And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Basketball Game That Changed American Sports (Paperback)

by Frank Fitzpatrick (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Brilliant."?ESPN.com (ESPN.com )

"Social change comes in unexpected increments?like the 1966 NCAA men''s basketball tournament. The 72?65 victory by Texas Western over Kentucky had tremendous social symbolism: Texas Western (today the University of Texas, El Paso) started five black players?the first such occurrence in an NCAA championship?and they thoroughly outplayed the all-white Kentucky squad, coached by Adolph Rupp, collegiate sports'' intransigent exemplar of white supremacy."?New York Times Book Review (New York Times Book Review )

"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 apologists?some of his former players try to soft-pedal his interdict on nonwhite players?he 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 (Kirkus Reviews )

About the Author

Frank Fitzpatrick is a sportswriter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Product Details Paperback: 264 pages Publisher: Bison Books (September 1, 2000) Language: English ISBN-10: 0803269013 ISBN-13: 978-0803269019 Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #438,055 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in these categories: (What's this?) #43 in  Books > Sports > Basketball > College & University #52 in  Books > History > United States > State & Local > Kentucky

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Citations (learn more)

4 books cite this book:

• Sport and the Color Line: Black Athletes and Race Relations in Twentieth Century America by Patrick Miller on page 250, and Back Matter
• Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure by Alexander Wolff in Back Matter
• Same Knight, Different Channel: Basketball Legend Bob Knight at West Point and Today by Jack Isenhour on page 7
• Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure by Alexander Wolff in Back Matter

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	83% buy the item featured on this page: And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Basketball Game That Changed American Sports 2.8 out of 5 stars (4) $16.95
	6% buy And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: Kentucky, Texas Western, and the Game That Changed American Sports 3.3 out of 5 stars (6)
	4% buy Basketball's Biggest Upset: Texas Western Changed The Sport With A Win Over Kentucky In 1966 $15.95
	3% buy Haskins: The Bear Facts $14.95

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4 Reviews 5 star:    (0) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review 2.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 9 of 12 people found the following review helpful: 4.0 out of 5 stars Why the dunk was outlawed, January 12, 2001 By  C. David Eagle (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews This is the best book available on the monumental historic 1966 NCAA men's basketball championship of Texas Western, the first team to start 5 blacks in the Final Four. It is very well researched, with an extensive bibliography. The civil rights impact is well dealt with, as are the racial attitudes of several of the major players. The Kentucky coach, Adolph Rupp, is treated fairly and the reader is left to make his own decision about his character. This is tricky to handle, because his attitudes had to be presented on a backdrop of his times and environment. I have two minor criticisms of the book, which prevent me from awarding it 5 stars. The first is that the racial attitudes of Don Haskins, the Texas Western coach, were not clearly portrayed. We are left with the impression that he cared about the game more than anything, and we know that he was a little bit country, but we never really find out whether he harbored any prejudices. Second, while the race issue is well dealt with by Fitzpatrick, he does not deal in depth with the problem with gentlemen's agreements. This refers, for example, to the rule of thumb "2 at home, 3 on the road, 4 when behind" that apparently many coaches used to define their quota for black players. A discussion of this, including who knew about these agreements and how widespread was their impact, would definitely have been in order in this book which is trying to place that basketball game in its spot in history. 4 of 5 people found the following review helpful: 3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting topic, but not a quick read, October 20, 2003 By  George (Martinsville, Va United States) - See all my reviews The author has researched well this game in 1966, but the writing leaves a little to be desired. I felt the author could have done a better job of caputring the players as charachters in the book rather than just topics of a history paper. 1.0 out of 5 stars Talk about playing the race card for $$$$$$$$- Exploitation!, March 17, 2005 By  John L. Guidry "G man" (new orleans) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    This was two groups of young men playing for their love of the game not some social agenda. Their biggest concern was basketball, chicks, food and cars and not necessarily in that order. The author is playing into the hands of todays political agenda and totally left out that the fact the Pat Riley, a very reliable and respected source, said that Lattin called him a honky during the game. That is just part of the game on both sides to get into other players'heads and that does not make Lattin a black racist and the history of the game in retrospect does not make Rupp a racist. Rupp gets vilified unfairly just as the Texas Western kids gets glorified too much. Loyola won the title with 4 blacks years earlier yet they get no respect for being instrumental in using black players because they happened to have one white player. Nobody buys that nonsense that people thought you needed one white- 4 blacks and your star is black was the real major breakthrough. Like some white roll player really made all the difference- nobody was that nieve. And what about San Francisco, and Cincinnati who's superstars were black? They were ther true pioneers. Bill Russell was the man!!		Ad feedback   Most Recent Customer Reviews 3.0 out of 5 stars An Inspirational Read The Walls Came Tumbling Down is the true story of a group of men who changed the face of sport. Coach Adolph Rupp defied the status quo and changed the face of basketball by... Read more Published on July 31, 2006 by John P. Daly Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803269013
• ISBN-13: 978-0803269019
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #438,055 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #43 in	Books > Sports > Basketball > College & University
  #52 in	Books > History > United States > State & Local > Kentucky

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Why the dunk was outlawed, January 12, 2001

By	C. David Eagle (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This is the best book available on the monumental historic 1966 NCAA men's basketball championship of Texas Western, the first team to start 5 blacks in the Final Four. It is very well researched, with an extensive bibliography. The civil rights impact is well dealt with, as are the racial attitudes of several of the major players. The Kentucky coach, Adolph Rupp, is treated fairly and the reader is left to make his own decision about his character. This is tricky to handle, because his attitudes had to be presented on a backdrop of his times and environment.

I have two minor criticisms of the book, which prevent me from awarding it 5 stars. The first is that the racial attitudes of Don Haskins, the Texas Western coach, were not clearly portrayed. We are left with the impression that he cared about the game more than anything, and we know that he was a little bit country, but we never really find out whether he harbored any prejudices.

Second, while the race issue is well dealt with by Fitzpatrick, he does not deal in depth with the problem with gentlemen's agreements. This refers, for example, to the rule of thumb "2 at home, 3 on the road, 4 when behind" that apparently many coaches used to define their quota for black players. A discussion of this, including who knew about these agreements and how widespread was their impact, would definitely have been in order in this book which is trying to place that basketball game in its spot in history.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting topic, but not a quick read, October 20, 2003

By	George (Martinsville, Va United States) - See all my reviews

The author has researched well this game in 1966, but the writing leaves a little to be desired. I felt the author could have done a better job of caputring the players as charachters in the book rather than just topics of a history paper.

1.0 out of 5 stars Talk about playing the race card for $$$$$$$$- Exploitation!, March 17, 2005

By	John L. Guidry "G man" (new orleans) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This was two groups of young men playing for their love of the game not some social agenda. Their biggest concern was basketball, chicks, food and cars and not necessarily in that order. The author is playing into the hands of todays political agenda and totally left out that the fact the Pat Riley, a very reliable and respected source, said that Lattin called him a honky during the game. That is just part of the game on both sides to get into other players'heads and that does not make Lattin a black racist and the history of the game in retrospect does not make Rupp a racist. Rupp gets vilified unfairly just as the Texas Western kids gets glorified too much. Loyola won the title with 4 blacks years earlier yet they get no respect for being instrumental in using black players because they happened to have one white player. Nobody buys that nonsense that people thought you needed one white- 4 blacks and your star is black was the real major breakthrough. Like some white roll player really made all the difference- nobody was that nieve. And what about San Francisco, and Cincinnati who's superstars were black? They were ther true pioneers. Bill Russell was the man!!