Lindsy Lawrence
English 1213
18 April 18 2011
Remember the Titans
Back in the 1950s through the 1970s, having integrated schools was a huge deal. There were often very violent riots resulting in students having to be escorted in by the United States Army. Yeah, our country was that crazy. Integrating school was just absolute chaos at the time and usually resulted in outbursts in violence and was just extremely risky to bring white and black together especially in the southeastern region. Blacks and Whites did everything separately. Each race would have their own neighborhood, their own school, their own stores, their own restrooms and even their own water fountains. Absolutely everything was segregated and if you were white, you associated everything with whites. If you were black you associated with blacks and did everything with blacks, and this was just the way the culture was, and nobody really thought twice about it. One of riots going on during these times.
So in 1971, when a school in Virginia not only decides to integrate schools, but decided to hire an African American Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) as their head football coach. This story was portrayed the movie “Remember the Titans”. Other than making the white coach, Bill Yoast (Will Patton), who had been the head coach at the white school in the district and had been very successful and was a future hall of famer; they decided to make Coach Boone the head coach. This was not well received by the “white folk” in the community to say the least. This resulted in intense hatred from the white and black people; there was a lot of animosity to begin with, there had already been a white store owner kill a black teenager during this time so tensions were already sky high. The school board whom predominantly white, wanted Bill Yoast hired, but because of the tensions of the whites and blacks of the community, they felt like they needed to make Coach Boone the head coach. Life was really difficult for Coach Boone. He was mocked and scolded .People would refer to him as “coach coon’ there was even people throwing bricks through his house window and just trying to make life difficult.
There was no love lost from the black or white students of the school either. The students had been brought up to not associate with anybody who isn’t the color of your own skin. All of while this is going on, the high school football team of the school headed off to training camp; heading into camp. the team was very divided into white and black and the tension was unreal. As Soon as they arrived to camp, a fight had already broken out between two of the best players of the team which one was white Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst), and one was black, Julius Campbell (Wood Harris) and the argument was all over a poster being hung on the wall.
Bertier and Campbell exchanging words
Now football players are very hard headed and very stubborn when it comes to being told what they can and cannot do, especially by their peers. As a football player, you have to walk and talk with some swag and never show weakness or fear. The two players that started the fight are perfect examples of how a football player conducts himself. Bertier likes everyone to know that he is the star of the team and is the all American linebacker and the team is his, and he is the captain. He is very flamboyant and isn’t shy at letting people know who’s the best. Campbell on the other hand, is the hard headed doesn’t answer to anyone kind of person who isn’t afraid to get in your face and voice his opinion about things. So not only do these players already clash in the personality, but there is also hatred brewing because the differences in the color of their skin. The head coach Herman Boone then makes it mandatory that the white players get to know the black players and vice versa. After yet another unsuccessful attempt to get the players to bond. Herman Boone takes the players to the battle field of the battle of Gettysburg.
It was a great life lesson and an eye opening experience for the players and was really the changing point in camp and bringing the players together and super ceding race. The players had been really practicing hard and had already been through a lot together but what pushed it over the edge was the brotherhood and the allegiance showed by the team captains Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell. After that moment the team really bonded together for the rest of the camp and showed the brotherhood that it takes to be high school football teammates.
This was only the first step of keeping the bond together when went back to school and faced the pressure of being back with their “people” and the friendships and their brotherhood between the white players and black were being strained. It was a rocky start and the players were being affected on and off the field, but a team meeting called by the team captains, that really brought the team back together and made them even stronger than before.
The team bonding together again
The team really bonded again and the team really started dominating the competition and everything was going great. It was never easy though. Before the season had even started the school board had come to a decision that if the team lost a game then Coach Boone would be fired. This was even more added pressure put on the coach. At first the community was still divided and weren’t really behind the team but as the season had went along and the team was dominating and really breaking the barriers of race with each other and really showing a brotherhood the community really started coming together too and really starting to support the team. In most towns the United States a high school football team has a lot of influence on the community as a whole. It starts in the elementary where all the little kids look up to the “big bad high school players” and will go all the way up to the older people because they like to relive their high schools days of playing football and everything going to the games and just reminiscing. So the impact a high school football team can have is extraordinary and can even change communities and bring them together. The team had fought through hard times and got through everything together and brought a whole community together with their success and togetherness. This really showed when Gary Bertier the teams All American star player was in a car accident and was paralyzed from the waist down. When this happened you could really tell how close the team was and how the barrier of race had been super ceded by the brotherhood of a football team. As a football team you gain a certain kind of brotherhood that you can’t really explain or get out of any other sport.
Bertier and Campbell showing the brotherhood
Football players face adversity from the second they start the season by going through two–a-days and having to endure and go through all the adversity of being tired and being out in the heat, so right out of the gate a football team as to learn how to bond together and get through the tough times as a team. As the season progresses the team will continue to bond together and have to be able to get through adversity together and get through everything as a team. Having showed that race wasn’t an issue with the football team and they proved that a town could do the same thing and overlook race and that it doesn’t matter whats on the outside but you have inside. Not only could you tell how far the football team had come but also how the community broke the down the barriers of race, and really got behind the team as a community and all the sudden race didn’t matter anymore.
Coach Boone and Coach Yoast sharing the game ball
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