What If... Duke Had Defeated Kentucky in 1966?

by:John Wilmhoff01/29/15

@JohnWilmhoff

[caption id="attachment_172428" align="aligncenter" width="500"]1969duke 1965-66 Duke Blue Devils, courtesy of GoDuke.com[/caption] John Feinstein, a Duke graduate, cited a game that happened 49 years ago while explaining his reasons for voting Virginia No. 1 in the AP poll (seriously, he did). These weren't off-the-cuff comments. Feinstein actually put these remarks about the 1966 UK team in writing (and his dislike of one-and-dones, McDonald's All-Americans and scoring 80 points) in an email to Rick Bozich. The game Feinstein was referring to, of course, was the 1966 National Championship game between Kentucky and Texas Western. Kentucky's roster was all-white at the time, like many schools in the 1960's. Texas Western, as we all know, started five African Americans -- and beat Kentucky. To advance to the championship game, Kentucky defeated Duke in the national semifinal. I'll just let the 1966 Duke team photo speak for itself. If Duke had defeated Kentucky, setting up Duke vs. Texas Western, would a "Glory Road" movie ever exist? Would the game still have been made into a history lesson? Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't; but I highly doubt John Feinstein would care if it would have been Duke. And possibly, his Top 25 vote would now have to do with things such as wins, losses, margin of victory, talent and strength of schedule. Feinstein joins Matt on this morning's radio show. It should be a good one.

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