They Could Really Play the Game is an award-winning documentary about a 1950’s basketball team whose star player and fiery coach captured America’s imagination, helped restore college basketball’s tarnished reputation, and saved their struggling college from financial ruin.
The Rio Grande Redmen from a tiny college in Appalachian Ohio astounded the college basketball world with a high-scoring center named Bevo Francis and the hardscrabble coach, Newt Oliver. The Redmen set records, saved their school, and may have saved the game of college basketball.