Film tells the story of Loyola’s 1963 championship team and its impact – LimaOhio.com

Paul Sullivan: Lucas Williamson narrates The Loyola Project, a new documentary about the 1963 Loyola Ramblers and the fight against racial injustice

Paul Sullivan Chicago Tribune (TNS)

CHICAGO The best documentaries tell you stories you thought you knew and turn them on their head.

The Loyola Project is one of those films.

Thanks to the recent NCAA Tournament success of the Loyola Ramblers, the story of the 1963 mens team that broke racial barriers while winning the national championship has been retold a time or two over the last five years. The 63 Ramblers won behind a coach who ignored the unwritten rules of the era and started four Black players en route to the title, beating a Mississippi State team along the way that defied its states law prohibiting it from playing against integrated teams.

Its a history lesson that melds the sports world with the civil rights movement, a precursor to the real-life struggles against racial inequality that would play out across the nation during the 60s.

The film can be viewed at 7 p.m. March 10 at the Wexner Center on Ohio States main campus. It is also scheduled to be show Feb. 28 at Xavier University in Cincinnati and March 23 at Otterbein University in Westerville.

But The Loyola Project doesnt paint a picture of an avuncular coach fighting for social justice with a group of kids trying to change the world.

Loyolas George Ireland isnt portrayed as a progressive leader but as a regular, veteran coach trying the keep his job the only way he can by recruiting and playing the best players, regardless of race.

Similarly, Loyola players arent portrayed as social justice warriors but as a bunch of college kids trying to win together while navigating the obstacles created by their unique team makeup in tumultuous times.

Despite a similarly happy ending on the court, this is not Hoosiers. And its not a valentine to the university, which cooperated with the filmmakers but did not have any say in its making.

Chicago feted its championship team, the film shows, but eventually turned its back on some of the young men who made it happen. Jerry Harkness, the star of the 1963 team, tells the story of facing discrimination while trying to find an apartment in Chicago after returning to the city after graduation.

Current Ramblers star Lucas Williamson, who received his bachelors degree in journalism last year and is working on a masters degree in marketing, serves as the narrator and a co-writer of the documentary.

Much of the filming took place during the 2020 season that ended prematurely because of the COVID-19 pandemic and fortunately includes Harkness, who died last year.

The blatant racism from that period is explored repeatedly, including a segment on a trip to New Orleans during the 1962-63 season when the white players stayed in a downtown hotel while Black players stayed in private homes in the Algiers neighborhood.

Thats one of my favorite stories, Williamson said in a Chicago Tribune interview. They had to go down South and couldnt stay in the same hotel. Socially, that obviously bothers me. It doesnt make sense. But from a basketball standpoint, there are so many things we need to do as a team when we go on the road watching film, team meals, not to mention team bonding, just hanging out. Its crazy they had to stay in different places.

1963 Ramblers player Ron Miller says in the film that Ireland told players he didnt know about the decision to separate the team until the last minute, an excuse Miller still does not buy. After Loyola won, Ireland denounced New Orleans segregation laws and said the Ramblers would never return.

But it later was revealed Xavier University had offered Loyola the opportunity to house all its players together and that Ireland declined for unknown reasons.

Later in the film, Irelands daughter is shown with a manila envelope with the words Loyola HM on it. The HM stood for hate mail. The film explains that Ireland intercepted 300 pieces of hate mail sent to his players.

Harkness confirmed he received hate mail signed KKK at his dorm. He informed Ireland of the letters, prompting the confiscations of all mail sent to his players.

The filmmakers viewed some of the letters, but the Ireland family denied multiple requests to show any in the film and also declined to return them to the living players. Miller said he has never seen them, even though the players have the right to possess mail addressed to them.

Williamson suggests in the film that Ireland might have seen the letters as a distraction for the players. But he then adds that the problem is, Ireland didnt (move on), pointing out the coach hired security for his daughters but not the Loyola players being threatened.

Miller flatly states in the film Ireland was not interested in race relations and was just thinking about himself, his family and just winning basketball games. He added that he didnt hold that against the coach.

The segment on The Game of Change against Mississippi State doesnt reveal anything new but is the heart of the story and important to retell. And in giving some of the Mississippi State players a chance to provide their perspectives, the film shows how they also were thrown into a situation no one could prepare for. Like Loyolas players, they just wanted to play in March Madness.

The film also documents the bravery of Mississippi State coach Babe McCarthy and his players for sneaking out of the state to play in Michigan knowing they could be arrested. The team was treated like heroes upon its return to Mississippi, the film states.

Unfortunately, there was no available video of the game, but the black-and-white photo of Harkness shaking hands with the white Mississippi State captain at the start of the game says a thousand words.

I said this is more than a game, Harkness recalls in the film. This is history.

Its hard to believe this happened in our lifetime, but it did and deserves to be retold for future generations. Williamson doesnt sugarcoat things at the end of the film, rhetorically asking if the accomplishments of the 1963 team changed anything for Black Americans, then answering his question with two words: Its complicated.

There will always be more work to do, more unwritten rules to break, more ways to make the world better for the next generation, he says in the film.

Loyola coach George Ireland, right, talks to his player during the 1963 NCAA mens basketball national championship game against Cincinnati. Players, from left to right, are: John Egan, Vic Rouse, Jerry Harkness and Ron Miller.

Go here to see the original:
Film tells the story of Loyola's 1963 championship team and its impact - LimaOhio.com