ABSTRACT
As racial change swept the country in the 1960s, many parts of the United States lagged behind. Unwritten rules continued in the South, directing appropriate codes of behavior for many Southerners and influencing all aspects of life, even basketball. In 1963, Mississippi State University (MSU) added a fourth conference championship to its successes in 1959, 1961, and 1962. Yet, due to the unwritten rule, MSU declined participation in the NCAA national tournament each year. That year, MSU leadership announced that the school’s basketball team would accept the NCAA invitation to the national tournament. The decision defied the long-standing unwritten rule that prohibited state-funded athletic teams from playing racially integrated teams. Some applauded MSU’s decision; others called for the president’s resignation. On Saturday, March 15, 1963, MSU faced Loyola of Chicago, a racially integrated team, in the NCAA tournament, despite a Mississippi government injunction designed to keep the team at home. This article will consider print media’s role in the ideological shift of race in the South. Within newspaper pages, the court of public opinion is often developed, defined, and debated, particularly at transitional points in history. This article documents this transition through the comparison of the ideological frames present in the print media coverage of state and national newspapers.
