HISTORIC 1966 NCAA BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP PROGRAM +TICKET, 1st All-Black Team.

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RARE and extremely significant program & ticket documenting attendance at the 1966 NCAA National Collegiate Championship Series , a.k.a " 28th Annual NCAA Basketball Championship s", and undoubtedly, the most important game in history of collegiate basketball - a Saturday, March 19th, late-evening (10 pm) affair in which Don Haskins' integrated Texas Western Miners squad battled Adolph Rupp's heavily favored all-white University of Kentucky Wildcats for the national championship. The stage was appropriately, the University of Maryland's Cole Field House, only miles from the Mason-Dixon line - where, for the first time in NCAA Playoffs history, an all-black starting five took the floor as Kentucky fans waved Confederate flags in the stands... and won. The Miners' victory would forever change the complexion of college sport and destroy the walls men like Rupp fought to build and protect , and so significant, the Basketball Hall of Fame inducted the entire '66 Texas Western team in 2007. Offered is the complete original " Official Program " and corresponding Finals ticket. As depicted in the accompanying photos, the program is still attached to a large original scrapbook page. The program is oversized, and cover detached, but all 45 interior pages are clean and uncompromised, featuring profiles, stats and features on the competitors and history of the event. Neatly and accurately scored. The ticket is affixed as depicted - and clearly states this documents admission to this specific game. This is truly RARE -- I've never seen another offered. Please see all photos for all additional info. And for more history, check out ESPN's synopsis pasted below: FYI: Texas Western's 1966 title left lasting legacy By Frank Fitzpatrick Special to ESPN Classic Watch the 1966 NCAA Championship game now and you'll probably wonder what all the fuss is about. This is the most important college game ever played? It looks more like Princeton-Dartmouth on a Friday night in January. Ten players in laughably short pants move slowly through 40 minutes of ordinary basketball. There's not much drama, very little passion, and, in 2001, you'll see more athletic talent at many high school games. The NCAA title game had yet to morph into March Madness when Kentucky and Texas Western met that Saturday night, March 19, 1966, in the University of Maryland's Cole Field House. There was so little madness surrounding the contest, in fact, that its starting time was 10 p.m., it wasn't carried by a major network, and it was televised only on a tape-delayed basis in several American cities. But examine the grainy film more closely. The crowd is white. So are the NCAA officials, the referees, the coaches, the cheerleaders and almost all the sportswriters on press row. High in the bleachers, Kentucky fans wave a Confederate flag as the Wildcats' five white players line up for the opening tap. Then history steps into the picture. Walking toward the red "M" at center court, in their orange uniforms and white Converse All-Stars, are the five starters for Texas Western. They are all black. Until that moment, at the height of the civil-rights era, no major-college team had ever started five blacks in an NCAA championship game. In fact, until Texas Western coach Don Haskins did it earlier that season, no major-college team had ever started five blacks in ANY game. For the first time that night, on the edge of the Mason-Dixon Line, a major American sports championship would be contested by one team that was all-white and another whose starters were entirely black Texas Western, an independent from remote El Paso, was little known outside the Southwest despite its 27-1 record and its No.3 ranking. Their 72-65 victory that night over No.1 Kentucky, coached by the legendary Adolph Rupp, stunned college basketball and upset conventional wisdom. GUARANTEED AUTHENTIC. Please check out my other auctions. read more

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