January 16th, 2006

Glory Road: Recreating The Game

The story of GLORY ROAD culminates in a pivotal scene for which Jerry Bruckheimer and James Gartner marshaled all their artistic resources – the 1966 NCAA championship game that changed history and was the pinnacle of all that Don Haskins hoped to achieve.  The game had to be at once authentic and exciting, full of both the palpable tension and poetry in motion that made the David-and-Goliath match-up a nail-biting classic. 

The production began by tracking down rare homemade footage that still existed of the game, as well as photographs from Texas Western yearbooks and over 30 priceless rolls of photographic film shot by Sports Illustrated.  These helped to give the filmmakers a richer visual perspective of what happened during the game and what it looked like to the world.

Collaborating closely with directors of photography John Toon and Jeffrey Kimball, Gartner hoped to capture in the game both an authentic essence of 1966 – as well as dynamic basketball moves that would speak to today’s love of slick, fast-paced, tightly competitive action. 

Attempting to shoot the beloved game with fresh eyes, the camera team used a number of innovative rigs to follow the action first hand – and sometimes used as many as five cameras at once.  Kimball notes, “We rigged a ‘flying camera’ above the basketball court sidelines that could slide on a thick wire as fast as gravity.  We also built a skateboard dolly to capture action low to the court floor, and a rickshaw type of rig so you could literally run up and down the court with the players.  These techniques, along with cameras on cranes that looked right down into the basketball hoop, provided us with some very exciting footage.”

 Meanwhile, production designer Geoffrey Kirkland was also faced with the task of bringing to life mid-60s college life in all his designs for GLORY ROAD.  He worked closely with the art department in re-creating the stadium atmosphere, right down to the signage and banners that were exact replicas of those used during the game.  Even the old-fashioned electronic scoreboards were duplicated. 

Gartner wanted the overall color palate of the film to feel very primal and earthy, echoing the environs of El Paso with its vibrant Mexican heritage.  But he also wanted Kirkland to imbue the film with a fun sense of nostalgia.  “When you remember things from the past, those memories are influenced by old photographs and old pictures that are not colorful.  We wanted to capture that kind of black and white, sepia feeling but without ever being drab,” says Kirkland.

Because of scheduling delays due to the looming Hurricane Ivan, a location for the big game had to be found at the spur of the moment.  The filmmakers settled on a livestock show arena at the Louisiana State University campus in Baton Rouge.  The floor of the arena was dirt, so Kirkland constructed his own vintage basketball court made of wood.  By this point, he had become an expert in converting modern gymnasiums back to a 60s period look – and had even forged a special “traveling” wood floor that could be quickly installed in different arenas for scenes of the Miners on the road.  

Kirkland knew that every detail would count. “In other sports, arenas tend to be so huge so you can hide things seen in the background,” he observes, “but a basketball arena is like a small theater in the round.  You can see everything.  It is very intimate.” 

Comments Jerry Bruckheimer:  “It was really important to me that the film capture 1966 very authentically.  Geoffrey Kirkland did a superb job as production designer and brought a lot of high-quality realism to the film.” 

Also adding to the realism was the period clothing designed by costume designer Alix Friedberg.  Friedberg focused not only on the vintage basketball uniforms but also the more formal clothing of those watching in the stands, right down to thick-rimmed black glasses for the men, cat-eyed style glasses for the ladies, dazzling vintage jewelry, high-heeled pumps, and brown leather loafers.

 Friedberg was especially thrilled to have people who were there to witness the event giving her first-hand information.  “From Don Haskins himself to the library at Texas El Paso, everyone just opened their doors to us.  We were so fortunate to have this authentic information to create from,” says Friedberg. 

Friedberg and Gartner made the unusual decision to have the Miners’ uniforms evolve during the course of the film, the colors becoming richer and warmer as the young men develop their unsinkable bonds as a team and work against the odds towards victory. They started with the authentic 1966 Texas Western uniform.

“I was so lucky because one of the players still had his original jersey from 1966 and let me borrow it to track down the mill that created the fabric,” explains the production designer.  “The mill was more than cooperative and they dusted off the machines they hadn’t used for over thirty years and recreated the original jerseys for our movie. They used the exact yarn, the same pattern.  Seam for seam they are perfect replicas.”

 The resulting uniforms were a surprise to contemporary fans of the NBA.  Says Jerry Bruckheimer, “When you look at the player uniforms from GLORY ROAD you suddenly realize how wardrobe has changed for basketball in the last 40 years.  There was nothing oversized.  Things fit snug back then right down to the Chuck Taylor Classic Converse’s.” 

 The challenges of going back in time also extended to the prop department, which had to make sure that even the concession cups would resemble the Coca-Cola design of 1966 and that the floor reporters would be tapping away on authentic Royal and Smith-Corona typewriters.  Every detail was straight out of an old newsreel depicting the historic championship game.

How real did the GLORY ROAD set ultimately feel? Coach Pat Riley, formerly of the Los Angeles Lakers and now President of the Miami Heat, who had played for the Kentucky Wildcats in the 1966 championship game, said he felt catapulted back in time when he visited the set. Riley comments: “It was clear from the moment they walked on the court the Miners had presence.  More presence than us Wildcats.  This is what won them the game.  Coming to the set of GLORY ROAD was the first time I had met Don Haskins.  It was strange and wonderful exchanging stories about the game almost forty years later.  It was like it had happened yesterday.”