Loyola also was leader in integrating basketball
Besides bringing joy and cheer to the Chicago area this basketball season, the Loyola basketball team back in the 1960s was a leader in the integration of the sport of basketball by shattering color barriers remaining in NCAA men's' basketball. Starting in 1961, coached by George Ireland, Loyola broke a long-standing unofficial agreement not to play three black players at any given time, playing as many as four black players on the court every game.
In the 1962-63 season, Coach Ireland started four black players in every game for the Loyola team. Also, in that season, Loyola became the first team in NCAA Division 1 history to play an all-black lineup in a game against Wyoming. In that same season in an NCAA tournament, Loyola defeated an all-white team of the segregated Mississippi State in a game notable in racial equality history because the Bulldogs at that time defied a state court order prohibiting them from playing a school with black players.
Later in 1963, Loyola shocked the nation, changing college basketball for all time, by starting four black players in the NCAA Championship game. The stunning upset of two-time defending NCAA Champion Cincinnati was the school's great achievement in Loyola's long struggle against racial inequality in men's college basketball. Also, 1963 was considered historic not only for the racial composition of the Loyola team, but also because Cincinnati had began its game with three black players, thereby making seven of the 10 starters black, advancing the cause of racial equality in college basketball. This is a great accomplishment the Loyola basketball team has given our society.
Stewart E. Brekke
Downers Grove