IL SJR0067

Urges relevant authorities to nominate and induct Coach George Ireland and the 1963 Loyola Chicago basketball championship team into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

The 1963 Loyola Ramblers won the NCAA basketball championship with only 2 losses and led the nation in scoring with 91.8 points per game, defeating 2-time defending champion Cincinnati 60-58 in overtime.

Loyola became the first NCAA Division I team to start 4 African-American players in every game and played an all-African-American lineup against Wyoming in December 1962, breaking longstanding racial barriers in college basketball.

Coach Ireland and his players endured racial taunts, abuse, and hate mail from the KKK while police surrounded the facility due to violence threats, but all 5 starting players from the championship game graduated with degrees.

2013 marks the 50th anniversary of Loyola's basketball championship; Coach Don Haskins and the 1966 Texas Western College Miners have already been inducted to the Hall of Fame for similar historic racial integration achievements.