Trailer
Plot summary
Don Haskins is a newly married man who coaches men's basketball at Texas Western College in El Paso, and his program has little money. He wants a team good enough to contend for a national championship, so he goes looking for the best players he can find, whatever their race. Some of the young men who come have skill but are raw at organized teamwork, at defense and at sharing the ball. The Miners he assembles number seven black athletes and five white ones, a mix that draws notice from the school's personnel. Haskins drives the players through a demanding training program, warning that anyone who does not work as hard as he demands will be cut, and he tries to shape them into one team.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Glory Road (2006)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In the film, East Texas State fans are shown throwing popcorn and drinks and yelling racial epithets at Texas Western; after verification that the events never took place, Texas A&M-Commerce asked for an apology, and Disney did not directly apologize but explained the movie was not a documentary.
- Ben Affleck was the original choice for the role of coach Don Haskins but had to drop out of the filming due to prior commitments, and NBA point guard Kirk Hinrich was offered a role but chose not to participate "because of time constraints".
- Dunking was banned in the NCAA from 1967 to 1976, not the least due to the success of the Texas Western team and UCLA player Lew Alcindor, better known later as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was just then becoming NCAA varsity eligible.
- The real-life Don Haskins was cast as an extra in his own film, playing a gas station attendant, and David Lattin was cast as an extra as a military bartender.
- The team was nominated in its entirety for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and was inducted on September 7, 2007, ten years after coach Don Haskins had already been enshrined.
- The movie skipped a crucial game: on March 18, 1966 the Miners defeated Utah 85-78 in the Final Four to reach the national championship game, and it also changes the real score during Hill's run of steals against Kentucky.
