March 19, 2008

CHICAGO - The NCAA will sponsor a special screening of the documentary "Game of Change," that chronicles the historic 1963 NCAA regional semifinal game between Loyola University Chicago and Mississippi State University. That screening will take place on March 29 in Detroit, the same weekend the NCAA Regional will be played in town at Ford Field.

Produced by Pathway Productions and Jerald Harkness, the son of former Loyola All-American Jerry Harkness, the documentary will detail events surrounding that 1963 game that was named one of the Top 25 Defining Moments in the first 100 years of the NCAA in 2006.

On March 15, 1963, the Ramblers and Mississippi State were to play a NCAA second-round game in East Lansing, Mich., but that game almost didn't take place. Sports programs representing Mississippi teams were not allowed to play integrated teams, but MSU coach Babe McCarthy got his team out of Mississippi under the cover of darkness before an injunction, prohibiting his team from playing a Loyola team that started four African-American players - Jerry Harkness, Les Hunter, Ron Miller and Vic Rouse - be served.

Loyola prevailed in that historic contest with Mississippi State, 61-51, thanks to 20 points from Harkness, and the Ramblers wouldn't look back en route to the only NCAA Division I men's basketball title ever won by a team from Illinois.