Loyola Ramblers 1963 Champs

Three years before Texas Western won the NCAA championship with an all-black starting lineup, Loyola University (Chicago) won the 1962-63 title and ushered in a new era of racial equality in college basketball. Coach George Ireland’s teams played as many as four African-American players at a time in an era when no team would play more than three. In the spring of ’63, Loyola faced an all-white Mississippi State in the regional semifinal. Despite protests from the governor and state police of Mississippi, the game went ahead as planned. Loyola beat Mississippi State and went on to the championship game, in which Loyola started four black players and Cincinnati started three, the first time that a majority of African-Americans participated in the NCAA championship game.