Moving Pictures

In the future, what once was static can be dynamic. Color changing concrete is just one method. How long before someone creates a low-cost LCD that can display Flash movies or video clips for hanging in your living room? I know Gates can get these, but when will it hit Best Buy? [via Coudal]

Tainted Glory

By Billy Reed

January 12th, 2006

This article also appears in the January 12, 2006 edition of LEO Weekly.

Conventional wisdom, based on revisionist history, says Adolph Rupp was a racist. Jerry Bruckheimer’s new film, ‘Glory Road,’ provides an opportunity to set the record straight.

The most significant way to honor the 30th anniversary of Rupp Arena would be for all friends of the University of Kentucky to band together in a concerted effort to officially refute the widely-accepted idea that the man for whom the building is named, former UK Coach Adolph Rupp, was the most vile racist in college sports.

This ugly and unfair misconception is the work of revisionist historians who have taken the 1966 NCAA championship game between Kentucky and Texas Western, and twisted it into something it wasn’t. Yes, it was the first and only time that a team with five white starters ( UK’s beloved “Rupp’s Runts) and a team with five black starters (Coach Don Haskins’ Texas Western Miners) met for the national title.

It was a terrific story, no question, but not because of race. Nobody wrote or talked about that aspect of it at the time. The attraction was as old as David vs. Goliath. It was Kentucky and Rupp, later described by Rick Pitino as the “ Roman Empire of college basketball,” against an upstart program from El Paso, Tx., that had never been even a blip on the national radar screen.

It wasn’t until 1991, in fact, when Curry Kirkpatrick, writing in Sports Illustrated, depicted the game, literally, as a matter of black and white. As interpreted by Kirkpatrick, a quarter of a century after the fact, the game was a morality play and Rupp was the villain. Kirkpatrick’s version of the story was immediately accepted as gospel by columnists and TV producers who weren’t even born when the game was played, and they willfully and maliciously parroted the myth of Rupp-as-racist in various “documentaries,” books, magazine articles and newspaper columns.

ESPN and CBS both blew it. I know. I agreed to be interviewed for all the “documentaries.” Every time, the editors left out my comments defending Rupp and used only the stuff that they thought would flesh out their one-dimensional stereotype.

All in all, it’s a classic example of journalism at its worst.

So when I heard that Jerry Bruckheimer, the powerful Hollywood movie and TV producer, was doing a full-length feature film about the game, I cringed. I was certain that once again Rupp – and, by extension, the university and the commonwealth – again would be portrayed dishonestly. When has Hollywood ever let the facts get in the way of a good story? My fears were confirmed when I read that actor Jon Voight, who plays Rupp in the movie (named Glory Road, which is how Rupp described his career), had called Rupp’s son, Herky, to tell him that he wouldn’t be pleased with the way his father is portrayed.

But now I’m getting reports that the film portrays Rupp with a relative degree of fairness. If so, Bruckheimer should get an Oscar for integrity. He would be the first outsider – well, he’s not really an outsider, considering that he owns a home near Springfield – to put the game into the proper context. Perhaps he agreed that the facts are interesting enough that they don’t need embellishment, especially at Rupp’s expense.

The truth is, nobody knows what was in Adolph Rupp’s heart. Of course, it’s also true that nobody knows what was in the hearts of every man who coached football or basketball in the Southeastern Conference or Atlantic Coast Conference at that time. No university in either league recruited African-American athletes.

I’ve always said that the worst thing that ever happened to Rupp was beating Duke in the ‘66 semifinals. Had the Blue Devils prevailed, then it would have been all-white Duke of the ACC taking on Texas Western, not all-white Kentucky of the SEC.

And the revisionist historians wouldn’t have made it such a big deal because Duke coach Vic Bubas was younger and more media-friendly than the scowling, autocratic Rupp, a German-American (many still spell his first name “Adolf,” as in Hitler, which has to be more than a Freudian slip) who was known as “The Baron of Basketball.”

So Rupp was — and is — the perfect villain for this morality play. He has been likened to Eugene “Bull” Connor, the bigoted public-safety director of Birmingham who laughingly ordered fire-hoses and attack dogs to be used against civil-rights protestors in 1963. Bull and the Baron. Two of a kind, right? Absolutely not. But who in the media wants to let the truth stand in the way of a good story line?

