"An admirably researched account of the barrier-shattering championship game that slam-dunked segregated college basketball. Outside of Jackie Robinson''s baseball debut, perhaps no single sporting event had so profound a social effect as the 1966 NCAA basketball championship. . . Fitzpatrick balances present-day interviews with the former players and surviving coaches with contemporaneous accounts to expose the sporting fraternity''s subtle and not-so-subtle biases. . . Defying stereotypes and shrugging off tremendous stress, the Miners controlled the game and won; it was the Wildcats who were flummoxed. The game''s ''message'' was lost on Rupp, who, despite a loss that would haunt him to his grave, remained steadfast in his defense of racial segregation and held out against recruiting black players until the 1970s. Although Rupp has his apologistssome of his former players try to soft-pedal his interdict on nonwhite playershe comes across as a small-minded bigot who set race relations in Kentucky back several years, if not decades. Fair but devastating in its portrait of persistent prejudice, this is a landmark account of a landmark event."Kirkus Reviews

The story of the 1966 NCAA championship final between the heavily favored, all-white University of Kentucky team, & the "No Names from Nowhere" all-black starting five of upstart Texas Western (now the University of Texas-El Paso). This book of sports & social history includes strong interviews & vividly detailed contemporary accounts.