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Page A6
lanuary 25. 2006
S ports
Seahawksin Super Bowl
Joyous trip 30
years in the
making
The Seattle Seahawks will be
making their first appearance in
the Super Bowl against the Pitts
burgh Steelers in Detroit on Sun
day. Feb. 5.
The Seahawks earned their Su
per Bowl XL berth by outclassing
the Carolina Panthers, 34-tO-l4
to win the NFC championship
Sunday. Seahawks fans chanted
"Super Bowl, Super Bowl" as
Shaun A lexandercarried the NFC
championship trophy down the
field at Qwest Stadium in Seattle,
a joyous trip that was 30 years in
the making.
Alexander, a killer defense and
playing on a field where they
did n 't lose this season, all com
bined perfectly Sunday to help
the Seahawks rout the Panthers
in the NFC title game.
"I think we got people excited
Seattle Seahawks defensive ends Grant Wistrom, (left) and Bryce
Fisher celebrate their 34 -14 win over the Carolina Panthers Sunday about football again here in the
in Seattle in the NFC Championship football game. (AP photo)
Movie 'Glory Road' Documents
Texas Western’s Historic Win
1966 NCAA
champs broke
color barrier
(AP)— Don Haskinsdidn't real
ize the impact of what he had done
until a few days later. That's when
the letters started arriving. Thou
sands of them, mostly from the
South.
Almost all began the same way:
“Dear n------ lover:”
His Texas Western basketball
team had won the national champi
onship. But Haskins was no longer
in any mood to celebrate.
"The worst time of my life was
the next few weeks after we won the
national championship," Haskins
said. “It didn't really dawn on me
what this was all about until that
time.”
Haskins’ crime — an unpardon
able one incertain parts of the coun
try — was that he started five black
players against Kentucky's all-
white team in the NCAA final.
W orse yet, his players had
beaten the Wildcats 72-65 to be
come national champions.
It was 40 years ago, March 19,
1966, to be specific. America was a
different place then, and basketball
was a different game.
A world away, blacks were fight
ing and dying alongside their fel
low white soldiers in Vietnam. They
weren’t, however, playing basket
ball at many schools in the South,
where de facto segregation still
reigned.
Just two years earlier. President
Johnson had signed landmark civil
rights legislation prohibiting dis
crimination of any kind. But change
came slowly, even on the basket
ball court where ability was sup
posed to matter more than the color
of a player’s skin.
Haskins and his Miners weren’t
trying to change all of that when
they took the court against Ken
tucky in the national final, and the
argument could be made that they
really didn't. It would be another
season before a black player took
the court in the Southeastern Con
ference, and two more after that
before Kentucky's team was inte
grated.
Putting five black players on the
court wasn't meant as a statement
for racial equality. It was a lineup
Kobe Bryant goes to the hoop past Toronto defender Matt
Bonner on his way to scoring 81 points in the Lakers' 122-104
victory over the Raptors Sunday.
Kobe Hits Mind
Boggling 81 Points
Highest since Wilt Chamberlain
The Los Angeles Lakers' star
Kobe Bryant scored a staggering
81 points Sunday night against the
Toronto Raptors in a 122-104 win.
The mind-boggling high point
score has only been outdone by
retired Wilt Chamberlain's 100-
pointgam ein 1962.
By halftime. Bryant had 26
points, not a bad tally for most
players By the end of the game, he
had put up the second-highest to
tal in NBA history.
His response to how he did was.
"It just happened, man" Bryant
said. "To sit here and say I grasp
what happened, that would be ly
ing. No, even in my dreams."
The N B A s leading scorer left to
a standing ovation with 4.2 sec
onds remaining, having shot 28-of-
46 from the tloor. including 7-of-13
from 3-poin, range and 18-of-20from
the foul line.
With the fans at Staples Center
chanting “MVP! MVP!" Bryan,
made two free throws with 43.4 sec
onds remaining for his final points.
He scored 27 points in the third
quarter, 28 in the fourth.
put together to win a basketball
game.
"We had one goal,one objective
and tha) was to win the baskeball
game," said Harry Flournoy, aTexas
Western forward immortalized on
the cover of Sports Illustrated that
w eek b lo ck in g a shot from
Kentucky's Pat Riley (yes, that Pat
Riley).
"Glory Road” opened last week
end around the country, and
Haskins and his players say the
movie makers got most of it right.
The Seahawks' Shaun Alexander crosses into the end zone for a touchdown against the Carolina
Panthers during the fourth quarter Sunday. Seattle will be making their first appearance in the
Super Bowl against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Detroit on Sunday, Feb. 5. (AP photo)
Pacific N orthw est,” coach Mike
Holmgren said. “T hey’re all com
ing to D etroit with us, everybody
in the stadium ’s coming. They
were great for us all year. Home-
field advantage in this place
means everything."
In this case, it m eans the
Seahawks (15-3) will meet the
Pittsburgh Steelers, 34-17 win-
ners over Denver in the AFC, in lina stars Jake Delhomme and Steve
the Super Bowl. That game will be Smith into oblivion. "We have an
played in Detroit on Feb. 5 and unbelievable team, an unbelievable
the Steelers already are favored group of fans,” Alexander said.
"Prayer works. 1 get knocked out
by 3*/ î points.
Alexander, the league’s MVP, and guys step up. One guy goes
came back from last week’s con down and another guy steps up.”
cussion to rush for a team playoff- The Seahawks picked off three
record 132 yards and two touch passes in winning their 12th straight
downs, and Seattle pressured Caro- home game.
The movie
“Glory Road"
imparts a
sense o f what
it meant in
1966 to have
black players
outnumber
white players
on a college
basketball
team.