Tyrone Bobby Joe Hill (June 12, 1943 – December 8, 2002) was an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player and was the leading scorer of the 1965–66 Texas Western College (now the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

) team, helping the Miners win the 1966 NCAA basketball championship. The victory is considered one of the most important wins in sports history – Texas Western started an all-black starting lineup, against the all-white University of Kentucky. Bobby Joe Hill was the 5'11 point guard from Highland Park, Michigan on the Texas Western college basketball team that won the national title in 1966. Texas Western's win over the top-ranked Kentucky team, nicknamed "Rupp's Runts," in the title game in College Park, Maryland, is considered one of the most historic games in the annals of college basketball. The school's all-black starting five defeated a white Kentucky team, 72–65. Bobby Joe Hill was one of the most prominent players on the court. In the first half, he stole the ball from both

Louie Dampier Louis Dampier (born November 20, 1944) is an American retired professional basketball player. A 6-foot-tall guard, Dampier is one of only a handful of men to play all nine seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) (1967–1976), all w ...

and

Tommy Kron Thomas M. Kron (February 28, 1943 – November 29, 2007) was an American former professional basketball player. A 6ft 5in guard, Kron, played his rookie season (1966–1967) with the St. Louis Hawks. He was drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics in ...

twice within the span of a minute and converted both steals into easy layups. He led all scorers with twenty points, and his plays were complemented by talented teammates

Harry Flournoy Harry Flournoy Jr. (December 10, 1943 – November 26, 2016) was an American college basketball player, originally from Gary, Indiana. Family life Flournoy was born on December 10, 1943 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Early in his childhood his f ...

Nevil Shed Nevil Shed (born April 26, 1943) is an American former basketball player. He attended Morris High school in 1962.http://alumniweb.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=739 He was a member of the Texas Western Miners (now named University of Texas at El Paso ...

David Lattin David Lattin (born December 23, 1943) is an American former basketball player. He was the starting center for the Texas Western Miners in their NCAA championship year in 1966. During his playing career, he was listed at 6 feet 6 inches tall a ...

, and

Willie Worsley Willie James Worsley (born November 13, 1945) is an American former professional basketball player who was one of the guards for the Texas Western Miners basketball team during their now-legendary 1966 NCAA championship game against Kentucky. Al ...

Don Haskins Donald Lee Haskins (March 14, 1930 – September 7, 2008), nicknamed "The Bear", was an American basketball player and coach. He played college basketball for three years under coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University). He w ...

coached Texas Western, and

Adolph Rupp Adolph Frederick Rupp (September 2, 1901 – December 10, 1977) was an American college basketball coach. He is ranked seventh in total victories by a men's NCAA Division I college coach, winning 876 games in 41 years of coaching at the Univ ...

directed Kentucky. The Miners' victory over the

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...

was a landmark event in the history of civil right and sports desegregation, comparable to

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

's baseball tenure with the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

, decisively proving that color of skin has no bearing on talent and ability. Of note is that Don Haskins and the entire Texas Western squad rose above racial threats, insults, vandalism, and violence throughout the 1965–1966 season to their against-all-odds triumph. Bobby Joe Hill stayed in El Paso after his Texas Western career, married his college sweetheart Waltina Malachi in 1966. He retired as an executive with El Paso Natural Gas, and died in 2002 of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

at age 59, the first player from the starting lineup to die. Bobby Joe Hill is interred at Restlawn Memorial Park in

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

.UTEP
/ref> The story of Bobby Joe Hill and the 1966 Texas Western national championship has been immortalized in the film '' Glory Road'', which was released in the U.S. in January, 2006, forty years after the "fabulous five" forever altered the landscape of college basketball.

Derek Luke Derek Nathanial Luke (born April 24, 1974) is an American actor. He won the Independent Spirit Award for his big-screen debut performance as the titular character in the 2002 film ''Antwone Fisher'', directed and produced by Denzel Washington. ...

was cast to play Bobby Joe in the movie.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Bobby Joe 1943 births 2002 deaths Basketball players from Michigan Hutchinson Blue Dragons men's basketball players Point guards UTEP Miners men's basketball players American men's basketball players 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American sportspeople