The Bob Verga Shift: How One Man's Illness Changed History and Saved Duke Basketball

Can one player truly change the course of history?

In 1966, an all-black basketball team from the University of Texas El Paso (then Texas Western University) defeated an all-white team from the University of Kentucky to win the NCAA championship in a game that has become famous as a civil rights milestone. A closer inspection of the events leading to that momentous game reveal the unlikely events that made a way for those two teams to walk onto that court.

Travel back in time to 1960s Durham, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Texas to unravel the remarkable truth behind the teams involved in the famous 1996 final four, and see how one man's absence changed history and paved the way for desegregation and civil rights progress.

This new look at basketball's impact on American history shows how supposedly minor events can have significant historical consequences.