This undated file photo from the early 1960's, features Mississippi State University basketball coach Babe McCarthy, left, and basketball player Jack Berkshire. Three times ? in 1959, 1961 and 1962 ? Mississippi State was forced by segregation laws to turn down invitations to play in the NCAA tournament. In 1963, the team disregarded the state law and sneaked out of town to play.
On March 15, 1963, Babe McCarthy, the Mississippi State basketball coach had just arrived in Detroit in time for his team to play Loyola University in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. James Harrison "Babe" McCarthy's all-white team had to sneak out of Starkville to deny an unwritten rule in Mississippi from playing integrated teams because Loyola had four black players.
It was only 6 months earlier that James Meredith had successfully integrated Ole Miss in Oxford, on October 1, 1962, and inflamed the nation on racism and highten the tension in Mississippi.
But you had to know the ...