Glory Road - LaughingPlace.com Movie Guide
The True Story Behind Glory Road
In 1965, on the heels of the landmark Civil Rights Act passed by Congress, American sports were on the cusp of change - but they needed a bold catalyst. Basketball in particular was quickly gaining in popularity, speeding up and shifting in style, especially as new celebrity players such as Wilt Chamberlain were changing the face of the NBA. Yet there remained the question of finding the new talent that would fuel the game's future. The truth was that college basketball, like other collegiate activities, was still mired in unjust policies of segregation and racial inequality - and opportunities were still being denied to some of the country's most thrilling and undiscovered athletic talents.
Don Haskins, who was just another tough-talking, hard-driving high-school basketball coach, seized the opportunity to fulfill his personal quest to become a champion when Texas Western hired as their coach. To create a team with the greatest chance at victory, Haskins believed he should recruit the best raw talent he could - no matter what their race, background or life story.
As early as the late 1950s Texas Western University (now renamed University of Texas El Paso) began to offer athletic scholarships to a limited number of African American players. In the 1960s, that policy was kicked into high gear by Haskins, who despite being a complete unknown, came to Texas Western ready to prove himself as a coach of unique vision.
Searching for authentic talent and the hunger to win, Haskins aggressively recruited in a color-blind fashion, heading into the inner cities of Detroit and New York, where basketball was still a hotly contested, up-tempo street game. Ultimately, Haskins forged an integrated team that was, in a rare change for a Southern university, predominantly black. Once he had assembled his explosively talented but inexperienced team, Haskins drove his athletes with his notoriously tough but heartfelt coaching methods to give every game -- and every challenging situation in their lives -- their all.
In 1966, Haskin's and the team's brutally hard work began to pay off big-time. In an incredible season of victories, the Miners won 27 games and lost just one, the same record as their equally fierce rivals in the NCAA championships: the all-white University of Kentucky Wildcats. As the championship game got under way, in front of packed stands and a national television audience, Haskins made a decision that would alter everything: he chose to play an all-black starting lineup. Though the Miners were considered a long shot, their tenacious rebounds, precision shooting and unflagging spirit spurred them to a victory so stirring that no one who saw it would ever forget it.
The amazing triumph did more than excite the fans. It helped shift the national perception of African American athletes and bring about the widespread desegregation of college sports. In turn, the desegregation of sports helped to spread greater equality throughout American society. Haskins, who continued to be an inspirational and winning coach, became a hero. Admired by his peers for his courage and his larger-than-life personality he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1997.
Yet few people today know the story of Don Haskins and the dream-come-true NCAA victory - a story that producer Jerry Bruckheimer felt was one of the great classics of American history when he first heard about it years ago from NBA star Pat Riley. When Bruckheimer had the opportunity to obtain the rights to Haskins' story, he was thrilled to bring this largely unknown tale of courage and grit to the screen.
"What's so interesting about Don Haskins is that he wasn't looking to make any kind of statement. He simply was driven to win,� says Bruckheimer. "Yet in making winning his priority, he changed history. Prior to Haskins' heartfelt decision to have an all African American starting line-up at the championship game, there were many opportunities missed by gifted athletes. Haskins' actions inspired a lot of players to go on and have illustrious NBA careers. He was an amazing person who had an indelible impact on a lot of lives.�
Bruckheimer continues: "I think this is an especially important story to tell today because a lot of kids no longer realize how hard the players and coaches in the 60s had to fight to bring them the incredible opportunities that exist now.�
In developing the story of the 1966 NCAA championship into a feature film, Bruckheimer always saw it as much being much broader than simply a "sports drama.� He saw it as being about the human drive to excel.
"Don Haskins is a fascinating character: a hard-charger and a tough personality who demanded a lot from the people around him,� observes Bruckheimer. "He understood something very key - which is that to become a champion it takes a lot of character and a lot of hard work. That is what lies at the heart of this story,� says Bruckheimer.
Bruckheimer's production team was equally excited by the material. "We felt that any story that was so inspirational, surprising and true would resonate deeply with audiences,� says executive producer Mike Stenson. Adds executive producer Chad Oman, "There are a few iconic moments in sports that made a difference in history - and this is one of them. But it's also a very human story about a young coach who came out of nowhere and discovered he had something great to give.�
Executive producer Andy Given, who grew up in El Paso and knew Don Haskins and his family, saw the film as a dream come true. "I have wanted to see this movie made since I was a kid,� he says. "I always knew it would make a great movie - it was a moment that became almost a kind of emancipation proclamation for sports -- but it took someone of Jerry Bruckheimer to get it made.�
When director James Gartner came on board, he too began to see Haskins story in a larger light. "The real story of GLORY ROAD is what happens off the basketball court,� notes Gartner. "One of the original players from the team once said ‘We didn't break down all the doors, but we opened some' and that is why this story is so important to tell.�
Bruckheimer had been chasing after Gartner to make a feature film for years, having been highly impressed with Gartner's directorial work in advertising. The veteran producer believed Gartner had the right sensibilities for GLORY ROAD's mix of 60s innocence, hard-charging sports action and moments of human inspiration. "James has been directing touching, wonderful commercials for years, and he has a real moral vision matched the story. He also has very unique visual style, that is really important to this picture because it combines authenticity, heart and humor,� says Bruckheimer.
When Bruckheimer approached him, Gartner had never even heard of Don Haskins, but he soon was completely taken with his story. "For me it wasn't just another script, but a true story about an important time in America's history,� he says.
