June 7, 2013

CHICAGO - Loyola University Chicago's 1962-63 men's basketball team, which stole the hearts of basketball fans across the city, Midwest, and nation by winning the NCAA Championship, will be inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame on Wednesday, September 18 in the Gold Cup Restaurant at Hawthorne Race Course (3501 S. Laramie). To this day, that team remains the only one from the state of Illinois to have won the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

Other members of the 2013 Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame include: Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler Kevin Bracken; Chicago Blackhawk Eddie Olczyk; Chicago White Sox pitcher Tommy John; NBA standouts Mark Aguirre and Antoine Walker; NFL veterans Don Beebe, Donovan McNabb, Pete Bercich, Jim Johnson and Renaldo Wynn; University of Illinois Big Ten track and field champion Al Carius; Minnesota Twins manager, player, radio commentator and World Series hero Frank Quilici; Leo High School football coach Bob Foster; and Chicago sports broadcaster Chet Coppock. In addition to the induction of hall of fame members, the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame will also present the Ray Meyer College Coach of the Year Award to Rick Pitino and 1953 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Lattner will receive the George Connor Award.

Under the direction of legendary coach George Ireland, the 1963 Ramblers, who were led by a starting lineup known as the "Iron Five," played an electrifying style of basketball and led the nation in scoring with 92.3 points per game that winter. After opening the season ranked No. 3 in the Associated Press Poll and winning the first 20 games of the year, Loyola earned the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament berth and promptly set a record for margin of victory in a 111-42 over Tennessee Tech in the opening round.

Despite the team's NCAA championship, it may be remembered most for its role in a NCAA Regional contest against Mississippi State, which later became known as the Game of Change. On that important day - March 15, 1963 - Loyola and Mississippi State played a game that changed college basketball and integration in the South. The Ramblers had a starting lineup that featured four African-Americans and the all-white Mississippi State team had previously been unable to compete in postseason play against integrated teams due to an unwritten state law.

Determined to play the game and give its players the opportunity to compete for a national championship, Mississippi State snuck out of town under the cover of darkness before Gov. Ross Barnett could serve an injunction that would have prevented the team from playing an integrated Rambler squad.

Loyola won that historic contest, 61-51, behind 20 points from two-time All-America selection Jerry Harkness, and would go on to win the 1963 NCAA Championship. On December 15 this season, Loyola hosted Mississippi State in the first meeting between the two schools since that historic contest 50 seasons ago, with the Ramblers once again prevailing, this time by the near identical score of 59-51.

Wins over Illinois and Duke followed that historic game versus Mississippi State in 1963 and Loyola knocked off two-time defending champion Cincinnati in the title game by staging one of the most memorable comebacks in NCAA Tournament history as it erased a 15-point deficit with just 10 minutes remaining in regulation to force overtime. Vic Rouse's tip-in of a missed shot as the buzzer sounded in overtime gave the Ramblers a 60-58 victory and the chance to call themselves champions.

The Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame honor is just one of many for this beloved team, which forever changed college basketball. Earlier this year, the Ramblers' NCAA title game versus Cincinnati was named the No. 1 contest in NCAA Tournament history by the Ultimate Book of March Madness, and the Game of Change was named as one of the top moments in NCAA March Madness history. The team will also be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on November 24 in Kansas City, Mo.

Tickets for the event are $125 each. For tickets or further information, please visit www.chicagolandsportshalloffame.com or call Howie Fagan at (708) 780-3679.