By Reggie Hayes of The News-Sentinel- I'm not old enough to have been on the job when Jackie Robinson came to Fort Wayne to help promote Wildcat baseball back in the day.

The chance to meet Harry Flournoy and Nevil Shed felt like the next-best thing.

Flournoy and Shed, two members of the 1966 Texas Western College men's basketball team, made an impact with nearly as much social significance as Robinson.

Texas Western was the first college to win an NCAA basketball title with an all-black starting five. The Miners' landmark defeat of all-white Kentucky helped set the course for better acceptance of minorities in college athletics.

It was a test that only those who lived through it could truly understand.

“I was called names that could have put a person pretty low,” Shed said before speaking at a fundraiser Tuesday for Keystone Schools and the host Salvation Army.

Often when those comments flowed, Texas Western coach Don Haskins would challenge Shed and his teammates to rise above the racist noise.

“He would say, ‘Are you really that name he called you?'” Shed said. “I'd say ‘no,' and he'd say, ‘Then show them exactly who you are. Your character is much higher than that.'”

So Shed and his teammates - much like Robinson when he broke into Major League Baseball - ignored the hurtful words and silenced critics with their performance.

Ultimately, Texas Western's triumph empowered other colleges to seek talented black student-athletes and led 40 years later to the 2006 movie, “Glory Road” and the team's induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Keeping a stoic outlook in 1966 was a challenge, as they faced animosity and flat-out hatred because they were black.

“I could understand if they were booing and calling you names because you wore a different color uniform,” Flournoy said. “They were doing it because our skin was a different color.”

Flournoy was a starter and team captain. He landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated the week after Texas Western's championship win, snaring a rebound away from Kentucky's Pat Riley.

Flournoy says it's important to tell his team's story, even the ugly parts of it, to remind younger people of our country's past in order to keep working to make racism a thing of the past.

“We tend to stereotype and categorize people without even knowing them,” Flournoy said.

“Back in the days when I was playing, people would say they hated me. Now I didn't know them and they didn't know me. There was no reason for that hate except somebody told them what they ought to do. We need to be people who research for ourselves and judge for ourselves.”

Flournoy and Shed talked to a group of about 60 people Thursday. They discussed the movie, noting that some scenes - including a beating suffered by Shed - were fiction added to advance the plot. Everything in the movie could have happened, but not everything did happen, Flournoy said.

“I have a first-grade grandson who always says, ‘Play “Glory Road,” Grandpa,'” Shed said. “Every time I watch it I see something different, and I'll cry. It's about 85 percent accurate. But the essence is 100 percent.”

It was years after 1966 that the players - none of whom ended up with pro basketball careers - realized the impact they had made by breaking a barrier.

Since retiring, Flournoy and Shed travel the country, although not always together, speaking about the season and their lives since then. They are encouraged by the racial progress the country has made, including the election of President Obama, but both say there is more work to be done.

There is a danger of becoming complacent, Flournoy said. He said it's important to keep building a chain of love, tolerance and understanding.

“The main thing that started to grow on me and gnaw on me is that young people sometimes take what they have for granted,” Flournoy said. “They don't realize all the blood, sweat and tears shed for them to have what they have. … Everyone has to keep doing their part.”

Flournoy and Shed challenged the young people in the audience Tuesday to make a positive impact with their lives. The audience responded with a final standing ovation.

While neither Flournoy nor Shed has the immediate household name of Jackie Robinson, they're just as important kindred spirits. Meeting them was an honor.