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Game Of Change: Pivotal Matchup Helped End Segregated Hoops
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/15/174304630/game-of-change-pivotal-matchup-helped-end-segregated-hoopsAs BHM closes and March hoops start up, a story I love from my hometown of Starkville, MS about the role athletics can play for good, if people have some courage:
The Mississippi State Maroons had won their Southeastern Conference title year after year, but Bobby Shows — the center on the 1963 team — said there was resistance to playing in the NCAA tournament.
"It was a unwritten law in Mississippi that no college basketball team from Mississippi would ever play against blacks," Shows says.
The school's president, Dean Colvard, had accepted the NCAA tournament bid knowing that he could lose his job. Then-Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett, an avowed segregationist, and his allies tried to stop the Maroons from leaving the state.
MSU's team manager, Jimmy Wise, said Colvard and the team's coaches decided to sneak out of town.
"It was a unwritten law in Mississippi that no college basketball team from Mississippi would ever play against blacks," Shows says.
The school's president, Dean Colvard, had accepted the NCAA tournament bid knowing that he could lose his job. Then-Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett, an avowed segregationist, and his allies tried to stop the Maroons from leaving the state.
MSU's team manager, Jimmy Wise, said Colvard and the team's coaches decided to sneak out of town.