The outcome of the 1963 Mideast regional men’s basketball semifinal between Loyola University (Illinois) and Mississippi State University isn’t nearly as important as the journey to get there.

With elements such as segregation, clandestine flights and court injunctions as the backdrop, it is easy to realize why Loyola’s 61-51 victory is merely a footnote to the contest being named as one of the Top 25 Defining Moments in the first 100 years of the NCAA.

The mere fact of Mississippi State’s all-white team taking the floor against a Loyola club that started four black players was an example at the time of how an athletics event could shape social change.

Though several significant racial incidents already had occurred, such as James Meredith needing to be protected by federal troops and U.S. Marshals when he became the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi, the Loyola-Mississippi State game proved to be a landmark event in college sports. When captains Jerry Harkness of Loyola and Joe Dan Gold of Mississippi State met at center court to shake hands, it was obvious the game’s impact would be much more than the final score.

“When all the flashbulbs went off, I knew it was more than a game,” said Harkness, who grew up in Harlem, New York. “Who won or lost didn’t matter. This had so much to do with life and how things were going to be. It helped lay the groundwork of what was to come. It was a big event in my life.”

Persuasive change

In 1963, Mississippi State was at the end of an impressive run of winning the Southeastern Conference championship for the third time in a row and for the fourth time over a five-year period. What made the success extraordinary was the way the Bulldogs snapped the stranglehold that Adolph Rupp’s University of Kentucky Wildcats had over the other SEC programs.

Before the age of at-large selections to the NCAA tournament, winning a conference championship was the only ticket to the postseason in those days. But Mississippi State doesn’t appear in the 1959, 1961 or 1962 brackets in the NCAA Men’s Final Four Records Book. In each of those seasons, institutional, athletics and state government leaders refused to let the Bulldogs compete in the tournament, because they didn’t want their all-white team competing against teams that had black players.

During the 1955-56 season, Mississippi State’s basketball team was ordered home by university President Ben Hilbun and Athletics Director C.R. “Dudy” Noble from a regular-season tournament in Evansville, Indiana, because it had played a game against the University of Denver, which was an integrated team.

As the Bulldogs were closing in on the 1963 SEC title, the subject came up again, only this time there were signs of change. New Mississippi State President Dean Colvard and coach Babe McCarthy wanted their players to have the opportunity to compete. Colvard built up some political clout and word quickly spread among people on both sides of the issue.

“One of my English professors stopped me on campus and told me to tell my teammates that there wouldn’t be a problem if public funds were cut off (as had been threatened),” Gold said. “He said we had enough private contributions pledged that if Dr. Colvard and Coach McCarthy wanted to play in the tournament, we would be able to do so. That was the first time I had the feeling that this was more than just going to play a basketball game.”

More than half of the 5,200-member student body signed a petition stating that the team should play in the NCAA tournament. According to reports, about two-thirds of the letters Colvard received from Mississippians supported his decision. But opponents were vocal, too.

Under the radar

On the eve of the team’s departure to the NCAA regional site in East Lansing, Michigan, one of Colvard’s staff members told him that some state legislators had persuaded a judge to issue an injunction that wouldn’t allow the team to leave the state. Word also spread that the summons was being delivered from Jackson, Mississippi, to the Mississippi State campus. But no one knew whose name was on the writ.

Colvard organized a secret meeting at a booster’s house, and officials decided that he and McCarthy would leave the state immediately by car.

The writ arrived on campus at 11 p.m., but authorities couldn’t find anyone in charge.

The players heard about the injunction via the radio, and team member Leland Mitchell suggested that the team pile in his car and leave as well. That plan was nixed, though, and assistant coach Jerry Simmons and athletic trainer Dutch Luchsinger stayed behind with the players.

The next morning, Luchsinger drove some reserve players to the airport to see if the police were there to stop the team flight. Seeing no one, Luchsinger called Simmons, who drove the starters to the plane.

“I heard some of the players say they were concerned about being arrested,” said Gold, the current superintendent of schools in Morgan County, Kentucky. “I thought it was directed more toward the people who were in charge. I did think there was a possibility that we wouldn’t get to go, because of the injunction being served. I never felt 100 percent sure until we got the plane off the ground.”

The plane stopped in Nashville to pick up McCarthy, then it was on to East Lansing to face Loyola.

“Back then everyone was raised to do whatever a person in authority told you to do,” said W.D. “Red” Stroud, an all-SEC player during his senior year who today serves as a prison missionary. “When our coach told us we were going, that meant we were going. It was just like the other years. When they told us we couldn’t go, we turned in our uniforms. We didn’t argue, because you didn’t question authority back then.”

The Ramblers, who would go on to win the national title in 1963, waited patiently, but also with some apprehension.

“We knew there were some problems, but we knew we were going to play them,” said Harkness, who owns an athletics apparel store in Indianapolis. “We got a lot of bad mail, too. We got things from the Ku Klux Klan and all that. We also had pressure from the Black community that told us we couldn’t lose that game. It was just like the second fight between Joe Louis and Max Schmelling. I felt that pressure.”

Ramblin’ to victory

Loyola had demolished Tennessee Technological University, 111-42, in the first round of the tournament, and McCarthy was well aware of the Ramblers’ prolific offense. Mississippi State had four good outside shooters, but McCarthy decided his teams’ best chance to win was a four-corner offense.

“Dean Smith gets all the credit for coming up with that offense, but Coach McCarthy was doing it back in the 1950s,” Stroud said.

Mississippi State grabbed a 7-0 lead with the slow-down strategy, but Loyola picked up its defensive intensity and led, 26-19, at the half.

The Bulldogs stayed within striking distance but couldn’t overcome Loyola.

“We didn’t realize until afterward all of what Mississippi State’s players had to go through to get to the game,” Harkness said. “We just didn’t get that feel. I can’t say enough about that Mississippi State team. If you wanted to put a story together to show America what people from both sides did to change things, this was the game.”

Mississippi State student body president Robert Taylor wrote to Loyola coach George Ireland shortly after the Ramblers beat Cincinnati, 60-58, in overtime to win the national championship. Taylor explained how all of the Mississippi State students were pulling for Loyola to win the game and how honored they were to have played them.

“As the years have gone by, that game is more important to me than winning the national title,” Harkness said. “I mean that. This was something about life, and it influenced the way things were changing in the United States.”