By David DiCerto
Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins changed the face of collegiate sports by starting five black players against an all-white squad from top-ranked Kentucky. It was a first in college hoops. Famed NBA coach Pat Riley -- a member of that Kentucky team -- would call the game "the Emancipation Proclamation of 1966."

The watershed event and the improbable season leading up to it are the subject of director James Gartner's feel-good, if formulaic, "Glory Road" (Disney).

The inspirational film follows the blueprint of past Disney sports movies like "Remember the Titans" and "Miracle": No-nonsense coach, all about winning, molds underdogs into champs, while imparting locker-room life lessons.

But Gartner's film is as much about bigotry as it is about basketball, and should appeal to even nonsports fans.

Played with fervor by Josh Lucas, Haskins, an unproven former girls' high school coach is hired by a dusty college in El Paso, Texas, to turn around its losing program. The school was looking for more wins and fewer empty seats; what they got, according to one sports columnist, was the hardwood equivalent of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that ended segregation in public schools.

Bucking the racial barrier, Haskins makes the bold and unpopular move of recruiting African-American athletes, from northern urban centers such as Detroit and the South Bronx in New York, who bring their own brand of street swagger to the game. They include cocky point guard Bobby Joe Hill (Derek Luke) and emotional leader Willie Cager (Damaine Radcliff).

Haskins tries to break them of their showboating by drilling them on the fundamentals, stressing discipline. When not barking motivation from the sidelines, Haskins must hold the team together amid racist backlash, including one of his players getting brutally beaten in a diner restroom, and the athletes' hotel rooms being vandalized. (While several of the ugly episodes were invented by the screenwriter, Haskins did in fact receive hate mail and death threats.)

His hard work pays off, as the interracial Texas Western squad pulls off several upsets en route to the national championship game against the top-seeded Wildcats, coached by Adolph Rupp (Jon Voight).

Some may feel that, to heighten the emotional drama, the film takes unfair dramatic license in its insensitive portrayal of the Kentucky team and its fans as Confederate flag-waving racists.

Emily Deschanel plays Haskins' dutiful wife, Mary, whose underwritten role consists of little more than assorted concerned expressions.

The players are sketchily drawn as well, but the quick-edit basketball sequences are electrifying and Gartner adds a nice touch by interweaving reminiscences by the real-life teammates -- as well as Riley -- into the end credits.

Clichés and occasional inaccuracies notwithstanding (Haskins actually brought his team to the finals in his fifth, not first, year), this enjoyable "Road" is paved with good messages about teamwork and racial equality that transcend sports.

And although short of a slam dunk, "Glory Road" has heart, which, as coach Haskins repeatedly drives home, is what truly determines a winner -- on the court or on the screen.

The film contains an instance of violence, some racial slurs and minimal crude language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG -- parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.