Glory Road Essay

Glory Road did a good job of showing Haskins relentless recruiting tactics and desire to win. He found good basketball players anywhere he could, discovering them in schoolyards in Detroit and New York. His will to win lead him to do anything that would make his team competitive, and the film even has a line where Haskins says, “To win you have to recruit. That’s how the big schools do it, and that is how we are going to do it” (Glory Road). He was a coach who set high expectations and worked his team and himself hard to reach his goals. He mimicked the things successful programs did to enhance his team, and his competitiveness lead him to only see basketball skill and talent regardless of race. Furthermore, another factual part of the film is that only Africa American athletes played in

Furthermore, coach Haskins did receive death threats in the mail and in person (Merron). He was threatened to not play any African American players or play them less, but thankfully he ignored them. Glory Road sticks to many actual events to tell the story of the 1966 Texas Western Men’s Basketball team.

While the film had the main details of the story correct, there were some liberties taken I the details. The movie showed coach Haskins as a strict coach who would push his players, but he was somewhat reasonable. This portrayal did not exactly depict how coach Haskins interacted with his players. He had a temper, worked them for hours without water breaks, and even ran them all night after a loss regardless of the fact they had a game the following day (Reid). Also, While the film did show a small glimpse of the players dislike for Haskins, it was much greater. “Players hated playing for him, but the moment the finished playing for him, they ended up, oftentimes, being lifelong friends” (Reid). In the moment, every player wished they had a different coach, but they all respected him, and the bonds