IV 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 298 

Congratulating the 1963 men’s basketball team of Loyola University Chicago 

on its induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame 

and the 50th anniversary of the team’s Division I National Collegiate 

Athletic Association men’s basketball championship. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 11, 2013 

Mr. QUIGLEY (for himself, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mrs. BUSTOS, Mr. DANNY K. 

DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. DUCKWORTH, Mr. GUTIE ́RREZ, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, and Mr. SCHNEIDER) submitted the following resolution; which was 

referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 

RESOLUTION 

Congratulating the 1963 men’s basketball team of Loyola 

University Chicago on its induction into the National 

Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame and the 50th anniversary of the team’s Division I National Collegiate Athletic 

Association men’s basketball championship. 

Whereas in 1963, Coach George Ireland led the men’s basketball team of Loyola University Chicago ‘‘Ramblers’’ to 

the Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association 

(NCAA) men’s basketball championship; 

Whereas the Ramblers lost only 2 games during the 1962 to 

1963 season and led the Nation in scoring with an average of 91.8 points scored per game; 


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•HRES 298 IH 

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 to 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 to 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 before advancing to the championship round, the 

Ramblers participated in the NCAA Midwest regional 

semifinal against the Mississippi State Maroons (now 

called the Bulldogs), a landmark game often referred to 

half a century later as the ‘‘Game of Change’’; 

Whereas determined to play in the regional semifinal, the 

Mississippi State Maroons sneaked out of Mississippi to 


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•HRES 298 IH 

avoid an injunction, and the integrated Ramblers and the 

all-White Mississippi State 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 

Mississippi State Maroons 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 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 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; 


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•HRES 298 IH 

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 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

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; and 

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. 

Æ 


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