As Jack Nicholson shouted in the movie A Few Good Men, “The truth? You can’t handle the truth.” So it is with the editors and producers who refuse to concede that the story isn’t nearly as black and white as they make it out to be.

Here’s what we know about Rupp:

He coached at African-American player as a high school coach in Freeport, Ill.
He wrote a letter to the sports editor of the Lexington Herald asking UK fans to be polite to Solly Walker of St. John’s, the first African-American to play against UK in Memorial Coliseum.
In 1959, Rupp told Julius Berry of Lexington Dunbar, then an all-black high school, that he wished he could recruit him for UK but couldn’t because of unwritten SEC policy. (Rupp then helped Berry secure a scholarship at Dayton).
He thought seriously about challenging the SEC by recruiting Jerry Thruston, an African-American player from Owensboro, in the early 1960s.
Rupp scheduled non-conference games against teams with African-American players – nobody else in the SEC except Vanderbilt was doing that – and he gladly allowed the Wildcats to replace league champion Mississippi State in the NCAA tournament (only one team from each league was invited in those days) in 1959 and ’61 after the Bulldogs declined to go because the Mississippi state legislature wouldn’t allow public universities to play against integrated teams.
At the behest of UK President John Oswald and Governor Ned Breathitt, Rupp finally did buck the SEC policy by offering a scholarship to Wes Unseld of Louisville Seneca High in the spring of 1964.
The next year, Rupp received a verbal commitment from another black star, Butch Beard of Breckenridge County. In fact, it was such a foregone conclusion that Beard would sign with UK that Sports Illustrated magazine sent a young writer named Frank Deford to Lexington to do a story lauding UK’s leadership in integration. You can look it up.
Rupp appreciated the story so much that he welcomed Deford back to Lexington in mid-winter of the 1965-’66 season, when the magazine put him on its cover because of the surprising success of the “Runts.” Deford also covered the Texas Western game for SI and, interestingly, did not mention a single word about race in the cover story.

In fact, nobody in the state or national media made anything much of the racial aspects of UK-Texas Western. One reason was that the civil rights movement, along with Vietnam, was a big national news story, and editors didn’t want sportswriters writing anything inflammatory.

But another was that race was an old story in sports. Jackie Robinson had integrated major-league baseball in 1947. Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain were the dominant players in the NBA. The NFL’s best player was Jim Brown. Then, as now, sports and entertainment were the nation’s melting pots.

In Rupp’s case, the decision to recruit Unseld and Beard wasn’t a matter of having a guilty social conscience. It was simply the practical thing to do, which is the same reason Paul “Bear” Bryant integrated Alabama’s football program in the late 1960s. (Since Bryant and Rupp both signed their first black players at roughly the same time, can anybody explain why has Bryant escaped the racist tag that has been pinned on Rupp?)

No dummy, Rupp could see where college basketball was headed. Beginning with San Francisco’s back-to-back NCAA titles in 1955-’56 (due mainly to black players Russell and K.C. Jones), African-American players were becoming more prominent in college basketball every year.

Rupp’s 1958 team, the “Fiddlin’ Five,” beat one of the best, Elgin Baylor of Seattle, when it won the NCAA title in Freedom Hall. The great Oscar Robertson played just up the road in Cincinnati. In 1963, Loyola of Chicago won the NCAA title, again in Freedom Hall, with a team that had four black starters.

So when Texas Western became the first team with five black starters to reach the title game, it was regarded at the time as more of the latest step in a natural progression than the “Brown v. Board of Education of college basketball,” as the UK-Texas Western game came to be known long after the fact.

If you know nothing else about Rupp, you should know this: He lived to win. As Red Auerbach said last year, “Yeah, Rupp was prejudiced…he was prejudiced against blacks, Jews, whites, or anybody who couldn’t play.” But he loved guys who could play. As early as the 1940s, he recruited a Jewish player.

The morning after the Texas Western game, I met the UK team at Blue Grass Field. I then rode with Rupp in a police car from the airport to Memorial Coliseum, where a tribute to the team was to be held. The trip took, oh, 15 minutes. Rupp talked about how sick and tired UK was after its epic semifinal win over Duke, and he talked about how he underestimated Texas Western’s quickness.

