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 Illi-
nois, 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 anniver-
sary of the team’s Division I National Collegiate Athletic 
Association men’s basketball championship. 
Whereas in 1963, Coach George Ireland led the men’s basket-
ball 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 aver-
age of 91.8 points scored per game; 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
22:16 Jul 11, 2013
Jkt 029200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR298.IH
HR298
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
•HRES 298 IH 
Whereas Coach Ireland and the Loyola University men’s bas-
ketball 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 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-Amer-
ican lineup in a game against the University of Wyoming; 
Whereas despite their success during the 1962 to 1963 sea-
son, the players and Coach Ireland endured terrible big-
otry, 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 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
22:16 Jul 11, 2013
Jkt 029200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR298.IH
HR298
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
•HRES 298 IH 
avoid an injunction, and the integrated Ramblers and the 
all-White Mississippi State Maroons met on the basket-
ball 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 defeat-
ing the 2-time defending NCAA champion University of 
Cincinnati in overtime by a score of 60 to 58, the crown-
ing achievement in Loyola University Chicago’s nearly 
decade-long struggle with racial inequality in men’s col-
lege 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 be-
cause 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 Ire-
land hold an exalted place because they are the only 
NCAA Division I Illinois basketball team to win a na-
tional 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; 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
22:16 Jul 11, 2013
Jkt 029200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6300
E:\BILLS\HR298.IH
HR298
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
•HRES 298 IH 
Whereas all 5 starting players from the national champion-
ship game graduated from Loyola University with a de-
gree, 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 fa-
vored team from the University of Cincinnati, a much 
larger basketball program that held the number 1 rank-
ing and had won the previous 2 national championships; 
Whereas the real significance of Coach Ireland and the Ram-
blers is the lasting impact of their bravery in breaking 
the racial barrier in college basketball that had been al-
lowed 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 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) congratulates Coach George Ireland and the 
1963 Loyola University Chicago men’s basketball 
championship team on their induction into the Na-
tional Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame; and 
(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. 
Æ 
VerDate Mar 15 2010 
22:16 Jul 11, 2013
Jkt 029200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\HR298.IH
HR298
tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with BILLS