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| Would this have been possible ... |
The
Ramblers’ victory that year wasn’t so much that they beat the University of
Cincinnati in the championship game. But it was their matchup against Mississippi
State University that gets them their moment of glory.
THAT’S
BECAUSE THE Ramblers had an all-black starting five at a time when some people
thought they were doing black people a favor by letting a few of them play.
When
they beat a segregated team (despite the efforts of political officials to
prevent the game from ever occurring), it became a big deal for reasons that go
beyond the court.
The
“Game of Change,” as the 61-51 victory over Mississippi State came to be known,
is the reason that the Loyola team – as a unit – will be inducted next month
into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Like
I wrote earlier, the county board came up with their own resolution, which they
presented to one-time Loyola center Rich Rochelle.
COUNTY
COMMISSIONER DEBORAH Sims, D-Chicago, went so far as to praise Rochelle and his
teammates, saying, “if that (the Loyola victory) had not happened, we would not
have had our Michael Jordan or Scottie Pippen.”
She
extended the thought to the present, saying, “We might not have D-Rose now,”
referring to Bulls’ recovering-from-injuries star Derrick Rose.
Which
might mean our Chicago Bulls might be even more of a dreadful team than they
have been for much of their five decades of existence. Just think of how nasty
the Chicago sporting experience would have been in recent years if not for that
brief taste in the 1990s of New York Yankees-like dominance over a sport that the Bulls gave us with two three-straight runs of NBA titles.
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| ... without this? |
For
his part, county Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston, recalled following
the ’63 Ramblers, remembering that the championship game wasn’t even televised
live in the Chicago market (quite a difference from today’s broadcast
juggernaut that is the Division 1 NCAA basketball tourney).
THERE
WAS A delayed television broadcast, although Suffredin recalls word of the
Loyola victory slipping out prematurely. “Everybody on the North Side who heard
the screams coming from the campus probably figured out that something good had
happened,” he said.
County
Commissioner John Daley, D-Chicago, took the moral high ground; saying at one
point that a Loyola victory with an overwhelmingly African-American roster (a
term no one would have used at the time) was something that needed to be experienced.
“It
is a sad commentary on where we were,” Daley said, of the segregated ways of
the past. “It is something we should not forget.”
Although
despite the efforts of political people to dominate the scene, it may well have
been Rochelle who was most eloquent –even though he tried to describe himself
as, “a man of few words.”
AS
HE PUT it, “At the time we played, you have to understand the world we existed
in.”
In
a condition when maybe a sports starting lineup could have a black player (with
maybe another on the bench), a team with four starting players and a fifth who
also saw significant playing time, “was unheard of.”
Yet
Rochelle said he and his teammates were less concerned about revolutionary
racial acts and were more concerned about how their actions would be perceived
by others – particularly if that perception would be seen as negative.
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| The Ramblers have accomplished something no other Division 1 Illinois school has |
“We
didn’t expect to be in the national limelight,” he said. “We just wanted to
represent Chicago well.”
IT
COULD BE argued they did exactly that – even if the ultimate outcome for Loyola
was so unique. After all, they won.
While
also creating a moment that forevermore brings some pride to our city; even if
it leaves DePaul Blue Demons basketball fans (and fans of the 1979 team that
fell just short) seething with a touch of envy.
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