Glory Road Film Analysis

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Sports have always been a reflection of American society; the racial tensions and struggle for equality has been a major issue in America, and displayed itself throughout sports from high school to the professionals. However, sports led the way into desegregating America, and showing how blacks and whites could interact so well together. Sports tried to work in a democratic way, but racism throughout the landscape of sports showed itself. Jackie Robinson breaks the color in the minors on April 18, 1946 , and he filled the air with extra excitement on opening day. He wore his Montreal Royals jersey for the first time and he had himself a game going four for five including a “three run home run, scored four times, and drove in three runs”,…show more content…
The team had an unprecedented seven black players on the team. The team was not expected to do much, and the players were hardly recruited by any division one school. The players did not mix well with the whites to begin with, but they had to learn to play together. Texas Western would become the underdog team across the NCAA because they had the most black basketball players. The team’s trainer and spiritual leader did not believe that the team could win and did not believe blacks would take over the sport of basketball. Many people did not believe that this team could succeed in any way, form, or fashion. However, this team quickly turned the tide of every opinion that people had on them when they defeated Iowa University, who was ranked four in the nation at the time. Texas Western improved to 10-0 with that win, and it led to them wining the first 23 games until they lost in Seattle to end the season 23-1. The last game came after the black players’ hotel rooms were vandalized by racist people in the town, and it caused the team to split between the…show more content…
All the hard work and dedication in working together was undone. Another issue that led to the loss of trust among the team was Orsten Artis being assaulted in a restroom when the team stopped to eat. Coach Don Haskins took a chance by mixing whites and blacks on his team, and made it work early with success, but it almost all goes to waste because of the racial issues that the team faced. Texas Western was displaying how democracy was supposed to work involving people of all different races. The small school in El Paso, Texas included blacks, Mexicans, and whites, but with many school not including other races reflected the racism of American society. For example in the NCAA championship game Texas Western faced the University of Kentucky, who had an all-white team. While Coach Haskins only played his seven black players in the game, which they win even though one player gets injured early in the game and another is in foul trouble the entire game. Texas Western changed the landscape of the game because they utilized all players no matter
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