Texas Western sported an all-African-American starting lineup during the 1965-66 season. They received systemic racist vitriol. They were railroaded at every turn. And they still won the national championship, doing so by beating all-white Kentucky.
That victory was a milestone, but the team wasn't celebrated at the time. Texas Western—now known as the University of Texas at El Paso—didn't receive an invite to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show, for instance, as was customary for NCAA winners at that time.
But because of them, the college sports landscape started to shift. Texas Western's winning run spurred dozens of teams, across sports—even those in the segregated South—to begin recruiting African-American players, forever changing the landscape of collegiate athletics.