The Impact of Texas Western
"I knew it as the championship game. It never dawned on me the social significance that it was until after the fact.”- Sonny Vaccaro
The impact of Texas Western College was significant, but unnoticed at first. Because of the championship, more colleges started recruiting based off of how talented the players were, regardless of skin color. Many colleges around the U.S., and even the NBA, started integrating their teams a few years after the title.
Before the season and championship, people that were against integrating thought that Texas Western was going to do nothing significent that season because they had an all black starting lineup.
During the season, people were getting angry because black players were doing very well. When they were doing well, TWC players received hate mail and death threats. Coach Don Haskins took all of the letters in and still had the courage to start all black starters. Still, segregationists were not expecting them to do anything because of their skin color. When Texas Western won the title, segregationists didn’t want to believe it. After the championship, Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp spat out the words “TWC...TWC? What does that stand for, two white coaches?”
