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“Remember the Titans”—The
Rest of the Story
The inspiring story of how Coach Herman Boone
and Coach Bill Yoast struggled to integrate a
football team in a racially charged environment was
told in the hit movie, “Remember the
Titans.” The coaches will share their emotions,
experiences, and humor about the necessities of
teamwork, leadership, and diversity during their
keynote address at AQP’s 25th Annual
Conference. News for a Change decided to whet
readers’ appetites by introducing the
coaches’ perspectives in this
interview.
NFC: You’ve probably heard our
first question over and over, but we can’t
resist. How closely does the movie “Remember
the Titans” reflect what really happened in
your lives?
Coach Boone: We think that the movie
was quite accurate, showing the actual happenings of
the times. Obviously Hollywood has a tendency to jazz
things up a little bit, but quite frankly, it
depicted what I truly believe were the times.
Coach Yoast: I think that the things
that you saw in the movie happened. We emotionalized
some of the events, but they actually did happen.
They just happened a bit differently. For instance,
we did go to the battlefield in Gettysburg and the
speech from the movie was given, but we rode there in
a bus, rather than jumping through the swamp. So,
that scene did happen in real life, but it was made a
little more entertaining for the movie-goers. They
took liberties with some of the things in the movie
that did not actually happen, but basically the story
was true. The real point of the matter was that
Herman got the job and I didn’t and
that’s a fact.
Are you guys as good looking as the actors who
played you?
Coach Yoast: I am.
Coach Boone: I am not so sure. We
took a vote on that, and the vote came out 4 to 1
that I am.
The movie portrays you as having two
substantially different leadership styles. Please
describe your view of leadership. Then tell us how
your two styles blended together to create one
sensible approach that the players could grasp and
follow.
 Coach Boone: First of
all you have to understand what makes a leader. A
leader first of all is an individual who provides a
vision, an individual who shows the way to that
vision through leadership, and of course, an
individual with the ability to lead without
hesitation.
Quite frankly, I am a curser; I am an in-your-face
type of individual. I am loud. I am vocal, and I am
very controversial. That is my style. I do things
quite differently from Coach Yoast, yet we maintain
the same philosophy, which is respect for all of our
different issues and respect for everybody who played
under us and everybody who was under our command. Of
course, leaders can be different and yet similar and
that is the true definition of a leader.
Coach Yoast: I definitely think we
were different, and in the beginning, I thought that
might be a problem, but it turned out to be a real
blessing. We’ve talked about diversity being
good. Well, Herman and I were certainly different,
and that is what diversity is. The situation was sort
of like good cop, bad cop. We each dealt differently
with those young men. I don’t know if I could
have handled that situation like he did, but we were
definitely different and because we were different, a
lot of conflict was brought to the table. Conflict is
usually swept under the rug, and you don’t
actually face up to it. Herman didn’t let that
happen.
Because of our diversity on the coaching staff, we
really were able to do the job much easier. The kids
always had someone to go to—Coach Boone or to
me depending on what their problem was. So, I think
because of our differences in thinking and
philosophy, which were very different, it was the
ideal situation.
It’s obvious that your personal values
had a huge impact on how you approached your new
roles when the school district was integrated. Please
share what values guided your decisions through the
change process.
Coach Boone: Regardless of how much
I cursed, regardless of how much I yelled, regardless
of how much I went up one side of kids and down the
other, I am a person who believes in God. I believe
in God, I believe that confrontation is with and
about him. Talking to God helps me maintain my values
as a family man. I value my family; my God and my
family come first. About values: I don’t think
you can succeed without a philosophy that is worthy
in the sight of God. We have got to pass the values
of life on to our players.
 Coach Yoast: I think
very much that your values are often challenged. You
have to decide between your values and actions to
determine what you are going to do and how to deal
with all the anger and disappointment. You have to
take a close look at your values and not act out of
anger. You can’t control how you feel about
something, but you can control what you do about it.
When your values are challenged, you have to decide
whether you are going along with your values or are
going to change your values or your actions. I think
sticking to values is what brought Coach Boone and me
closer together. We have always had the same values.
We have different ideas of how to develop the
football team, but when it came to the things that
were important, we were on the same page.
You moved your family into a hostile
environment, and you knew your job was at risk. How
did these factors affect the way you tackled the job?
How did you deal with them outside of the
job?
Coach Boone: First of all, I
didn’t know that I was moving into a hostile
environment. I probably should have known because I
had experience with different types of racial issues
in North Carolina. I should have known that
neighborhood was not exactly a welcoming point for
me. But, by the same token, I did not move into this
neighborhood accidentally. I am still living in the
same house.
I did not move here to integrate the school or to
desegregate the neighborhood. I moved here because it
represented the same thing that you want out of
life—a place for my family, proximity to
schools, proximity to job (all of the things that we
all want for our family).