But not once did he say anything about race.

I also should point out that I was close personal friends with the UK players because I was only a year or so older than most of them. Larry Conley sometimes borrowed my car to go on dates. I often ran into Pat Riley or Tom Kron at Danceland or Joyland, then a couple of popular college hangouts in Lexington. I had covered Thad Jaracz since he was he was a Pony League baseball star, even before he went to high school.

I never heard any of them make a racist remark. I never heard any of them say that Rupp had ever made a racist remark. And in those days where only a handful of college games were televised, the “Runts” didn’t pay nearly as much attention to Texas Western as they did to Western Kentucky, which had three homegrown black starters in Clem Haskins, Dwight Smith, and Greg Smith.

Had Unseld been UK’s center in 1966 instead of Jaracz, UK would have been unstoppable and the course of basketball history would have changed dramatically. With all due respect to Jaracz, he was no Unseld as a player. After graduating from U of L in 1968, Unseld went into the NBA and became the first player ever to be Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the same season. Jaracz went to the U.S. Army.

The truth is, it wasn’t so much that Unseld and Beard didn’t want to play for Rupp as much as they didn’t want to be the racial pioneers in the SEC. In the fall of 1963, remember, four young black girls were killed when the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16 th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. On August 4, 1964, the bodies of four young civil rights workers were recovered in Nebosha County, Ms. And on March 7, 1965, when Beard was preparing to led Breckenridge County to the state title, at the end of a “freedom march” from Montgomery, Al., there was a violent clash between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s demonstrators and authorities at the Pettus Bridge outside Selma.

After Beard reneged on his commitment to UK in favor of joining Unseld at Louisville, Rupp’s role as racial pioneer was usurped in the SEC by Roy Skinner of Vanderbilt, who made Perry Wallace the school’s first African-American scholarship player only a few weeks after the UK-Texas Western game in 1966, and in the ACC by young Dean Smith of North Carolina, who broke the color barrier with Charlie Scott that same spring.

But did you know that when Carolina arrived at Louisville’s Standiford Field for the 1967 Final Four in 1967, the players got off the plane waving small Confederate flags? At the time, that was considered to be only an innocent display of regional pride, not a racist statement.

About two years after the UK-Texas Western game, writer Jack Olsen did a landmark series for SI that smashed the notion that African-Americans had a level playing field in the sports world. One his stories centered around Texas Western, and how the black athletes there were exposed to repeated examples of racism on their campus and in the city of El Paso.

But somehow the Olsen story never got traction with the national media, probably because it didn’t fit neatly into the UK-Texas Western morality play.

Contrary to what the revisionist historians would have you believe, UK-Texas Western did not cause “the walls to come tumbling down.” Nor did it have much of an impact on the integration of college basketball. After 1966, the next team to win the national championship with five black starters was Louisville in 1980.

When Rupp Arena opened in 1976, Rupp was so old and sickly that UK Athletics Director Cliff Hagan arranged to have a blue easy chair set up for him at midcourt. This was four years after Rupp had coached his last game and more than a decade after the loss to Texas Western. But nobody protested naming the arena for Rupp because nobody had yet bought into the Texas Western myth.

Since the Kirkpatrick story, rumors, lies, misconceptions, and half-truths have been accepted as gospel. Rupp, who died in 1977, couldn’t defend himself, and the national media didn’t want to hear the facts or the views of people who actually knew Rupp. There’s no telling how much the revisionist historians have damaged UK and hampered the commonwealth’s efforts to attract African-American students, teachers, and business leaders.

The next thing you know, somebody in the national media will be calling for Lexington to rename Rupp Arena because it honors a racist. Don’t laugh. This is the sort of “cause” that the politically correct crowd dearly loves.

The Bruckheimer movie provides a forum to set the record straight, once and for all. If even one mind is changed, it will be worth the effort. It’s time to clear the name of Adolph Rupp – or, at least, consider all the facts about him instead of just a few selected to fit a preconceived image.

That’s the best way I know to say, “Happy birthday, Rupp Arena!”

