It is remembered as the college sports season that broke racial barriers: the Loyola Ramblers basketball team of 1963, the NCAA championship team.
The documentary about that time, “The Loyola Project,” is premiering next week.
“There was a trip down to Houston in 1963 that was very difficult,” director Patrick Creadon said.
“They were in an arena that was extremely hostile to them because there were four Black starters on their team. That broke the unwritten rule at the time that a coach could never play more than three Black starters.”
There was taunting, and there were death threats in that season of ’63.
Lucas Williamson, an African American who is co-captain of today’s Loyola men’s basketball team, is the film’s narrator and co-writer.
He said the project has given him a great appreciation for the trailblazers who came up in a more difficult era. By comparison, he said, “I have to focus and basketball. That’s all I have to focus on.”
“The Loyola Project” premieres Monday night on the CBS Sports Network.
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