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Glory Road Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: PG (for racial issues including violence and epithets, and mild language) Genre: Drama, Sports Theater release: January 13, 2006 by Walt Disney Pictures Directed by: James Gartner Runtime: 1 hour 46 minutes Cast: Josh Lucas (Coach Don Haskins), Derek Luke (Bobby Joe Hill), Austin Nichols (Jerry Armstrong), Evan Jones (Moe Iba), Jon Voight (Adolph Rupp) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

It's 1966. Things are really heating up in Vietnam. Star Trek makes its TV debut. John Lennon declares the Beatles "more popular than Jesus." And relatively unknown Texas Western College is about to enter the history books—simply by putting black players on the court.

That's the premise of Glory Road, the story of the '66 Texas Western Miners, where rookie coach Don Haskins, a 35-year-old white man, dared to fill out his lineup with mostly African-American players. The team went on to win the national championship (that's no plot spoiler, by the way; the studio's official synopsis says so in the very first sentence), where Haskins made a bold statement by starting five black players in the title game against all-white Kentucky. It was an unprecedented move in a sport that, till then, was played mostly by whites at the major college level. In a decade where radicals were making the news, Haskins joined them in the headlines for his own brand of radicalism.

Josh Lucas plays Texas Western coach Don Haskins

One scene in Glory Road that typifies the film. It's late in the season, the team is on a roll, and during a shootaround in the gym, forward Willie Cager (Damaine Radcliff) collapses to the floor, holding his chest. We learn that Cager has been diagnosed with an enlarged heart—a condition he'd known about since high school, but never told Haskins (Lucas) for fear that he wouldn't be allowed to play.

Glory Road is a lot like that. It's a movie with a big heart, about young men showing a lot of heart, with a storyline that goes straight for the heart. It's the latest in Disney's successful string of inspiring films based on true sports stories—Miracle, Remember the Titans, The Rookie, and, most recently, The Greatest Game Ever Played. Some of those were forgettable, but others, like Titans and Rookie, are among the better sports films ever made. Count Glory Road among the latter.

But "inspiring" doesn't necessarily mean "warm and fuzzy." Like Remember the Titans, this is a story about breaking barriers in a climate of intense racism, and depicting those tensions is sometimes disturbing. When the Texas Western players return to their hotel after one road game, they find their rooms trashed, red paint splattered everywhere like so much blood, and hateful messages on the walls: "Niggers Die" and "Coons Go Home." There's a scene of three white men beating up a black player in a restroom. There's a scene where angry players discuss carrying guns and knives to protect themselves. There's a scene where Haskins' wife opens one of many threatening letters calling the coach a "nigger lover."

Derek Luke is excellent in the role of Bobby Joe Hill

The hateful sentiments even come from within their own community. Officials at Texas Western (now the University of Texas at El Paso) and Miners boosters are among Haskins' critics, voicing their concerns—often undiplomatically—over the new coach's decision to bring in seven black players. Even the players know the score; while being recruited in inner-city Detroit, Bobby Joe Hill—who would go on to become the Miners' star player—told Haskins he didn't want to be the "token Negro" who sits the bench. But Haskins, declaring "I don't see color, I see skill," promised Hill that he would play—and that there would be other African-Americans on the team as well.

As in Remember the Titans, it's a joy to watch the black and white players learn to overcome their differences and stereotypes, ultimately forming a camaraderie that will not only forge lasting friendships but also a more immediate goal—playing great basketball. Director James Gartner (not James Garner of Rockford Files fame) captures both—and more—with aplomb. The basketball action is exciting and believable, and the scenes of the building relationships are handled well—and with humor. When one white player says he's confused over the blacks' use of the word "bad," they explain that in their lingo, "bad" really means "good." The look of consternation on the white kid's face is priceless as he says, "Well, if 'bad' means 'good,' then what does 'good' mean?" Yuks all around.

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