SEO, WordPress and You

I’ve been playing with WordPress today. Not that it’s any fun, mind you. I simply read a Web page and try it out for myself. Sometimes it works, other times, not so well. What I’m trying to do is change my permalinks from reading:

http://www.21stCenturyPaladin.com/?p=1624

to something the search engines like better, such as:

http://www.21stCenturyPaladin.com/technology/
quantum-leap-in-computer-interaction.html

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ever changing landscape where sites to to find favor with the High King of the realm—Google. So after a bit of searching, I found a well-traveled discussion over on Tom Raftery’s site. Interesting and informative but I did have that dreaded .htaccess problem.

So… I had to figure out where mine was? Couldn’t find it anywhere on my server. Turned out, I didn’t have one. So I used the code that WP made for me on the Options, Permalinks page, and upoaded it as a straight text file (I love Notepad) using ASCII instead of Binary and then renamed it once on the server. And viola! It works!

FYI, I went with the following for my Structure:

/%category%/%postname%.html

Only now, my layout is whacked. And not in a good way. Seems the site can’t find certain images. Back to the ole drawing board.

Survivor Panama: Standings

Up ’til now, I haven’t been posting the standings of our little Fantasy Survivor contest because, well, it’s been too little. Three guys and me? Sweet fancy Moses people, what could possibly be more important that a little friendly competition among friends? Ok, I’ll quit now. Need to take my meds. I’ll behave better after that.

Louisville Arena: To Be, or Not To Be

Here in Louisville, the debate around a proposed arena is nearly every day news. From the new meetings, proposals, delays and conjecture, it’s like the freakin’ One Tree Hill around here.

I went searching through my list of Kentucky blogs (see sidebar) to find out what my fellow local bloggers thought about the matter.

• Alex Forrest
• Andy Goss
• Cardinal Coalition
• ConservaChick
• Digital Nicotine
• Donut Age
• dougpetch.com
• DrBacchus’ Journal
• Functional Ambivalent
• furtive explorations
• GotDesign
• Kadnine
• The Locust
• Terrible Swift Word
• Volvita

Not one had a post about it on their front page. To be fair, maybe they’ve already talked about it ad nasueum. Maybe their post had already fallen to a secondary page (as mine had). In any event, I Googled louisville+arena+blog and got back some 188,000 results. Here’s what I found.

• Elendil’s Blog: Upset that the new job predictions are misleading.
• Roger A. Payne’s Blog: Wonders if the expensive proposition will even happen.
• More Than Derby.com: In a focus on the monetary, believes the cost of the project won’t be met by the reward.
• Bluegrass Report.org: Sees shady politics behind every corner.

Seems a bit negative, no? I believe these are all thoughtful and rational concerns. But one thing that isn’t being included in the equation is perception. It’s certainly plausible to think the perception of Louisville will be enhanced with a new arena; likely in fact. If we were able to attract an NBA team, that perception would improve dramatically, in my opinion. But, of course, that’s a big if and it’s difficult (if not impossible) to accurately quantify a perception benefit, but for my money, it’s worth the risk.

Quantum Leap in Computer Interaction

Maybe Minority Report wasn’t so far fetched after all? I’m not talking about the film’s story but about the computer touch screen technology, that at the time I thought was years off.

The good folks at NYU have created a multi-touch panel that’s simply amazing. It increases the opportunity for interaction between one or more humans and computer. I’m not sure if efficiency is enhanced by this major advancement, but it certainly does allow for a more intimate relationship. Make sure you watch the videos… they really tell the story.

Quake Goes Big

Now I know what I want for my birthday! [via kottke]

Update: See it in action.

Beautiful Aerials

Georgeous work from David Maisel. I’d love to hang a few of these in my home. [via Coudal]

Coach K: Pot, Meet Kettle

There’s been a great deal of response (even a parody) to what many believe is beneficial treatment that Duke gets from the referees. ESPN’s love affair is just so obvious, but the number free throws that Duke gets compared to what their opponent gets is completely out of whack—Duke: 240, Opponents: 146 (first 9 games).

That is, it was until a ref was suspended for a particularly bad call. Then the result? Duke: 149, Opponents: 146 (next 4 games).

