1966 NCAA University Division basketball championship game

1966 NCAA tournament championship game
National championship game
Texas Western Miners Kentucky Wildcats
Independent SEC
(27–1) (27–1)
72 65
Head coach:
Don Haskins		 Head coach:
Adolph Rupp
1st half2nd half Total
Texas Western Miners 3438 72
Kentucky Wildcats 3134 65
DateMarch 19, 1966
VenueCole Field House, College Park, Maryland
RefereesSteve Honzo and Thornton Jenkins[1]
Attendance14,253
United States TV coverage
NetworkSports Network Incorporated
← 1965
1967 →

The 1966 NCAA University Division basketball championship game was the final of the 1966 NCAA University Division basketball tournament and determined the national champion in the 1965–66 NCAA University Division men's basketball season.[a] The game was held on March 19, 1966, at Cole Field House in College Park, Maryland. The Kentucky Wildcats, the number one ranked team in men's college basketball, faced the Texas Western Miners, who were ranked third in the nation.

Texas Western's starting lineup of five African Americans was the first all-black lineup in an NCAA title game; their opponents, by contrast, fielded an all-white squad. The Miners won 72–65, claiming the school's first national championship in men's college basketball. Their victory challenged assumptions widely held about black players at the time, and major college programs intensified their recruiting efforts towards African-American players in the years following the game.

  1. ^ "2017 Men's Final Four Records Book" (PDF). National Collegiate Athletic Association. 2017. p. 33. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  2. ^ Wong, Glenn M. (2012). The Comprehensive Guide to Careers in Sports (2 ed.). Jones & Bartlett Publishers. p. 200. ISBN 9781449602031.
  3. ^ "NCAA Splits Basketball Tournament". The Washington Post and Times-Herald. Associated Press. January 12, 1956. p. 35.
  4. ^ "NCAA Votes to Split Into Three Divisions". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. August 7, 1973. p. B5.
  5. ^ Barnes, Bart (March 16, 1982). "With Gains Come Growing Pains". The Washington Post. pp. D1–D2.


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