It was called the “game of change” and it is my favorite sport story – the 1963 Loyola University Ramblers basketball team that broke racial barriers when they defeated Mississippi State in NCAA tournament play, catapulting them to the finals and beating Cincinnati to win the 1963 national title.
The story now has been brought to the silver screen by Riverside born and raised Patrick Creadon and titled “The Loyola Project.” This past weekend he was in the Chicago area for screenings at Loyola University and Fenwick High School, which Creadon attended.
The film is getting rave reviews. It focuses on problems Loyola, which was a racially integrated team, ran into as they faced an all-white team in Mississippi and the resistance they faced. Also a major player in the movie is former Riverside resident Jack Egan, now an attorney, who was the lone white player in Loyola’s starting five.
Creadon and his wife, Christine O’Malley, reside with their family in California but Riverside will always claim Patrick as its own since the Creadon family has long been a part of the village’s history.
Patrick Creadon and O’Malley Productions have been successful in producing documentaries that are stories about real life people and events. His last documentary was “Hesburgh” that told the story of the famous University of Notre Dame President Theodore Hesburgh.
Carol Creadon, Patrick’s mother who attended many of the screenings this past weekend, said a one-hour version of “The Loyola Project” is scheduled to be shown on CBS-TV on April 2 at 1 p.m. (ET).
If you want to learn more about the story and where you can watch the film, you can visit TheLoyolaProject.com. You don’t have to be a basketball fan to enjoy the story of a basketball game that truly resulted in change.
Right now, the Ramblers are on a winning streak and could be writing a 2022 chapter to add to their story.
Thanks Pat!