Now, Coach Krzyzewski is complaining:

“Wow, it’s been sad,” Krzyzewski said. “And I think it’s been orchestrated. I not only think, I know it has been.”

Sour grapes from someone with a legitimate claim is bad enough, but for the King of Favorable Calls complaining about an “orchestrated” effort against his team is the epitome of Cry Baby. Quit your whining, coach, you’re getting far more than your share of love from the media. It’s the grassroots response to the media that’s really getting your goat.

Dojo Info 3/8/06

1. America’s greatest unsung heroes revealed
   We need more positive news stories like these!
2. The Simpsons – With Real Actors! Cool
   Links are currently working because this is apparently “the hottest thing on the Internet.” Hmm…
3. U2′s Bono Receives Neruda Award in Chile
   It’s great to see someone with power and prestige put it to good use for those less fortunate. I may disagree with Bono on some issues, but I can’t deny he has a giant heart.
4. Smaller Brands Rise in Electronics Market
   I think this risk/reward decision hindges soundly on the purchase price. Am I buying a new cordless phone by Never Heard Of Indonesian Conglomerate or a giant plasma TV from a Unknown Siberian Tech Corp.?
5. Top 10 Geek Watches
   Not that I’d want any of these watches personally, they’re still fun to read about.
6. Hitachi unveils ‘fastest robot’
   Move over Emiew, meet Asimo!

The Academy is Approaching Irrelevance

Political Correctness is a disease. I firmly believe this. Those that call for tolerance are perhaps the most intolerant of all. How wonderful films like Cinderella Man (review) and The Chronicles of Narnia (review), both did well in the box office and with the critic’s meta-conciousness, weren’t considered for Oscars, just goes to show how potically motivated the Academy has become.

Maybe the American Film Renaissance can dethrone them?

Jet Powered Beetle

Now there’s something you don’t see every day. Wanna race?

Of Books and Life (Tagged)

Wow, my pal over at Digital Nicotine did me a royal. (Do people say that anymore?) I’ve been tagged to create an expansive evaluation of all the books I’ve ever read and summarize my findings in a single post. Oh yes, and post haste. Indeed! And here I thought Lee was a friend. ;^)

Of course, what his tag did was send me into a kind of psychological pathology known as Don’t Look Now, But I’m Completely Unorganized! Thusly, I began to update my archive. It’s still a work in progress so please forgive me.

On to the questions!

My Five Favorite Books:

Very, very tough question, but I’ll give it a shot.

Holy Bible, NIV – Where would I be without it? I don’t believe this world came about due to an unlikely series of chance accidents. It’s obvious to me there is a God no matter how much part of me wants to be my own god. Christianity is the only faith where the King died for his subjects. It’s the only faith where the originator of the faith conquered death. It’s the only faith where I know right now where I’ll go when I die. The Bible holds truths sometimes hard to fathom but that doesn’t make it any less true.

Mere Christianity – I don’t know I connect with this old English academic but I do. Perhaps it’s the power of his logic. It could be his subtle ethnic charm. I’m really not sure. But out of all those who’ve lived this life and gone on to the next, there’s no one I’d rather talk with over a pint at the pub.

Disappointment With God – In many Christian circles, the hurting aren’t allowed to ask those deep, heartfelt questions that tug at your heart. Why? Because it might be miscontrued as harming one’s faith. Yancey boldly resists those snares and asks the tough questions we all have and he does it with a strong, Biblical backing and examples from life today. I highly recommend everything I’ve ever read from Philip Yancey.

Memory, Sorry and Thorn Series – In this series of four books (still one story!), Tad Williams has crafted a masterpiece. In my opinion, it’s even better than Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, though to be fair he borrowed liberally, as do most science fiction writers who’ve come after. But if that’s true, then Tolkien is king and everyone since lesser nobility. Any fan of this genre would do well to read this series. It’s not life changing but it great fun throughout.

Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card is a brilliant man. I’m constantly amazed at the imagination some people have been gifted with. Perhaps, it’s because I desire such a vast imagination yet feel lacking. There are so many engaging points to this story of young Ender and how everything wasn’t what it seemed. So many places to take the story, with morality hanging on each decision. Loved it.

