Nevil Shed says his teammates were all so focused on playing basketball that they never thought about social impact.
They were 22-year-olds playing for Texas Western, making an improbable run to the NCAA national championship game.
It wasn’t until Shed looked around the arena that the realization hit him. The crowd was white. The media members were white. The referees were white. The opponents, the University of Kentucky, were all white.
Texas Western’s starting five was all black.
“I was a fly in a bottle of buttermilk,” he said.
On March 19, 1966, Shed and the Miners faced Kentucky, a team that had already won four championships under legendary coach Adolph Rupp.