Nevil Shed hadn’t been back to College Park in nearly 50 years. Not since he and 11 other players on the Texas Western men’s basketball team made history.

So on Saturday afternoon, with the windchill pushing the temperature well below freezing, it wasn’t the cold that had Shed shaking as he and four other teammates stepped into Cole Field House.

It was the memories flooding back. Remembering the historic 1966 national championship game that saw Texas Western start five black players and beat an all-white Kentucky squad, 72-65, inside the building. Recalling his dad being in the stands for the first time. And trying to put the historical significance of that game in perspective.

It was an emotional day for Shed, Willie Worsley, David Lattin, Willie Cager and Louis Baudoin, who returned to Cole Field House before being honored during halftime of the Terps’ 70-57 loss to Wisconsin.

“It took me a long time to really understand how special we were. I mean, we were just a bunch of kids,” Shed said. “It wasn’t until years later when it really hit us to what we had done.

“I guess we can say, yes, we are legends.”

Willie Cager, a member of the 1966 Texas Western national championship team, wears his title ring on the ride over to tour Cole Field House for the 50th anniversary of the Miners’ historic achievement on Saturday. (Christian Jenkins/The Diamondback)

Lattin and Bobby Joe Hill, who died in 2002, started to understand the importance the game would have for minorities in their hotel room before the game. Texas Western coach Don Haskins called the seven black players on the team into Lattin and Hill’s room.

Haskins told them that Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp had said in a news conference about an hour earlier that five blacks couldn’t beat five white players.

“Coach Haskins obviously had something else in mind,” Lattin said. “He kind of looked around the room and he said, ‘It’s up to you.'”

At the time, Lattin didn’t know Haskins was going to start five black players in the championship.

After Haskins and the rest of the teammates left the room, Lattin and Hill remained. Hill looked at Lattin and said, “You know we aren’t going to lose this game.”

They didn’t. History would be made March 19, 1966, in College Park before an announced 14,253 — some of whom were waving Confederate flags.

The world wasn’t watching — the game wasn’t televised nationally — but the importance remained.

“They made history,” university President Wallace Loh wrote in a email. “They broke a barrier. They created equal opportunities for student-athletes today. They changed college basketball forever.”

University President Wallace Loh speaks during an introduction of members of the 1966 Texas Western national championship team at Heritage Hall in Xfinity Center on Saturday. (Christian Jenkins/The Diamondback)

Loh introduced the five players who returned before a panel discussion at Xfinity Center on Saturday. Throughout the 30-minute talk, the Miners recalled fond memories of that March night and their team.

Perhaps no moment stood out more than Lattin discussing his posterizing dunk over former Kentucky guard Pat Riley.

“That dunk was incredible,” Lattin said. “It had my mother’s chicken on it, rice and gravy. That’s what that dunk had. That dunk had everything and it was awesome. I think they really understood that they were really going to be defeated after that.”

Added Shed: “It’s amazing that the rim stayed up there.”

The Miners reminisced about the grueling practices under Haskins, the tough road they encountered to even get to the championship game and the atmosphere inside Cole Field House that night.

For Shed, though, one moment stood above the rest.

After the Miners had completed their upset of the Wildcats, Shed and Harry Flournoy began walking off the court. Shed glanced up into the crowd and spotted his father, who had never seen him play a game.

Crowned an NCAA champion, he pointed up toward his dad.

“That was my way of thanking my champion for all the hard work and the things he went though to nourish me to have that chance to become a NCAA champion,” Shed said as he fought back tears.

Looking around the entrance to Cole Field House, with “Champion Texas Western” painted on the wall, he couldn’t help but think back to his dad.

“Boy,” Shed said. “I wish he could see this now.”

Senior staff writer Darcy Costello contributed to this report.