President Obama hails 1966 Miners in video

President Barack Obama paid tribute to the 1966 Texas Western NCAA basketball championship team in a video released Saturday. The video was first shown at halftime of the UTEP-Western Kentucky basketball game at the Don Haskins Center, where the 1966 Miners championship team was honored. Read the full transcript below:

“Fifty years ago, long before the Hollywood movie or the Hall of Fame inductions, a group of basketball players in El Paso – black, white, Hispanic – just wanted to win some games. They did a lot of that, because in basketball it doesn’t matter what you look like, just that you can play.

“Now, the path to success wasn’t usually so clear in the America of the 1960s. So by becoming the first team to win an NCAA title with five black starters, the Miners weren’t just champs on the court, they helped change the rules of the game off it. They didn’t know it at the time, but their contribution to civil rights was as important as any other.

“Our progress demands not only Dr. Kings, but Jackie Robinsons. Not only Rosa Parks, but Aretha Franklins. Not only household names, but ordinary Americans doing their part in their own lives with their own example. That’s what we honor today – a group of Americans who laced up their shoes and moved our country forward.

“That, and a pretty good basketball team. Congratulations on this anniversary.

“And go Miners.”