L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, January 12, 2006 6:00 pm
There’s a Nebraska connection to “Glory Road.” Followers of Nebraska basketball will remember Moe Iba, who coached the Huskers from 1981 to 1986 and took them to their first NCAA tournament berth. But before he came to Lincoln, Iba had a hand in the most important game in college basketball history.
He was the only assistant to Don Haskins when Texas Western beat Kentucky for the 1966 NCAA Championship. The Miners were the first team to start five African-American players in an NCAA championship game, defeating Adolph Rupp’s all-white Kentucky team and forever changed the sport.
In “Glory Road,” the squeaky-voiced, bespectacled Iba is played by Evan Jones, a rising young character actor who was Eminem's sidekick Cheddar Bob in “8 Mile” and was the goofball Fowler in last year's “Jarhead.”
Iba has been on the road promoting the picture and couldn’t be reached by the Journal Star before Ground Zero’s deadline. But here’s what he had to say to Los Angeles Times columnist J.A. Adande about the film:
“The movie is a good movie, but it doesn't tell the story of how much heart and dedication these young men had. The thing I remember about all of them is what great athletes they were. This basketball team in 1966, let's say they played today and they had the same talent they have today, this team could play today with any team in the country.
“It was an honor to be a part of it. It was a heck of a basketball team and a heck of a run, and they had a lot to be proud of.”