Inside Pulse Review – Glory Road

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(Credit: www.impawards.com)

Director:

James Gartner

Cast:

Josh Lucas……….Coach Don Haskins
Derek Luke……….Bobby Joe Hill
Al Shearer……….Nevil Shed
Mehcad Brooks……….Harry Flournoy
Damaine Radcliff……….Willie Cager
Emily Deschanel……….Mary Haskins
Austin Nichols……….Jerry Armstrong
James Olivard……….Louis Baudoin
Kip Weeks……….Togo Railey
Wes Brown……….Pat Riley
Jon Voight……….Coach Adolph Rupp

Walt Disney Pictures in association with Jerry Bruckheimer Films presents Glory Road. Written by Chris Cleveland and Gregory Allen Howard. Running time: 106 minutes. Rated PG (for racial issues including violence and epithets, and momentary language).

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Not to me, but to the NBA’s Houston Rockets. Back in December they were on their longest road trip for the season – six games in 11 days. Concerned about the hectic game scheduling Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy decided a surprise visit to Las Vegas would help the team relax in between games. Unfortunately, it seems that the NBA does not tolerate that type of behavior; the team was fined 100,000 dollars. A few days later, Stan Van Gundy, Jeff Van Gundy’s brother, resigned as the head coach for the Miami Heat. Pat Riley took over the coaching duties. Starting to see a pattern? When it rains, it pours.

The Rockets tried to make the best of their grueling road trip, but they were tired. When the team was in San Francisco and getting ready to board the bus for team practice, Van Gundy had another surprise for them. No practice, but rather an invite to a special screening of Glory Road. The reasoning? The coach thought they needed a break. And what better way than to have his team see Pat Riley and the Kentucky Wildcats lose to the Mighty Miners of Texas Western. Talk about karma.

Despite the Pat Riley reference, the Houston team saw the film for what it really was: a drama about teamwork, sportsmanship, and dedication.

Forty years ago Texas Western College made history. Not in the classroom, but on the basketball court. Under the guidance of Coach Don Haskins, his team of seven black players and five white players did the unimaginable. They won an NCAA National Championship. While a feat in itself that is only part of the story. The real story is how strangers from Illinois, Missouri, New York, of different race and ethnicities converged on the desert town of El Paso for the opportunity to show those other schools – schools that didn’t see what Coach Haskins could – what real basketball is all about.

Glory Road depicts the struggles and hardships the black players had to endure at the height of the civil rights movement. Race-motivated assaults, derogatory epithets, and vandalism, were but a few of the distractions Texas Western had to contend with as their national prominence grew. But in El Paso race was not an issue. Nine years earlier, in 1955, the school was the first in the state of Texas to integrate its undergraduate class. The problem was winning games. They needed a coach.

And who better than a straight-talking, tell-it-like-it-is coach known as “The Bear”.

Josh Lucas, who had the misfortune of being in Stealth, the biggest summer flop of 2005, stars as Coach Don Haskins. Sometimes referred to as Ben Affleck-lite, Lucas portrays Haskins with the sort of intensity that Affleck would have sorely lacked. Interestingly enough, Ben Affleck, who was once slated to play the part of Coach Haskins, had to bow out because of a scheduling conflict.

Before the film could begin production Josh Lucas had the chance to meet with the legendary coach. Haskins looked him over and admitted that his fictional self was too skinny to play the part. “You’re going to have to drink a little beer.” So Lucas did. Director James Gartner and his crew shot exteriors in El Paso, and the majority of the film in New Orleans. With the all the Cajun delicacies in New Orleans, Lucas did his best to beef up; he gained 35 pounds.

Coach Haskins is a by-the-book man as well as loving father and husband. On the basketball court it’s “play my way, or don’t play at all.” He stresses defense and rebounding as the keys to the game. But when one of his prospects Nevil Shed (Al Shearer) plays weak and isn’t strong on the boards, Haskins dismisses him. Shed returns the next day with more fire and intensity, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win.

Derek Luke, the breakout star of Antwone Fisher who played tailback James “Boobie” Miles in Friday Night Lights, is the team’s point guard Bobby Joe Hill. He is a bit of a showboat and his Harlem Globetrotter theatrics are enough to make Coach Haskins cringe. This, plus his antics in regards to the coach’s policy about late night parties and dating girls, is a surefire way to be the most detested member on the squad. But Hill is a natural born leader and the man is quick to realize that Haskins’ coaching strategy is not absolute. His suggestion to let the team play their style of b-ball is the key to winning or losing.

Joining Derek Luke is a diverse bunch of young actors. His teammates include Harry Flournoy (Mehcad Brooks), Willie Cager (Damaine Radcliff), Jerry Armstrong (Austin Nichols), and “white chocolate” Louis Baudoin (James Olivard) – a six-foot-seven white guy who likes to get down with rhythm and blues and eats chitlins.

In the realm of basketball-related sports dramas Hoosiers is at the top of the heap. Not surprisingly, Glory Road is another “based on a true story” tale that is worth a look. Even though it was normal to see a black player on a college team, it was the fact Coach Haskins played only his seven black players in its championship game against the all-white Kentucky Wildcats that makes it the most important college basketball game ever played.

While boosters and alumni objected to the use of “colored boys” as prominent players on the basketball squad, the coach did not back down. And over the course of the 1966 season those twelve men who walked into the confines of the Texas Western gymnasium as strangers built friendships not based on color, but rather on the respect they had for each other.

In the end, “The Bear” made all his naysayers eat their words.


The 1966 NCAA Champions

Front row, left to right: Bobby Joe Hill, Orsten Artis, Togo Railey, Willie Worsley
Middle row: David Palacio, Dick Myers, Harry Flournoy, Louis Baudoin
Back row: Nevil Shed, Jerry Armstrong, Willie Cager, David Lattin and Coach Don Haskins

(Both images courtesy of http://ia.utep.edu/gloryroad)

Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!