Bill Yoast is the real-life hero of Remember the Titans, the inspirational hit movie that chronicled the struggles of black and white high school football athletes to create a championship season in racially charged Alexandria, Virginia, in 1972. Will Patton played Yoast's role and Denzel Washington played the role of Head Coach Herman Boone. Uniting in a common effort, Yoast and Boone led T.C. Williams High School to an undefeated season, and in the process brought the school and polarized community together. The real-life Yoast is even more compelling than his film version. At one time, the former World War II veteran considered going into the ministry. Fortunately, for the hundreds of young men and women whose lives he helped mold, he found his calling in coaching. To him, the title "coach" always meant more than wins and losses; coaching was a vehicle through which he could help young people. One of Yoast's greatest victories came with Gerry Bertier, his star lineman whose tragic auto accident and resulting paralysis was seen in Remember the Titans. What the film did not include was the fact that, for years after the accident, Yoast worked with Bertier, coaching him to win gold medals in shotput and discus at the Wheel Chair Olympics.
Bill Yoast is the real-life hero of Remember the Titans, the inspirational hit movie that chronicled the struggles of black and white high school football athletes to create a championship season in racially charged Alexandria, Virginia, in 1972. Will Patton played Yoast's role and Denzel Washington played the role of Head Coach Herman Boone. Uniting in a common effort, Yoast and Boone led T.C. Williams High School to an undefeated season, and in the process brought the school and polarized community together. The real-life Yoast is even more compelling than his film version. At one time, the former World War II veteran considered going into the ministry. Fortunately, for the hundreds of young men and women whose lives he helped mold, he found his calling in coaching. To him, the title "coach" always meant more than wins and losses; coaching was a vehicle through which he could help young people. One of Yoast's greatest victories came with Gerry Bertier, his star lineman whose tragic auto accident and resulting paralysis was seen in Remember the Titans. What the film did not include was the fact that, for years after the accident, Yoast worked with Bertier, coaching him to win gold medals in shotput and discus at the Wheel Chair Olympics.
Steve Sullivan is a popular motivational speaker whose books have sold over 100,000 copies. He lives in North Haven, Connecticut.
"This moving saga reveals how players and their coaches,
functioning as a team, manage in the end to overcome their mistrust
and animosity. The book speaks to the strengths of football, and it
does so eloquently."
*The Wall Street Journal*
"The story is not so much that of a high school football coach, but
of a person who learned his greatest life lessons the hard way—by
living them."
*The Daily Times Delmarvanow.Com*
While the film permits only a snapshot of the saga that has been
Mr. Yoast's life, Mr. Sullivan's biography captures the spirit, the
tragedies and the victories behind the icon... His candor is
striking and apparent in the book, which is crafted with
straight-talking honesty. As Richard Ardia writes in the foreword,
'Steve Sullivan tells it like it was and not the way it should have
been.'
*Litchfield County Times*
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