When Richard Tate moved from Tulsa, Okla., to Denver with his family in 1957, it became a life-changing experience.
Tate entered the ninth grade at Morey Junior High School and for the first time was in an integrated school. By the time he graduated from Denver East High School in 1962, Tate had become a prominent member of the student body.
It didn’t hurt that he was a gifted three-sport athlete, one of the best ever to play in Colorado.
Tate lost a battle with bone cancer March 7. He was 71 years old and a retiree of Denver’s parole and probation office. The family did not have a funeral service but is planning a memorial in May.
“Richard had a great personality, and he drew everybody to him,” said Pat Moriarity, a teammate at East and a former teacher and coach in the Denver Public Schools. “He was a great athlete. The cheerleading squad at East had a special cheer just for Richard.”
Tate was a special talent. He played for Utah in the 1966 Final Four and also spent time with the Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns in the NFL. But he never forgot the influence that his high school coaches had on him.
“I didn’t know that much about life when I got to East,” Tate said in an interview. “My coaches knew what they were talking about, and they were fair with me and gave me opportunity. That’s all I could ask.”
Tate played football for coach Pat Panek, basketball for coaches Bill Weimar and Paul Coleman and baseball for Myran Craig.
Tate didn’t realize the significance of the 1966 Final Four until some years later.
“I was just playing basketball,” he said. “I always had played on teams that had both black and white players.”
Texas Western won the tournament, defeating Kentucky 72-65, to become the first NCAA champion with a starting lineup of all black players.
“The outcome changed the whole complexion of college basketball,” Tate said. “Just to be there and be part of it was like a dream come true. I just wish we (Utah) could have won it all.”
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296, imoss@denverpost.com or
