Contact: Ben Nagel
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A current exhibit in Mississippi State's Mitchell Memorial Library focuses on the "Game of Change" that occurred during the 1963 NCAA Mideast Regional Basketball Tournament.
The game's significance centers around the history-making precedent it set in integrating the sport of basketball at the university.
Located on the library's second floor, the exhibit highlights the controversial nature of the game at that time, as well as the positive outcome. Exhibit elements include letters of both support and opposition to MSU's participation and a pictorial game retrospective in which MSU, a segregated team, played opposite the integrated Loyola University Chicago team.
Other exhibit highlights include excerpts from the tournament program and the MSU dope book for the team; and a collection of published works about the game and its importance to collegiate basketball.
Also featured is Rick Ray, MSU's first African-American basketball coach and current men's head coach, and his evolving contributions to the history of the university's basketball program.
This exhibit will run through the end of February.
For more information on the 1963 "Game of Change," please visit the research guide at http://guides.library.msstate.edu/1963MSUBasketball.
For more information on MSU Libraries, please visit http://library.mssate.edu.