I know that some of those factors that affected us
in our neighborhood also affected us on our jobs. To
this day, people ask me all the time, “How did
you deal with it? How did you relate to it? How did
you work with it?” I worked with it as a human
being; I spoke to my neighbors even though they
didn’t speak back. We slowly broke down many of
the barriers through the avenue of communication. I
stress this to people all over the world: Get to know
someone before you decide to hate them.
You had to make a choice between staying with
the team as assistant coach or moving on to coach
another team. Apparently, that choice was made even
more difficult because you had to confront people who
had been your friends and supporters for many years.
Can you tell us what you did and how you dealt with
the repercussions?
Coach Yoast: When this happened, I
did have other options. A lot of my friends thought I
was making a mistake when I decided to stay, and they
encouraged me to go other places. I looked at this,
and after a lot of thinking, I realized that this
would give me an opportunity to do something that I
had never been able to do before—that is to
work with the black students. I think my friends
eventually came to the same conclusion.
Sometimes the right thing or the most popular
thing is not always the easiest thing to do, but you
have to trust yourself and do what you think is best.
I just told myself that I should not change my values
to please my friends.
It wasn’t an easy choice in the beginning.
Sometimes your first reaction is anger and
disappointment. When you act on those feelings, I
think you are making a mistake. My friends very much
were against my decision, but they were my friends,
and they went along with it. I never lost a friend
over it.
Your daughters played a significant role in the
movie. How did they affect your thinking and
decisions back then? What are they doing now?
Coach Yoast: Sometimes your children
can influence you without you realizing it. Sheryl
influenced me the most through the questions that she
asked. I was explaining the answers to her and
through explaining them to her I began to have to
look a little bit deeper as to why I made the
decision that I made.
In the beginning, Sheryl did not like Coach Boone
as shown in the movie. I can remember the first time
we went together and met with Coach Boone. The thing
she said to me as we left was, “I think you
going to enjoy working with Coach Boone.”
Coach Boone: Some Hollywood trickery
was necessary when it came to our daughters’
names in the movie. My daughter’s name really
is Sharon. With my daughter’s name being Sharon
and Coach Yoast’s daughter’s name being
Sheryl, the actors kept getting the two of them mixed
up. The movie producers came to me and said that we
are going to have to change the name of one of our
daughters. So we flipped a coin down in Atlanta, and
I lost. They changed my daughter’s name from
Sharon to my youngest daughter’s name, which is
Nicki. When they did that, they created more problems
for me than they did good for themselves. Now this is
about as clear as mud to people who meet my
daughters.
Of course, I truly believe it was because of
Sharon, my firstborn, that I created my philosophy. I
was determined that I was not going to raise her to
be subservient. I was not going to raise her with a
segregated mentality. I was not going to raise her to
be less than a complete person. I looked at her
basically as my guiding light. I truly began to fight
back against segregation after she was born.
Learn more about Coach Herman Boone and Coach
Bill Yoast’s philosophies and experiences by
attending their keynote presentation on Wednesday,
February 26, 2003, from 10:30 a.m. to noon at
AQP’s 25th Annual Conference in New
Orleans.
Diversity and Change
During our conversation with Coach Boone and
Coach Yoast, we asked them to share their
perspectives on the definition of diversity and how
it affects change and results.
Coach Boone: My definition of
diversity is very short. Diversity is about who we
are as individuals—both our similarities and
differences. It is about who we are as individuals in
this country where each of us can and will
succeed.
I truly believe diversity improves results in all
communities. If you truly embrace diversity, then you
provide a way for people to talk with each other.
For example, we talked about diversity at the
national mayors’ convention in Boston, as well
as how diversity becomes the vehicle for bringing
people together to talk. The mayor of Tallahassee
went back and got all of the people of Tallahassee
just to talk to each other. And from that talking to
each other, everyone got to know each other. They now
have a special situation in Tallahassee. I truly
believe that by getting to know each other, the
people in Tallahassee have been able to improve their
city.
Coach Yoast: We go to a lot of
places talking about diversity. I think in the
beginning when all this started, people looked at
diversity as a black-white issue. To me, diversity
simply means people who are different—they act
differently, they speak differently, they have
different ideas. I think if we could ever get over
the barriers that separate people who are different,
we actually could make diversity a blessing, rather
than a problem.
I think that anytime you bring people who are
different together you are going to be better
informed. I really believe that the more diverse the
point of view the stronger the nation becomes. You
get stronger and better with diversity.
I always thought that diversity has to start at
the top; you can’t start at the bottom. When
the players and the community realized that Coach
Boone and I were able to come together, I think it
had quite an influence on some members of the
team.
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