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Interracial game 50 years ago still ‘a big deal’
On the surface, it was only a game. Like thousands played before and countless more since, it was just a 32-minute high school basketball game between two talented teams.
But the significance surrounding the game — the events leading up to it and the road it paved for the future — stretched far beyond sports.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the decision that resulted in Tennessee becoming the first and only state in the South to integrate high school sports without being forced to by the courts. In January 1965, the basketball game between Nashville’s all-black Pearl High and Father Ryan, a mid-state integrated private school, was not only the first interracial high school sports event in state history, but was also the first in the South.
One month later, the state’s second interracial game took place in Chattanooga when Notre Dame hosted Howard in a boys’ basketball game that drew so many fans that the overflow of onlookers stood outside and watched through the gym’s windows.