Wade Houston featured in new Roots 101 exhibit

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — More than six decades ago, the University of Louisville men’s basketball team broke barriers in Kentucky long before the Civil Rights Act took effect.

Legendary basketball player and coach Wade Houston spoke about his rise to success during the state’s civil rights movement and how his UofL team broke the color barrier in the commonwealth.

Houston left his family in Alcoa, Tenn., and moved to the Bluegrass to play basketball at UofL in the 1960s.

But his loved ones, and even he, were afraid to come to Kentucky.

“They were worried, and I was worried,” he told WHAS11. “Because I didn’t do it, there was so much unknown because you had to remember, you know, the Civil Rights Act, the one of 1964. So in 1961, 1960, 1959, there was still a lot of trouble going on in the South, it was scary.

Houston, along with teammates Eddie Whitehead and the late Sam Smith, often found themselves playing in areas of Kentucky where black individuals were not accepted. But their path has been paved with history.

“Football players had already gone to school. So in the ’50s, Lenny Lyles and Lee Callen, Ernie Green, those guys paved the way for us. So it was a lot easier for me, Eddie and Sam came here because these guys led the way and we stood on their shoulders,” added Houston.

Life on the basketball court was great for Houston, but adjusting during his first year was difficult. When the holidays arrived, he returned home where he had a powerful conversation with his father.

Houston wasn’t sure he could return to Kentucky.

“I said, ‘This is so much you have to go through,’” he recalled. “And (my father) looked at me, he said, ‘Well, let me tell you something,’ he said, ‘Now we’ve been through a lot more than you.

That’s when Houston’s father laid down the law.

“He said ‘you’re going back to school.’ And I thought about it, I said he was right,” Houston said, adding that the rest it’s history.

After graduating, Houston became an assistant coach at UofL for 13 years. He then became head coach at the University of Tennessee from 1989 to 1994.

These days, Houston – a successful entrepreneur – still considers Louisville his home.

At Roots 101 African American Museum, he is honored to be featured in a new exhibit, “Breaking the Color Barrier,” where his family can visit and celebrate his accomplishments.

He said one of the real secrets to success is simply being open and listening.

“A lot of people don’t know how to listen. My dad told me years ago, ‘It’s hard to learn when you’re talking with your mouth open,'” Houston said.

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