Remember the Titans

This week, I listened raptly as Coach Herman Boone gave the keynote address at the FCA banquet.  Coach Boone was the real life coach of the T.C. Williams High School Titans upon which the movie Remember the Titans was based.

I guess those around me were wondering what the heck I was doing scribbling furiously in the margins of the program.  But I knew then where my next column was going.  I was inspired by Coach Boone.

"Give legs to your dreams."

Coach Boone came from poverty.  He came from a family that could not support his dreams but that didn't get in the way.  He dreamed of graduating from college and coaching football. 

Fortunately for him, he had more people telling him he could do it than were telling him he couldn't.

It's all about providing opportunities for kids.  Opening doors.  Supporting dreams. 

Growing up, my parents made sure I had opportunities. Sports.  Boy Scouts.  Camps.  Visits to museums and national monuments and Civil War battlefields.  Music teachers and positive influences.  Church, always.

I was never NOT going to college.  It simply wasn't an option.  Bad grades were not acceptable.  Not working was unacceptable.  Doing chores was not optional.  Being accountable was expected.  You finish what you start.  Everything you do gets your best effort.

Through all that and more, my parents helped give legs to my dreams. 

"Never ever rest until your good gets better and your better gets best."

I talk often about sports providing life lessons.  Sports do that and more.  Sports build character.  

When you get beat down, and at some point you will, if you get back up better, stronger, and smarter, you have just built character.  You have built strength into your soul.

"Leadership means did you make a difference in a teammate."

We need to constantly lift each other up.  Take those negative influences in your life and give them a toss. 

"If you thought Remember the Titans was a football movie, you weren't paying attention."

Many of those at the banquet could not comprehend a world where blacks drank in one fountain and whites in another.  They cannot fathom blacks having to go in the back door of a restaurant and then not being able to sit down but having to take their food out back and eat in the alley.

They can't imagine seating in a theater where blacks sat in one area (usually the balcony) and whites sat in another (usually the front). 

But three members of that 1971 Titans team, Julius Campbell, Petey Jones, and Blue Stanton sat there and told about those days.  Told of the days where blacks went to one school and whites to another. 

They talked about the battles of lining up side by side as teammates.  And they talked about the triumphs big and small that arrived when they became a team.

We still fight battles...too many battles.  Maybe today it matters less what color your skin is but it still matters. 

Barriers of many sizes and shapes still exist.