MORE: Sports pioneers | Texas Western honored in Feb.
The broadcast will start at 7:30 p.m. ET and will include analysis from ESPN personalities and David Lattin, who started at center for Texas Western (now UTEP) in the game on March 19, 1966, at Cole Field House in College Park, Md. The game has long been considered a landmark. It featured Texas Western’s all-black starting lineup against Kentucky’s all-white team led by legendary coach Adolph Rupp. Texas Western, coached by Don Haskins, won 72-65, becoming the first school to win a national title with five black starters.
The Southeastern Conference’s color line was broken the next year when Perry Wallace played for Vanderbilt. Kentucky’s first African-American player was Tom Payne in 1971.
