The Retort

They Are the Titans

January 29th, 2010 by Bailey Martin Of The Retort Staff

The Power of One week, January 18-23, celebrated the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. The week began with annual bell ringing ceremony on January 18 and ended with a service project led by MSUB on January 23. One major highlight of the week was when Herman Boone, coach of the 1971 T.C. Williams Titans, spoke on January 21 in the Petro Theatre, after a showing of Remember the Titans. Remember the Titans is a movie written about Coach Boone’s 1971 team and the experiences they underwent to become a team. Coach Boone gave his audience a more detailed and truthful look at the 1971 Titans and their journey.

“Remember the Titans is not about football, but it is about respect and about triumph,” he said to his audience. Coach Boone spoke of how three high schools in Alexandria combined into one, T.C. Williams High School, after the Supreme Court ruling on the Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education caused Virginia schools to desegregate through a busing program. Racial tensions between the black and white players were coupled with the fact that the three integrated schools had previously been rivalries.

“They simply did not like each other. They did not like each other not only because of their races, religions, and local backgrounds, but because they had fierce rivalries before they had consolidated the three schools,” explained Coach Boone.

Coach Boone had only been in Alexandria for one year prior to the integration of schools. When he was named head coach of the Titans over Coach Yoast, a white man with more seniority and popularity, Coach Boone also became the center of a controversy. “However, if Coach Yoast had been appointed coach of that team it would have meant that all head coaches in that city would be white,” he explained.

The whole country was in turmoil over the integration of schools and busing. When the Superintendent of the school district called Coach Boone and said that he could ease these difficult times if he could just get those players to like each other. “I thought to myself...you must be outside your mind, how the world am I supposed to make people like each other?” said Coach Boone.

The white kids didn’t like Coach Boone because he was black and the black kids didn’t think he was black enough. Coach Boone explained how he had to be super organized and use some ingenious strategies, including humor, to get his players to work with him. The world was watching him to see if he was successful with the Titans.

On that first day, it was obvious, Coach Boone explained, that they had no intention of sitting together as a team. Even the coaches were divided by race. “If I can’t get the coaches to get together than how I get these players to play together,” Coach Boone thought.

“A team is a group of people with one vision, one objective, and one heartbeat,” Coach Boone told his players at their first meeting. “I can and will demand that you respect each other.” And Coach Boone followed through on his promise.

Coach Boone also taught us the difference between “right now” and the Southern “riiight now” is that “right now” means that you are about to do something. While “riiight now” means “do it so fast that the Lord won’t find out about it until next week,” he said.

“History tells us the Gettysburg is known as the cradle of freedom in America. Gettysburg is a little town in Eastern Pennsylvania where two armies met each other by accident and they didn’t like each other. And they fought, the fought each other to the point where they almost destroyed the foundation of our country. History also tells us that because these two armies fought each other and didn’t like each other, the result was one nation…indivisible with justice for all,” Coach Boone explained the significance of having the Titan football camp at Gettysburg College.

He spoke of how segregated the buses were the day they were leaving for camp and how he switched them up by demanding that certain rows from each bus switch seats with each other “riiight now.” Even though the Titans didn’t speak to their new teammates that day, they later told Coach Boone that the experiences of that day have stuck with them.

Coach Boone spoke about the scene in Remember the Titans where he walks into the cafeteria at Gettysburg and his team was racially segregated again, he said that he ordered everyone on those buses “riiight now” and then he had the bus driver take them to the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Coach Boone said, “I may be crazy, but I didn’t run those kids through a swamp at 3 o’clock in the morning. I took them on a bus at eight o’clock at night. I wanted them to see where thousands of those soldiers from North and South met each other and destroyed each other over hate.”

Coach Boone also made the Titans do a talent show their last night at Gettysburg. He wanted to see in the show if any changes had been made in his players attitudes in all of their time together. He recalled how the white players painted their faces black and did black humor. The black players painted their faces white and did white humor. And they all had fun and no words or terms of disrespect were used. Then the next morning, all of the tables at breakfast were completely integrated for the first time.

When they returned from camp, the Titans were able to talk to one another and through that they were able to begin understanding one another. And at school, these players told their friends that it was okay to talk to people of another race and understanding spread.

President Richard Nixon heard of Coach Boone’s team and their success and becoming a team and he sent a staff member to observe them for a week. The staff member reported back to President Nixon, “Mr. President, this team is truly a team and a showcase not only for their school, but for their community and our nation.”

Coach Boone spoke of how fans still sat divided by race in the stands until about the fifth game and then they gradually began mixing together. He also spoke of the relationship between Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell was actually more intense than in the movie and just as sincere. Their rocky start in Remember the Titans was even rockier in real life because Gerry was a member of a white supremacist group and Julius was a Black Panther. Eventually Gerry and Julius came together as a result of their mutual strong faith.

Unlike in the movie, Gerry played every game during the 1971 season. It was only after the state championship and an award dinner that Gerry crashed his car and became paralyzed from the waist down. Like in the movie, Gerry would not let anyone come visit him in the hospital until after he saw Julius.

Coach Boone also told his audience how Gerry was responsible for many different aspects of handicap accessibility in America. He said, “every time you see a wheel chair ramp, think Gerry Bertier.” He also told us that Julius still visits and cleans off Gerry’s grave every month.

He also told us that the Titans have their own website, www.71originaltitans.com, and that they have a foundation, the 1971 Original Titans Foundation that provides scholarships to students from T.C. Williams for post-secondary education.

“Watch your thoughts, because they become your words, watch your words because they become your actions, watch your actions because they become your habits, watch your habits because they become your character.”

Coach Boone also spoke of how greatly his father and Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired him.

It was an entertaining and touching evening with Coach Boone that felt more personal than attending a speech. A fitting part of the Power of One week that reminded us of the possibilities that arise from working together as a team.