It was not surprising that Huston-Tillotson was beaten down by No. 21 ranked Baylor 81-61 Wednesday night.
What was shocking, though, was the reason behind a Big 12 school willing to play the small NAIA school in the first place.
The game was scheduled for the sake of Hollywood. That’s right, the schools were supposed to be part of a film chronicling Ken Carter, the man whose story inspired the making of the 2005 movie Coach Carter starring Samuel L. Jackson.
Baylor’s sports information director explained to Yahoo! Sports about the arrangement:
“There was a plan for [Carter] to play for Huston-Tillotson this year at age 56,” [director for athletic communications David] Kaye said via email. “There are plans for a second movie, and Baylor provided a big-time college opponent to feature Huston-Tillotson playing against in the movie.”
Kaye said Baylor initially agreed to host the game as a favor to Carter and because coach Scott Drew thought it would be a fun experience for his players to appear in a movie. Baylor honored its contract to host the game even though Carter’s plan to play for Huston-Tillotson fell through and no movie footage was filmed.
Coach Carter went on to top out domestically at $67 million in total ticket sales through an initial 16-week theatrical run.
