High school filmmakers look to keep story of the 1966 Miners alive

MORIARTY, N.M. – The story of the 1966 Texas Western Miners has become the stuff of legend, even making it all the way to Hollywood with the 2006 release of Glory Road.

But it’s in a small town in New Mexico where a group of high school students are helping to keep this story alive for a new generation – and hoping to win a national title themselves, just as the Miners did 50 years ago.

Four students at Moriarty High School in Moriarty, New Mexico, came together to create a new documentary on the ’66 team.

Salomon Chavez, Matt Smith, DeHaven Hudson, and Courtney Wiggins had little idea at the time they would be making an award-winning film.

The group recently won the documentary competition of New Mexico History Day, qualifying them for the national tournament in June.

But they say their film is more than just a History Day project – it’s personal.

“Everyone in our group is a minority athlete,” said Courtney Wiggins, a sophomore at Moriarty. “It was just really weird to think about how things might be different for us today if the [1966 championship] hadn’t happened.”

“We might not be playing as much in the sports that we’re participating,” said Salomon Chavez, also a sophomore. “Or we might not be on the team at all. Who knows?”

The group’s faculty mentor Amy Page is particularly proud of the team, although she was initially concerned about a group of underclassmen tackling such a tough subject matter.

“When the kids came to me initially with the story, I said, ‘If you’re going to tell this story, it’s got to be done right,'” said Page. “‘You have to handle the story with dignity, and you have to make it worthy of the history that it is.'”

The documentary is a ten-minute long feature highlighting the accomplishments of the 1966 Texas Western team that the students say seeks to portray how the Miners overcame racism and hatred to become successful on and off the court.

The group got a big break in February when the ’66 team reunited in El Paso for a celebration of the 50th anniversary of their championship. The group just had to go.

“We got to El Paso and met the team and they walked in and we saw this group of gentlemen who were a family,” said Page.

“It made it come to life,” said Wiggins. “Honestly there’s no other way to describe it. They’re so close to each other. And that’s what we needed to portray in our movie as well.”

It was in El Paso at the 50th anniversary celebration that the students were able to meet the players and conduct personal interviews – a vital part of their finished product. Hearing the story of how the players overcame racism and segregation had a profound impact on freshman DeHaven Hudson.

“My grandpa was in the Air Force and he was African-American, and the didn’t allow him to play some sports,” said Hudson. “So, I didn’t really have a picture of that. But now, doing research about the racism in 1966, it actually gave me a big idea on what my grandpa had to deal with.”

The students will be taking one more trip this year. Winning their state History Day championship means they get to go to the national competition.

As fate would have it, the national competition happens to be in College Park, Maryland, the site of the 1966 title game between Texas Western and Kentucky.

And though the students started off as total strangers before the project, they’ll go to nationals as something else.

“They’re like my best friends honestly,” said Wiggins. “I come in and tell them what’s going on with my day, and we all do the same.”

“We’re a tight unit,” said Hudson. “And it’s just like a team, like a basketball team. We sometimes hate each other and sometimes we just have to pull it in as a team and work together.”