on to eventually win the 1963 NCAA Championship, by beating the Cincinnati Bearcats in overtime, 60-58, denying the Bearcats their third consecutive national title.

All nine players from the 1963 Ramblers graduated from Loyola, and many went on to excel in graduate studies. And this November, the Ramblers will become the first team to be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Their induction coincides with several major 50th year anniversaries of the Civil Rights movement—from the murder of Medgar Evers, to the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, to the Children’s March, to the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door in Alabama, to the March on Washington and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

The Ramblers broke barriers by refusing to give in to prejudice, and simply playing their best. As I watched President Obama speak with the players in the Oval Office, I thought of just how far we’ve come.

In 1963, a governor refused to let them play. But today, a President welcomed them to the White House with open arms.


read: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/07/11/game-change-comes-white-house#.Ud9bd6bQjs4.twitter



1963 NCAA Champion Loyola University Ramblers

[ProSense]

1. Cool, thanks for posting. n/t

[frazzled]

2. And the "new" Loyola Ramblers beat the MI Bulldogs again in 2012

in a reprise of that game.

Loyola wins 'Game of Change' reprise 59-51
In 1st rematch since meeting that helped integrate college basketball, Ramblers repeat victory over Mississippi State

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-12-15/sports/ct-spt-1216-loyola-basketball--20121216_1_gentile-arena-jerry

[bigtree]

4. ha!

thanks, frazzled!

[MineralMan]

3. I was a high school senior in 1963.

I remember that game and the controversy surrounding it.

[SharonAnn]

5. Me too. I didn't realize how much impact things like these would have on the country.

I thought they were good things, but I didn't really realize how bad things were for minorities. Heck, I was hardly aware of the discrimination against women until I started running into it.

It's embarrassing to realize how self-focused I was and how generally clueless.

[MineralMan]

6. Exactly. I grew up in a small town in rural California,

and was pretty unaware. However, as the news of things like this began to be shown and printed, I started thinking about it. By 1965, I was driving my car to Selma. Times were changing fast and I wanted to be part of it. I didn't get to walk across the Edmund Pettus bridge, but I did get to hear Dr. King speak in Birmingham.

After President Kennedy's assassination, my life changed. I dropped out of college the next year and spent several years sorting things out. I ended up going back, but changed my major from Electronics Engineering to English. I figured that writing would be a better way to participate than designing computers. I ended up writing about personal computing, oddly enough, to earn my living, but writing became my life.

Strange times, many changes, and much to do in the 1960s.

[ashling]

8. Thanks for sharing this, MineralMan

[Iliyah]

7. Good to know! Thank you, a part of history that

could never be forgotten.

More than 50 years later, the fight continues.

[mountain grammy]

9. In the spring of 1963, I was in 10th grade in a racially mixed high school in Hartford, Ct.

Our basketball team was all black except for a few players, so this story seemed far away. However, it had been only 5 years since I attended an all white elementary school while living in Cherry Point, NC., so I actually understood the significance of this game.

[malaise]

10. HBO had a great documentary called Fields of Fire

and this was featured. Ireland was eventually fired for poor results.

[Scurrilous]

11. Thanks.

K & R