The Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a milestone that the 1954 Supreme Court ruled unanimously that racial segregation for children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was a major event in the civil rights movement. It helped authorize the law that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not equal at all at the time.
Texas Western was basically the Brown v. Board of Education of basketball because not many colleges, especially in the South, wanted to recruit black players. As stated by Coach Don Haskins, “I wasn’t aware of [the impact] when it happened. Had they beaten us, it probably would have taken longer for blacks to get recruited. David Lattin, one of our guys, wanted to go to Houston, but they wouldn’t take him. The year after we won it, Elvin Hayes was at Houston.” Many more black players were recruited in 1967, and it has been increasing slowly.
