Orsten Artis is a retired American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 player. He started at guard for the 1965–66 Texas Western Miners basketball team, the first team in history to win an NCAA championship with five African-American players in the starting lineup.

Artis, a 6'1 guard from Froebel High School in Gary, Indiana

Gary, Indiana

Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city is in the southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area and is 25 miles from downtown Chicago. The population is 80,294 at the 2010 census, making it the seventh-largest city in the state. It borders Lake Michigan and is known...

, played for coach Don Haskins

Don Haskins

Donald Lee Haskins, nicknamed "The Bear" , was an American collegiate basketball coach and player. He played for three years under legendary coach Henry Iba at Oklahoma A&M...

 at Texas Western University (now the University of Texas at El Paso

University of Texas at El Paso

The University of Texas at El Paso is a four-year state university, and is a component institution of the University of Texas System. Its campus is located on the bank of the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas. The school was founded in 1914 as The Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy,...

). With teammates Bobby Joe Hill

Bobby Joe Hill

Tyrone Bobby Joe Hill , was an American basketball player and was the leading scorer of the 1965-66 Texas Western College team, helping the Miners win the 1966 NCAA basketball championship...

, David Lattin, Nevil Shed

Nevil Shed

Nevil Shed attended Morris High school in 1962. He was a member of the Texas Western Miners team that won the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament National Championship. The team was coached by Don Haskins...

 and Harry Flournoy

Harry Flournoy

Harry Flournoy is an African-American former college basketball player, originally from Gary, Indiana. He played college ball for Texas Western College, later called the University of Texas at El Paso, or UTEP; he made history when his team won an NCAA Division I National Championship with the...

, Artis was a part of the first team with an all-black starting lineup to win an NCAA championship after upsetting the Kentucky Wildcats

1965–66 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team

The 1965–66 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team represented the University of Kentucky in NCAA competition in the 1965–66 season. Coached by Adolph Rupp, the team had no player taller than 6'5"/1.96 m—unusually small even for that era—and became known as "Rupp's Runts"...

 in the 1966 NCAA championship

1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

The 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 22 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 7, 1966, and ended with the championship game on March 19 in College Park, Maryland...

. Artis averaged 12.6 points per game that season and was the team's third leading scorer.

The team would be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 and were the subject of the book and movie Glory Road

Glory Road (film)

Glory Road is an American sports film directed by James Gartner, based on a true story dealing with the events leading to the 1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, in which the late Don Haskins – played by Josh Lucas – head coach of the Texas Western College led a team...

.

Artis later became a police detective in his native Gary. He is now retired.