” Herman Boone had a toilet thrown through his window, a next door neighbor who broke his air conditioner and a Ku Klux Klan member beat the black off him during his time as the influential and groundbreaking football coach of T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia.”
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Herman Boone had a toilet thrown through his window, a next door neighbor who broke his air conditioner and a Ku Klux Klan member beat the black off him during his time as the influential and groundbreaking football coach of T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia.
Boone, who inspired the Disney film Remember the Titans, spoke to an estimated 730 people in the Student Union Ballroom Wednesday, nearly half of which were forced to stand because of fire code regulations.
The 74-year-old former football coach, which actor Denzel Washington immortalized in the movie, was thrust into the head football coaching job at T.C. Williams after three segregated schools merged into one in Virginia a state where football is revered more than Christmas, and where you can take a man’s wife to lunch but you can’t fool with football, Boone said.
He became the central figure in the racially-charged town after being hired to the position that was considered prominent in the community.
But he learned of his hiring by reading about it in the newspaper one morning. He was never asked if he wanted the job and said he, in fact, didn’t want it and that incumbent coach Bill Yost, a highly respected football man at the time, deserved the job because of his seniority.
Boone was forced into a toxic situation at the high school and in the community. His family was put in jeopardy and he said he received threats nightly.
The football team’s racial attitudes mirrored the community’s. The white players on the team hated the black players and vice versa. At one point, Boone said in an interview following his speech, that during summer training camp, the lunch room was so tense he had to do something.
So Boone made his players talk to each other. Every player was supposed to talk to a teammate they didn’t know between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., then report to the coaches what they learned, receiving initials next to the player’s name. Boone said the players started forging initials, until he made coaches switch pen color daily.
In two weeks, the players made their way back to Alexandria and Boone caught a glimpse of a black player dancing in the bus aisle to Country Road by James Taylor, a Country Western song.
I knew I had a team then, said Boone, who had 62 speaking engagements last year and is a South Florida resident.
That was Boone’s main message Wednesday: communicate with each other.
Because we were able to talk we were able to come together, Boone said. When you talk with someone, that becomes the basis for trusting, which is like emotional glue.
Boone, who made his fifth trip to Akron for a speaking engagement, also discussed the environment he called the street code, where young black people are judged by what they wear and who they impressed.
The theme resonated with freshman nursing student Sylvia Weary, who went to the speech after being inspired by Remember the Titans.
I should motivate myself more and not give in, Weary said. I am kind of materialistic and I don’t want to be that stereotype anymore.
Kevin Waklatsi, a junior history and English major and the president of the Student African-American Brotherhood group, which sponsored the event, spent the day with Boone, showing him around campus and soaking in the advice that Boone offered.
He told me to master my use of the English language, Waklatsi said. People will judge you based on how you present yourself, how you use the English language and he told me how to be professional. He also told me to never where my pants below my below.
Waklatsi, however, said he sees similar problems to the issues the Titans had on UA’s campus.
I see white students sitting separately from black students when I walk by the Union Market, in the student union, Waklatsi said. This campus can definitely unify more.
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