Glory Road

Opened January 13, 2006

Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes

Genres: Drama, Sport

MPAA Rating: PG for racial issues including violence and epithets, and mild language

Cast: Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Austin Nichols, Evan Jones, Mehcad Brooks, Emily Deschanel, Sam Jones III, Schin A.S. Kerr, Alphonso McAuley, Damaine Radcliff, Tatyana Ali, Sharon Warren, Jon Voight, Al Shearer, Red West, Kip Weeks, Mitch Eakins, Alejandro D. Hernandez, James Olivard, Wilbur T. Fitzgerald (II)

Director: James Gartner

Screenwriters: Chris Cleveland, Bettina Gilois

Music: Trevor Rabin

Studio: Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Production Co.: Jerry Bruckheimer Films

Distributors: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

Synopses:

• In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship.
• 40 years ago, Don Haskins went on the recruiting trail to find the best talent in the land, black or white. 7 blacks and 5 whites made up the legendary 1965-66 Texas Western Miners. They were mocked and ridiculed for their showboating and flaunting of black players on the court. Yet, in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, Haskins and his Miners came together as a team united to reach the National Championship game against powerhouse Kentucky.
• For Don Haskins, the dream was always about winning: winning with guts, heart and grit; winning with self-respect; and winning even when the odds were completely stacked against you. What Haskins didn't know in 1966--when he was just a small-town family man trying to make an indelible mark in his first job as a collegiate basketball coach--is that his underdog team's incredible victory would transcend sport and change not only his life and the lives of his players, but the country itself. Haskins and his scrappy Texas Western Miners were unwittingly about to revolutionize basketball and the American landscape. It was still a time of innocence in the United States, yet the country was on the verge of major social changes when Haskins decided to play an all-African-American opening lineup at the NCAA championships against the all-white juggernaut of the University of Kentucky Wildcats. Haskins did it to win. But his bold decision would help break down barriers of segregation that affected every segment of society and set a new course for the future as his team did the one thing they could to prove themselves to a watching world: the played their hearts out.

The official website for Glory Road has multiple categories to look through including about the film. Click on the following links for more resources and information on the movie as well as reviews: Wikipedia, Internet movie databata (imdb), Yahoo! movies, Rotten Tomatoes, NY Times, Houston Chronicle, Roger Ebert, Fandango, Moviefone, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, Rolling Stone, Variety

Trivia:

• Ben Affleck was originally set to play Don Haskins, but pulled out of the project due to scheduling conflicts.
• Josh Lucas gained forty-three pounds to play Coach Don Haskins.
• Former coach Don Haskins was cast as an extra in the film as the gas station attendant.
• Chicago Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich was offered a part in the movie, but had to turn it down due to schedule conflicts.
• One of the sequences in the "historical" footage at the beginning of the movie is a computer generated shot made for Apollo 13.
• The technical adviser for the basketball scenes was USC head coach Tim Floyd, who was chosen because of his closeness to the film's subject, Don Haskins. During the 1980s, Floyd was Haskins' top assistant coach at UTEP (formerly Texas Western). His father, Lee Floyd, was a longtime coach and also a former Texas Western basketball player.
• Cameo: Don Haskins playing a gas station attendant on the recruiting trip.
  Prosthetic ears, cheeks, and nose was added to Jon Voight to make his angular face more rounded like Coach Rupp.
• The photo shown at the end of the movie is a photo of the real 1965-66 Texas Western team, rather than of the actors playing those parts in the film.

Reel Thoughts entertainment rating: 4/5
Reel Thoughts award-worthy rating: 3.5/5