“That left a lasting mark on me. Here was a person who bled the same color as I did, yet he was treated differently. That's why it was very, very easy for me to treat all of my players the exact same regardless of what they looked like.”
“The worst time of my life was the next two weeks that we won the championship and thousands of hate letters started coming in. And it really didn't dawn on me what this was all about until that time.”
“They made it a big deal after the Kentucky game. That particular night, believe me, I'm not thinking about that. We got home, and all of that was a total shock to me.”
“I really did not think a thing about playing five black players to start the game -- they were our best players and deserved to start. But if I knew all the misery it was going to cause me in the weeks following the game, I'd have thought long and hard about it. The players from Kentucky were gracious about it, but many of their fans and people from other parts of the country did not want to see it.”
“I walk now and try to take care of myself, but I wished I had done some things a lot earlier. People need to take care of themselves and they need to start it at an early age.”
