Coach Haskins was all about winning. He said, 'I'm going to put the best team on the floor to get the job done.' That was his way throughout all the games. |
I found the oldest, rattiest TWC sweater I could find. And I wore it for five days in Lexington just so they could all see it and remember it. I never took it off. |
It was really a great experience. |
It's 40 years late; it's 40 years right on time. |
Let's make it better for tomorrow. That's what the journey is all about. |
My wife and I had the chance to vacation in New Orleans where they were shooting the film and I was fortunate to visit the set. When I stepped out onto the court everyone gave me a standing ovation, it was very special. |
Somewhere along the line it would have happened, but in this case it happened at the right time, early during the struggles during the '60s. There were so many athletes out there wanting just to show they have the same talent as the white folks. |
The impact came when you saw that some of the schools that were all-white began to recruit black athletes. And what was so good about it is there were so many qualified black athletes who should have been at these schools. If we were part of opening the doors to allow African-Americans to attend any school of their choice, that is a great impact. |
We were just a bunch of kids. We didn't think about winning a national championship, we just wanted to make the playoffs like everyone else. We had no idea we'd win it all that year. |
We were kids all over again after we won that game, but we never thought about the impact we were leaving. We didn't realized what we had accomplished. |