III 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 194 

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. 

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; 


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•SRES 194 IS 

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 AfricanAmerican 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 


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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 


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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 AfricanAmerican 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 


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championship, making the 1963 Ramblers the first whole 

team ever to be honored in the Hall of Fame: Now, 

therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) congratulates Coach George Ireland and the 

3 1963 Loyola University Chicago men’s basketball 

4 championship team on their induction into the Na5 tional Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame; 

6 (2) honors the 50th anniversary of the historic 

7 Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association 

8 championship of the Loyola University Chicago 

9 men’s basketball team and the profound athletic and 

10 civil rights achievements of the 1963 team; and 

11 (3) honors the 1963 Mississippi State Univer12 sity men’s basketball team for their bravery and 

13 sportsmanship in rejecting racism and aiding in the 

14 civil rights movement in the State of Mississippi and 

15 the southeastern United States. 

Æ 


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