“Glory Road” is yet another of the based-on-a-true-story films about athletic triumphs that Disney has been cranking out since “Remember the Titans” proved that the genre could generate box-office hits. But this picture is different from “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” “The Rookie” or “Miracle” because of the importance of the story being told.

In 1966, Texas Western University started five African-Americans in the NCAA Championship basketball game, taking on Adolph Rupp’s heavily favored all-white Kentucky Wildcats.

The decision by Texas Western Coach Don Haskins to start five black players for the first time in NCAA championship history forever changed college basketball, breaking down a decades-long color barrier and paving the way for the game as we know it today.

“Glory Road” is the story of how Haskins, a former high school girls coach, took over the basketball program at Texas Western, recruited the urban black players to far distant El Paso, then melded his new recruits with white players primarily from Texas to create a championship squad.

Haskins is played by Josh Lucas, who starred opposite Reese Witherspoon in “Sweet Home Alabama” and was last seen with Jamie Foxx in “Stealth.”

Bulking up to play the man whose nickname is “The Bear,” Lucas had the benefit of working with Haskins in playing the coach and also met with others involved in the Texas Western/Kentucky game, including Miami Heat coach Pat Riley who was a starter on the Kentucky team. He’s convincing as a coach — otherwise the film would have failed.

Hired out of the high school and forced to move his family into Texas Western’s athletic dorm, where the basketball coach was essentially a babysitter at the football-crazed school, it didn’t take Haskins long to figure out that his team had to get better fast to be remotely competitive.

So he and his squeaky-voiced young assistant, Moe Iba (Evan Jones), go out looking for good players that other schools have overlooked. Those players were primarily from Detroit and New York and they brought a free-flowing inner-city game to the Southern school.

The team’s star was Bobby Joe Hill (Derek Luke), an unstoppable, rebellious guard from Detroit. The big man in the middle was David Lattin (Schin A.S. Kerr). The rival coach in the championship game was Kentucky legend Rupp (an almost unrecognizable Jon Voight in an eerily dead-on portrayal), an arrogant, ruthless ruler of the game who remains a controversial figure today.

But the team’s battle was as much with racism as it was on the court.

First-time director James Gartner doesn’t take any risks with the film. He uses the chronology of the 1965-66 season to frame his story, taking a little dramatic license to play up at least one of the racial incidents in the picture to make a point and capturing the essence of the team — from their inner-squad squabbles through their bonding, to their reactions to the racist criticism.

The basketball looks good, in large part because many of the actors were cast through hoops tryouts and then survived a camp run by USC coach Tim Floyd. If you couldn’t play a little, you weren’t going to get in the picture. That said, some of the moves on film are influenced by 21st century court style rather than reflecting exactly how the game was played in the mid ’60s. But that’s only important to purists, and we’ll forgive that.

The film also gets the mid ’60s look right — from the team’s uniforms and the tiny gyms they played in through the motels and dorms where the players lived.

“Glory Road” follows Disney’s plucky underdog formula too closely to be a great picture. But in telling the little-known Texas Western story, it is one of the most important sports pictures ever.

 A vivid reminder that it wasn’t so long ago that sports, like the rest of society, was segregated. “Glory Road” depicts the courage and determination of a coach and his team that, through their efforts and presence on the court, shattered a racial barrier and forever changed the country and their sport.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.