Wake Up With Purpose!: What I've Learned in My First Hundred Years

by Jean Dolores Schmidt

Back then there was an unwritten rule in college basketball that a team should not have more than two Black players in the game at the same time. Loyola’s coach, George Ireland, regularly played three or four Black players. The team made the NCAA tournament, but once they got to the second round, they encountered a problem. Their opponent was supposed to be Mississippi State, but in Mississippi there was another unwritten rule that white players were not supposed to play with or against Black players. When the Mississippi State president said he would send the team to Michigan to play the game, several state politicians tried to prevent them from leaving. So the team literally had to sneak out of the state to play the game, which Loyola won, 61–51.