For Gartner, tackling a real page out of recent U.S. history in his first outing as a film director was a thrilling challenge. "The journey of making GLORY ROAD has been incredibly rewarding,� he says. "Obviously we took some artistic license as this isn't intended to be a biopic, but nevertheless I felt a tremendous responsibility to capture the true essence of Haskins' story. This story is beloved by so many from the streets of El Paso where it took place, to parents telling their children the tale as a bedtime story. Just as Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, in many ways Don Haskins and his team did the same for basketball.�
Recreating the Game That Changed Everything
The story of GLORY ROAD culminates in a pivotal scene for which Jerry Bruckheimer and James Gartner marshaled all their artistic resources - the 1966 NCAA championship game that changed history and was the pinnacle of all that Don Haskins hoped to achieve. The game had to be at once authentic and exciting, full of both the palpable tension and poetry in motion that made the David-and-Goliath match-up a nail-biting classic.
The production began by tracking down rare homemade footage that still existed of the game, as well as photographs from Texas Western yearbooks and over 30 priceless rolls of photographic film shot by Sports Illustrated. These helped to give the filmmakers a richer visual perspective of what happened during the game and what it looked like to the world.
Collaborating closely with directors of photography John Toon and Jeffrey Kimball, Gartner hoped to capture in the game both an authentic essence of 1966 - as well as dynamic basketball moves that would speak to today's love of slick, fast-paced, tightly competitive action.
Attempting to shoot the beloved game with fresh eyes, the camera team used a number of innovative rigs to follow the action first hand - and sometimes used as many as five cameras at once. Kimball notes, "We rigged a ‘flying camera' above the basketball court sidelines that could slide on a thick wire as fast as gravity. We also built a skateboard dolly to capture action low to the court floor, and a rickshaw type of rig so you could literally run up and down the court with the players. These techniques, along with cameras on cranes that looked right down into the basketball hoop, provided us with some very exciting footage.�
Meanwhile, production designer Geoffrey Kirkland was also faced with the task of bringing to life mid-60s college life in all his designs for GLORY ROAD. He worked closely with the art department in re-creating the stadium atmosphere, right down to the signage and banners that were exact replicas of those used during the game. Even the old-fashioned electronic scoreboards were duplicated.
Gartner wanted the overall color palate of the film to feel very primal and earthy, echoing the environs of El Paso with its vibrant Mexican heritage. But he also wanted Kirkland to imbue the film with a fun sense of nostalgia. "When you remember things from the past, those memories are influenced by old photographs and old pictures that are not colorful. We wanted to capture that kind of black and white, sepia feeling but without ever being drab,� says Kirkland.
Because of scheduling delays due to the looming Hurricane Ivan, a location for the big game had to be found at the spur of the moment. The filmmakers settled on a livestock show arena at the Louisiana State University campus in Baton Rouge. The floor of the arena was dirt, so Kirkland constructed his own vintage basketball court made of wood. By this point, he had become an expert in converting modern gymnasiums back to a 60s period look - and had even forged a special "traveling� wood floor that could be quickly installed in different arenas for scenes of the Miners on the road.
Kirkland knew that every detail would count. "In other sports, arenas tend to be so huge so you can hide things seen in the background,� he observes, "but a basketball arena is like a small theater in the round. You can see everything. It is very intimate.�
Comments Jerry Bruckheimer: "It was really important to me that the film capture 1966 very authentically. Geoffrey Kirkland did a superb job as production designer and brought a lot of high-quality realism to the film.�
Also adding to the realism was the period clothing designed by costume designer Alix Friedberg. Friedberg focused not only on the vintage basketball uniforms but also the more formal clothing of those watching in the stands, right down to thick-rimmed black glasses for the men, cat-eyed style glasses for the ladies, dazzling vintage jewelry, high-heeled pumps, and brown leather loafers.
Friedberg was especially thrilled to have people who were there to witness the event giving her first-hand information. "From Don Haskins himself to the library at Texas El Paso, everyone just opened their doors to us. We were so fortunate to have this authentic information to create from,� says Friedberg.
Friedberg and Gartner made the unusual decision to have the Miners' uniforms evolve during the course of the film, the colors becoming richer and warmer as the young men develop their unsinkable bonds as a team and work against the odds towards victory. They started with the authentic 1966 Texas Western uniform.
"I was so lucky because one of the players still had his original jersey from 1966 and let me borrow it to track down the mill that created the fabric,� explains the production designer. "The mill was more than cooperative and they dusted off the machines they hadn't used for over thirty years and recreated the original jerseys for our movie. They used the exact yarn, the same pattern. Seam for seam they are perfect replicas.�
The resulting uniforms were a surprise to contemporary fans of the NBA. Says Jerry Bruckheimer, "When you look at the player uniforms from GLORY ROAD you suddenly realize how wardrobe has changed for basketball in the last 40 years. There was nothing oversized. Things fit snug back then right down to the Chuck Taylor Classic Converse's.�
The challenges of going back in time also extended to the prop department, which had to make sure that even the concession cups would resemble the Coca-Cola design of 1966 and that the floor reporters would be tapping away on authentic Royal and Smith-Corona typewriters. Every detail was straight out of an old newsreel depicting the historic championship game.
How real did the GLORY ROAD set ultimately feel? Coach Pat Riley, formerly of the Los Angeles Lakers and now President of the Miami Heat, who had played for the Kentucky Wildcats in the 1966 championship game, said he felt catapulted back in time when he visited the set. Riley comments: "It was clear from the moment they walked on the court the Miners had presence. More presence than us Wildcats. This is what won them the game. Coming to the set of GLORY ROAD was the first time I had met Don Haskins. It was strange and wonderful exchanging stories about the game almost forty years later. It was like it had happened yesterday.�
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Posted: 5/23/12
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