SR0638 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0638 LRB097 20653 GRL 66585 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, In 1963, Coach George Ireland led the Loyola Chicago Ramblers to the NCAA basketball championship; the team lost only 2 games that season and led the nation in scoring with 91.8 points per game; and

WHEREAS, Coach Ireland and the Loyola University teams of the early 1960s are considered by many to be responsible for ushering in a new era of racial equality in the sport by shattering all color barriers in NCAA men's basketball; and

WHEREAS, It is difficult to appreciate what Coach Ireland and his team went through, starting in 1961, in breaking what had been a longstanding "gentleman's agreement" to not play more than 3 African-American players; and

WHEREAS, During the 1962-1963 season, Coach Ireland played 4 African American Loyola starters in every game; the Ramblers became the first team in NCAA Division I history to play an all-African-American lineup, doing so in a game against Wyoming in December of 1962; and

WHEREAS, In 1963, Loyola shocked the nation and changed college basketball forever by starting 4 African-American players in the NCAA Tournament, as well as the championship game; and

WHEREAS, Despite their success during that season, players had to endure terrible bigotry, including racial taunts and abuse; and

WHEREAS, Coach Ireland received countless pieces of hate mail from the KKK and other racist individuals and tried to shield his team in every way possible; and

WHEREAS, The team remained focused on the sport they loved, despite knowing that police surrounded the sports facility because violence might erupt at any moment; and

WHEREAS, Loyola's defeat of 2-time defending NCAA champion Cincinnati, in overtime by a score of 60-58, was the crowning achievement in the school's nearly decade-long struggle with racial inequality in men's college basketball, highlighted by the tumultuous events of that year's NCAA Tournament; and

WHEREAS, Loyola's 1963 NCAA title was historic, not only because of the racial makeup of Loyola's team, but also because Cincinnati had started 3 black players, making 7 of the 10 starters in the 1963 NCAA Championship game African-American; and

WHEREAS, The City of Chicago has many storied sports teams, but the Loyola Ramblers basketball team of 1963 and Coach Ireland hold an exalted place because they are the only Division I Illinois basketball team to win a national championship, and because they paved the way for the long-overdue integration of races in college basketball prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act; and

WHEREAS, All 5 starting players from the national championship game graduated from Loyola with degrees; several went on to earn advanced degrees in law and business; and

WHEREAS, The journey of the Ramblers is not just the story of an underdog team overcoming great odds to beat favored Cincinnati, a much larger basketball program that held the number 1 ranking and had won the previous 2 national championships; the real significance of this coach and this team is the lasting impact of their bravery for having broken the racial barrier in college basketball that had been allowed to prevail for decades; and

WHEREAS, The 2013 Hall of Fame induction season will mark the 50th anniversary of the Loyola Basketball Championship; and

WHEREAS, Both Coach Don Haskins and the players of the 1966 Texas Western College Miners have been inducted to the Naismith Hall of Fame in recognition of their achievement as the first all-African-American college basketball team to win the national championship; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we wholeheartedly urge the relevant authorities to nominate and induct Coach George Ireland and the 1963 Loyola Chicago basketball championship team into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.