Photo by Rich Clarkson, NCAA Photos
With Loyola now in the Final Four, you’re going to hear a lot about their 1963 National Championship squad, specifically “The Game of Change” between the Ramblers, who started four African Americans, and an all-white Mississippi State team that defied their governor and snuck out of the state to play them.
The captain of that Mississippi State team was Joe Dan Gold, who famously shook hands with Loyola captain Jerry Harkness before the game, the photograph of which became an iconic image of the civil rights movement. Gold, a Benton, Kentucky native, went on to become the basketball coach and principal at Fleming County High School.