Kind of OT: while researching OU softball in El Paso media

[NMSooner'80]

I saw in the on-line El Paso Times that a fourth player from the 1966 "Glory Road" team at Texas Western (now UTEP) has passed away. Jerry Armstrong, a player featured prominently in the movie "Glory Road," died earlier in the week. He is the fourth player from that team to be lost, not counting Don Haskins. The others were point guard Bobby Joe Hill, wing guard Orsten Artis and small forward Harry Flournoy.

Flournoy was portrayed in the movie by Mehcad Brooks, son of former OU player Billy Brooks (All-American WR from the early Switzer era). David Lattin, the grandfather of recent OU player Khadeem Lattin, was probably their best player. He had a brief role in the movie, as did Haskins.

I never saw a basketball game at the Haskins Center when I lived "up north" (Albuquerque), but I did go in there to pick up my football ticket for the 2012 OU-UTEP football game. They have a very nice display that honors the '66 national championship team.

The movie took a few liberties with reality, not the least of which was showing it as Haskins' first year at TWC. They also failed to mention UCLA, which was the big-time power of that era, which did have a surprising off-year and didn't make the Final Four. The Miners also destroyed Eastern New Mexico in the opener, and it wasn't ENM State. And, they sure didn't play a road game in Commerce, Texas, against East Texas State - the place in the movie where they were pelted with garbage and had their hotel rooms vandalized - and the folks from that school really hated how that tainted their school's reputation (it did border on slander, since the incident in Commerce never happened).

The Final Four that year was Kentucky, Texas Western, Utah and Duke. I was only in the second grade at the time, so I only know a lot of this because I've read about the teams involved well after the fact.

Footnote, with an OU tie - Haskins retired after the '99 season and was replaced by former OU assistant coach Jason Rabideaux. Sadly, both of them are deceased.

 

[Darwin]

Jerry Armstrong made quite a mark

 

[WaymanFan]

Interesting tidbits, NM. I definitely did not know that Billy Brooks had a son who is an actor...turns out he has a nice resume. I loved that movie, but wish they didn't portray as if Haskins recruited all those players and they won a title right out of the gate. I saw the movie when it first came out, so I did not know all the facts beforehand. However, I did know that freshmen were not eligible to play college sports until 1972. As such, it was easy to see they got that wrong.

The OU angle I would have liked the most was David Lattin's grandson Khadheem winning a National Championship 50 years after gramps did. That would have been a pretty amazing story. As it was, David was interviewed before the game since it was the 50th Anniversary. I was sad to hear him say that no one on Kentucky, including Pat Riley would shake his hand after the game. No question that was easily the most significant college basketball game ever...so glad the good guys won.