African Peoples History Month at Fresno State begins in February with a talk by Harry Flournoy and screening of the Disney film “Glory Road” that depicts Flournoy and his history-making Texas Western College basketball team that won the 1966 national championship with the first-ever all African-American starting lineup.
The film, which is part of the Fresno State CineCulture series, screens at 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7, at the Peters Educational Center (2650 E. Shaw Ave. at Woodrow in the Student Recreation Center west of the Save Mart Center).
Photo by Stephan Savoia, File, Associated Press
Flournoy will speak about the film and his experiences at 7 p.m. as part of the Martin Luther King/Gunnar Myrdal Lecture Series presented by Fresno State’s Africana Studies Program and the Martin Luther King Committee.
Additional details about several other events celebrating the contributions of African-Americans will be announced later by Fresno State’s Central Valley Cultural Heritage Institute.
Dr. Francine Oputa, institute director, points out that while the national name of the month-long observance is Black History Month, Fresno State’s celebration the past two decades has been called African Peoples History Month.
The 2006 film featuring Flournoy is based on the events and individuals from the 1966 Texas Western College basketball team basketball team, later renamed University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), that made history under Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins in the NCAA Division I national Championship game against an all-white team from University of Kentucky.
Flournoy appeared on the March 28, 1966 cover of Sports Illustrated with Pat Riley (later player and coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and now coach of the NBA’s Miami Heat).
After his career at Texas Western College, Flournoy became a teacher and basketball coach at an elementary school in El Paso. He now works in route sales for Bimbo Bakeries USA and speaks at various events about empowerment and leadership.
For more information about the CineCulture film screening, contact Mary Husain at mhusain@csufresno.edu.
University Communications news intern Ashlie Day contributed to this report.
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