Key Team Impacts

Coach Haskins helped make significant changes to NCAA basketball by recruiting the best players, not just the white ones. 

After the championship, he credited his team's defense saying, "We knew Kentucky could shoot the ball and if we didn't defend it, we'd be second," (College Park. Md., 1966). He gave credit to the African American players for their efforts despite the world being against that.

Bobby Joe Hill was the leading scorer in the famous championship game.  He quarterbacked the team to the win and showed people what African Americans can do with 20 points in the game (Sam Fogg, 1966).

Harry Flournoy was a 6'5" forward for the Miners.  Familiar with racism from his time in high school (Schecter, 1998), Flournoy was a leader against the racism the Miners had to face throughout their season. In an autobiographical essay, Harry Flournoy once wrote that he was "forced to deal with racism in many instances" (Bromwich, 2016).  Prior experiences with this issue led to Harry being named a captain and helped him lead his team to the championship.

David Lattin was a key contributor during the team's championship win. He scored sixteen points and had a large impact on the team's defense (Sam Fogg, 1966). Throughout the season, he put up staggering numbers that impressed coaches nationwide.

The leadership and effort by Artis helped propel the Miners past the discrimination they received while on their championship journey.  Artis notched fifteen points good enough for third most on the Miners side, giving a huge boost to the team's success (Sam Fogg, 1966).