Movie Review of Glory Road
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Paul Krause
Dr. Kowalski
Sports
02 October 2011
Movie Review of Glory Road
At the beginning of the movie Glory Road directed by James Gartner, it showed Coach Haskins coaching a girls basketball team. Where he lead them to the championship game, and they went on to win. Later on in the movie Haskins is criticized for being a girls basketball coach (Gartner, 2006). Although according to ESPNs Merron (2006), “Haskins coached girls hoops at a couple of very small high schools But he was also coaching football and boys basketball at the same time.” (Early days: Haskins takes the helm section, para. 2).
When Coach Haskins is offered a much more significant job at Western Texas University, they tell him that it not much of a basketball school and they dont have much of a budget. Best of all Haskins would not earn a normal sized salary and he would be staying in the mens dorms (Gartner, 2006). If this were true, he may have stayed in the dorms to save money and keep his players disciplined, which was explained in the film (Gartner, 2006).
Many people started to become angry when they heard that Haskins started recruiting seven black players for the Miners team (Gartner, 2006). There were really seven blacks on the team, but Haskins wasnt the first Merron (2006), says “TW had been recruiting African-Americans since 1956, when the school signed Charlie Brown.” (Early days: Haskins Takes the Helm section, para. 6).
The movie shows that the coachs starting season first took place in 1965-1966 (Gartner, 2006). Although Haskins was first hired during 1961 which was when he actually started to attain players for his team (Early days: Haskins Takes the Helm section, para. 3). Also the Minors didnt exactly open with a flawless season as in the movie. In the Miners first season their score was actually 18-6 (Merron, 2006). This was the only major difference between the facts and the fictional events that took place.
As the season progresses the Minors victories have caused a lot of racism. The level of racism climaxes eventually to the point where the rooms of the players are torn up and the walls covered with less than pleasant remarks written in blood. Also later on two men jump Nevil Shed in a diner restroom and nearly bludgeon him to death (Gartner & Wilmington, 2006).
Increasingly frightened and feeling the burden on their shoulders, the team loses its last game of the regular season after the black players stop playing with passion and good team work. And so the Texas Western Miners finish their regular season of 1965-66 with a close to perfect 23-1 record. Ultimately they enter the 1966 NCAA tournament as the third