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One of the greatest basketball games in NCAA history is immortalized in Glory Road, an engaging sports movie that dramatizes a pivotal milestone in the racial integration of college athletics. While it may not be as rousing as similar movies like Hoosiers or Friday Night Lights, this fact-based drama gains depth and substance from the groundbreaking achievement of Don Haskins (well-played by Josh Lucas), who coached the 1965-66 team from Texas Western University to the NCAA championship, using the first-ever all-black lineup in the championship game and forever changing the rules of college basketball. Texas Western's underdog s
One of the greatest basketball games in NCAA history is immortalized in Glory Road, an engaging sports movie that dramatizes a pivotal milestone in the racial integration of college athletics. While it may not be as rousing as similar movies like Hoosiers or Friday Night Lights, this fact-based drama gains depth and substance from the groundbreaking achievement of Don Haskins (well-played by Josh Lucas), who coached the 1965-66 team from Texas Western University to the NCAA championship, using the first-ever all-black lineup in the championship game and forever changing the rules of college basketball. Texas Western's underdog season is followed from anxious start to glorious finish, as Haskins recruits many of his black star players from the North, including Bobby Joe Hill (Derek Luke) and Willie Cager (Damaine Radcliff), and this typically wholesome Disney film doesn't flinch from the harsh realities of racial tension (including player beatings and vandalized motel rooms) that Texas Western's black players had to struggle against as their victories began to draw national attention. Jon Voight (under heavy makeup) makes a memorable cameo appearance as legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp, whose favored all-white team was no match for Texas Western, and Haskins' unforgettable achievement is celebrated in an end-credits sequence that demonstrates the positive ripple-effect of his color-blind coaching. Glory Road relies a bit too heavily on sports-movie clichés, but its shortcomings are easily overlooked in favor of its greater historical significance. --Jeff Shannon
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