In a bit of sad news, Bobby
Joe Hill has died of a heart attack. For those of us who grew up in the
integrated era of basketball, the name is from the past, but he is the guy who
led Texas Western (now UTEP) to the title in 1966, defeating Adolph Rupp's
all-white Kentucky with an all-black starting lineup. His back-to-back
halfcourt strips of Pat Riley were an iconic moment in NCAA history, as dramatic
in their own right as Lorenzo Charles or Christian Laettner were in their
day. There was no question at that point who was going to win, but more
importantly, it symbolically drove
a nail into the coffin of segregated basketball.
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