BACKGROUND
A historical documentary, GameChangers sits at the intersection of sports, race and culture, tipping off with rare, 8mm footage taken from two high school basketball games played in Chicago in the mid-Sixties. These tense, playoff matchups featured some predictable storylines, city versus suburbs, black versus white, and both games were played against the backdrop of a very turbulent time. Plenty of pre-game and post-game drama surrounded this particular rivalry, with shattered backboards, some really good basketball, and incendiary headlines ... all taking center stage.
Fifty years to the day after the only playoff game in IHSA history to end before the final horn sounded, these rivals came back together for an unexpected reunion, and subsequent interviews with the attendees combine to shed new light on old memories. Much has transpired in the years since 1966, while some matters seem starkly the same.
The Teams
In 1965 and 1966, Marshall and New Trier met in the Evanston SuperSectional in back to back years for the right to go downstate to play for the state championship.
Marshall, the powerhouse from the Chicago Public League and perennial champ, was led by All American Richard Bradshaw. “Brad” went on to play at Kansas. New Trier, trying to advance downstate for the first time, featured 6'11" Larry Rosenzweig, also an All State selection. Larry went on to play at Stanford.
THE BRAWL
Both games sold out McGaw Hall, the Northwestern University arena, as the City versus Suburban League match-up was highly anticipated every year. Over 8,500 fans attended and even 50 years later, the associated memories remain vivid today. Though we won’t give away the ending, part of the drama included fights that broke out at the end of the ‘66 game between the respective fan bases. The chaos in the stands that evening and dramatic headlines in the newspaper the next day reflected the turbulence in communities all across the country during that time. To defuse the annual City vs Suburban League clash, Northwestern never hosted an IHSA SuperSectional again.