What Was The Last Book You Bought:

Meet the Bible – I’m always on the lookout for new insight into a book I’ve already through a couple of times through. When I learned that Yancey, someone I respect greatly, put together this observational trek through the Bible, I knew I needed to buy it.

What Was The Last Book You Read:

A Storm of Swords – This is the third installment in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. Wonderful stuff! Perhaps not as magical as Tad Williams, Martin makes up for it with more twists and turns than a labyrinth. The intrigue is palpable. I’m looking forward to the next installment when it hits paperback in September.

Five Books That Have Particular Meaning For Me:

James and the Giant Peach – Most of the books in this category will likely go back to when I began to actually like books. For much of my youth, they were dried, boring things that you couldn’t force me to pry open. This book by Roald Dahl, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, were inviting, as well as interesting, at least, for a young wildling like myself.

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual – Now this is the first edition, long since past, but recalls memories of that joyous role-playing game that sparked my imagination and love for adventure. I still have it (along with the other first edition hardbacks) down in the basement in one of my Memory Boxes.

The Wind in the Willows – Another fun story where talking animals led me on a wild adventure. Maybe it was this book that led me to enjoy other English-themed bits like C. S. Lewis, Monty Python/The Young Ones and brit-rock bands like Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and the Charlatan’s UK?

Jolly Old Santa Claus – Be warned, there are multiple versions of this classic book. Make sure to buy the one that’s illustrated by George Hinke. There are even different versions of this book because the old one that my Mom still has is much larger and the beautiful paintings are larger and aren’t cropped. I can’t have Christmas without browsing through this book first.

Sound Mind Investing – Not many can claim that their father is an author. Much less an author who’s book continues to call for new revisions. But what I’m really proud of is the kind of book. The goal of this book is to help others make more money so that they can give more money away. The sum of one’s life is not in the value of their assets. Plus, I was able to cut my graphic design teeth on this book, so that’s pretty cool too. Check out his new Web site for more info.

Three Book That You Are Dying To Read But Haven’t Yet:

How about…

• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
• A Feast for Crows, the next installment by George R. R. Martin
• Anything one of my sons will write, be it 4th grade, 2nd grade or newborn scribbles.

That really took some time. Now, instead of actually “tagging” someone, I’ll make it completely voluntary. Anyone who’d like to follow this meme will instantly enhance my perception of them. Just leave and comment and I’ll make sure to read your post. Cheers!

The Power of Humilty

I’ve just finished reading parts 1 and 2 of Bill Simmon’s email exchange with Malcolm Gladwell, a best selling author from Canada. In it, Gladwell talks about how he could be a much better GM for the Knicks than Isaiah Thomas. Not because he knows more than Thomas, but that he understands that he knows significantly less. While Thomas believes he’s smarter than he really is, his pride leads him to make bold but foolish decisions.

My first thought: Someone’s still the best GM, right?
My second thought: I want to be that guy!

I have absolutely no chance of ever becoming an NBA GM, but I do participate in several NCAA Bracket contests each year since I was a kid. Ever since I learned how to use Lotus 1-2-3 in the early 90s, I’ve been experimenting with statistical amalgamations, hoping to stumble across the predictive equivalent to the polio vaccine.

Maybe I’m going about this all wrong? Maybe I should be listening to that still small voice—my inner boy—instead of thinking I could possibly prove everyone wrong and pencil in the perfect bracket? Is this the same idea as “less is more”? Have I been struggling for decades all for naught?

Nah… fire up Excel! Burn the midnight oil! March Madness is here and, “Yes!” I’ve got it!

‘Miracle Workers’ Premiers Tonight

As the years pass, I become more melancholy and emotional or as my brothers would say, a “wuss.” I can most clearly see myself in my oldest son. At the first note of injustice, it’s almost more than he can bear; he’s easily angered but still quick to laugh. It seems our emotions are just a micron’s depth beneath the surface.

So when show’s like Extreme Home Makeover demonstrate so well how generosity and working for others can completely enhance a family’s tragedy ridden life, I’m wiping away tears. ABC is now at it again with Miracle Workers, which premieres tonight. No doubt, I better make a trip to store and stock up on Kleenex.