If you’ve watched Digital Harbor’s girls basketball team play this season, you’ve probably noticed the back of their warm-up shirts: “Champions 381.”

The 381 stands for the number of days the African American population of Montgomery, Ala., walked to get around town during the bus boycott, one of the key actions in the fight for civil rights.

The boycott began on Dec. 5, 1955, the day that Rosa Parks went on trial for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. (She was convicted but refused to pay the fine and appealed.) The boycott ended on Dec. 20, 1956, when the Supreme Court ruled segregation of buses to be unconstitutional.

“We use that as motivation,” said Rams senior forward Tiana Mitchell. “If they could walk for 381 days, then we can play for 32 minutes.”

Coach Patrick McDonald said he’s received a lot of inquiries from officials and fans about the 381. It’s one of several motivating themes for the No. 8 Rams' 10-1 season, which McDonald said teaches lessons that transcend basketball.

“For them to walk for 381 days during the bus boycott when they decided to break that atrocity that was written into law, I tell [the Rams], 'You can play 30 minutes of basketball. It’s not that big of a deal. You just have to make the sacrifice,' ” McDonald said.

“We talk about it every day in practice,” Mitchell said. “That’s our motivation. We’ve got it on a banner, on our shirts. We’ve got it everywhere. We carry it with us spirit-wise, too.”

-- Katherine Dunn