Historical marker in honor of the 1966 Texas Western National Championship Team

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) - The University of Texas at El Paso, the El Paso County Historical Commission and area dignitaries unveiled a a marker commemorating the 1966 Texas Western National Championship team.

The new historical marker is at the Foster Stevens Basketball Center at UTEP is dedicated to the men's basketball team led by Legendary Coach Don Haskins and was the first fully integrated team.

"It's been 58 years since the championship game. It's not only part of El Paso, history and University of Texas El Paso. It's not only part of that but it's Texas," said Togo Railey, 1966 Texas Western College player who played for Coach Haskins. "It's all historical".

A 23-1 regular season in 1965-66 helped the team advance to the post season NCAA Tournament, and a trip to the national semi finals.

The Miners played against Kentucky, an all-white team. UTEP's five starters were African Americans. Coach Haskin later said he was "not trying to make a more profound statement about race, but was simply playing his best players."

The win made it the first time in the 20th century that a Texas team won the NCAA men's basketball title.

"I'm wearing, wearing my hall of fame jacket, because I love talking about my team and talking about the coaches times that we had. I love to tell the story and keep that fire burning," Railey added.

The victory was not only in the courts, but also in the civil rights movement at that time.

"Our black players, players played the game, those, those very important issues for that period of time in history. Very proud of it," Railey said.