S.Res. 194 — Introduced in Senate

III 113th CONGRESS 1st Session S. RES. 194 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES July 10, 2013 Mr. Kirk (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Cochran, and Mr. Wicker) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary RESOLUTION Congratulating the 1963 men's basketball team of Loyola University Chicago on its induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, the 50th anniversary of the team's Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball championship, and the team's historic NCAA tournament game against Mississippi State University. Whereas, in 1963, Coach George Ireland led the men's basketball team of Loyola University Chicago (referred to in this preamble as the Ramblers) to the Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association (referred to in this preamble as the NCAA) men's basketball championship; Whereas the Ramblers lost only 2 games during the 1962–1963 season and led the Nation in scoring with an average of 91.8 points per game; Whereas Coach Ireland and the Loyola University men's basketball teams of the early 1960s are considered by many to be responsible for ushering in a new era of racial equality in the sport by shattering major racial barriers in NCAA men's basketball; Whereas, in 1963, the Ramblers shocked the Nation and changed college basketball forever by starting 4 African-American players in the NCAA tournament, as well as the championship game; Whereas it is difficult to appreciate what Coach Ireland and his team went through, starting in 1961, in breaking what had been a longstanding gentleman’s agreement to play not more than 3 African-American players; Whereas, during the 1962–1963 season, Coach Ireland started 4 African-American players in every game, and, in December 1962, the Ramblers became the first team in NCAA Division I history to have an all-African-American lineup in a game against the University of Wyoming; Whereas, despite their success during the 1962–1963 season, the players and Coach Ireland endured terrible bigotry, including racial taunts and abuse, and received countless pieces of hate mail from the Ku Klux Klan and other racist individuals, and all the while Coach Ireland tried to shield his team in every way possible; Whereas the men's basketball team of Mississippi State University (referred to in this preamble as the Maroons and now called the Bulldogs) won its second consecutive southeastern conference championship in 1963, but had been forced by the Governor of Mississippi not to accept NCAA tournament bids in the 3 previous seasons because of the inclusion of African-American players in the tournament; Whereas, before advancing to the championship round, the Ramblers participated in the NCAA Midwest regional semifinal against the Maroons, a landmark game often referred to half a century later as the Game of Change; Whereas Mississippi State University president Dean Colvard and athletic director and men’s basketball coach James Harrison Babe McCarthy bravely accepted the Maroons' 1963 NCAA tournament invitation against the wishes of the Governor of Mississippi; Whereas, determined to play in the regional semifinal, the Maroons snuck out of Mississippi in the middle of the night to avoid an injunction, and the integrated Ramblers and the all-white Maroons met on the basketball court at Michigan State University on March 15, 1963; Whereas, with police surrounding the sports complex in East Lansing, Michigan, the Ramblers went on to defeat the Maroons in a competitive game by a score of 61 to 51 in the regional semifinal, a game that changed race relations on the basketball court forever and was selected by the NCAA in 2006 as one of the 25 defining moments in the first 100 years of the organization; Whereas the Ramblers went on to win games against the University of Illinois and Duke University before defeating the 2-time defending NCAA champion University of Cincinnati in overtime by a score of 60 to 58, the crowning achievement in Loyola University Chicago's nearly decade-long struggle with racial inequality in men's college basketball, highlighted by the tumultuous events of the 1963 NCAA tournament; Whereas the Ramblers' 1963 NCAA title was historic not only for the racial makeup of the Ramblers, but also because the University of Cincinnati had started 3 African-American players, making 7 of the 10 starters in the 1963 NCAA championship game African-American; Whereas the city of Chicago has many storied sports teams, but the Ramblers basketball team of 1963 and Coach Ireland hold an exalted place because they are the only NCAA Division I Illinois basketball team to win a national championship and because they paved the way for the long overdue integration of races in college basketball before the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Public Law 88–352; 78 Stat. 241); Whereas all 5 starting players from the national championship game graduated from Loyola University with a degree, and several went on to earn advanced degrees in law and business; Whereas the journey of the Ramblers is not just the story of an underdog team overcoming great odds to beat the favored team from the University of Cincinnati, a much larger basketball program that held the number 1 ranking and had won the previous 2 national championships; Whereas the real significance of Coach Ireland and the Ramblers is the lasting impact of their bravery in breaking the racial barrier in college basketball that had been allowed to prevail for decades; and Whereas the 2013 Hall of Fame induction season will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1963 Ramblers' basketball championship, making the 1963 Ramblers the first whole team ever to be honored in the Hall of Fame: Now, therefore, be it That the Senate— (1) congratulates Coach George Ireland and the 1963 Loyola University Chicago men's basketball championship team on their induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame; (2) honors the 50th anniversary of the historic Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association championship of the Loyola University Chicago men's basketball team and the profound athletic and civil rights achievements of the 1963 team; and (3) honors the 1963 Mississippi State University men's basketball team for their bravery and sportsmanship in rejecting racism and aiding in the civil rights movement in the State of Mississippi and the southeastern United States.