Remember the Admirals? Remember the Presidents? No, but most remember the Titans.
In a Mirror Exclusive, Coach Herman Boone of the Titans sat down with The Mirror to talk about the journey with the renowned team, as Boone spoke to the Fairfield community on Wednesday night about his experience.
The football team was born from the combination of three high schools in Alexandria, Va., that came together to attend Williams High School during integration in 1971.
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The only reason why the team became the Titans was because it was the only one out of the three schools to have enough uniforms for all the players.
“No one claimed the team called the Titans,” said Boone.
For about the first seven games of the season, parents, students and players separated themselves by wearing their former school colors and cheering for separate teams.
The team overcame tremendous diversity before uniting.
Before joining the team, Boone said many players “had never been within touching distance of a person of another race.” Boone didn’t consider the Titans to be a team until players Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell accepted each other on the trip’s team to Gettysburg.
“A group of people with by God, one heart beat,” was how Boone described the team. Although Boone is very serious when discussing race and the struggle the whole team went through, he remains an approachable and humorous individual in light of tumultuous past. When asked what it was like to have Denzel Washington play him for the movie, Boone responded with a smile on his face, “I thought they could have found someone better looking.” He then went on to praise Washington and referred to him as “probably one of the most dynamic people I’ve met in my life.” Boone explained that Washington spent more time talking with his wife than with him.
“He wanted to know who I was from someone else’s eyes,” said Boone.
Winning the Virginia state championship is what Boone named as his most memorable and profound moments in his life. As he proudly wore the Titan’s championship ring on his finger, he explained that the game itself was “anti-climatic,” as the team was a powerhouse, but the meaning “goes a little deeper.”
“We were thrown into the barrel with things that were new to all of us,” said Boone.
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