Texas and football seem to go hand-in-hand, so when legendary football coach Herman Boone opened this year’s Artist-Lecture Series, Oct. 13, in Akin Auditorium, nearly 400 people were in attendance.
Brianda Morales, biology senior, said, “I didn’t think much of having Herman Boone, but I think it’s pretty cool. I didn’t really get into football until I moved here, because I’m not from Texas. I’m from California and football is not that big there.”
Boone was a former high school football coach, most famous for coaching the 1971 T.C. Williams Titans football team in Alexandria, Virginia, one of the first integrated high schools the film, Remember the Titans, highlighted his team winning the 5A Virginia State Championship game.
Boone said, “The 1971 Titans were one of the most powerful high school football teams in country. More than anything else, I’m proud of the fact that they put their differences aside. They celebrated our differences and appreciated our differences. We were able to mold with angry and unfocused boys and they became responsible citizens.”
Boone said the 1971 Titans was the “Cinderella team” and that he was only there to fill a whole and because of his color the odds were definitely against him. They gave him one month of practice with the team, in hopes that he would lose a game and they could fire him and replace him.
“How can you bring in a new coach to coach a team that has three different sets of philosophies and doesn’t like one another, and still be able to win,” Boone said.
Morales said. “It’s actually interesting, because you see [fictional characters] from the movies, but it’s cool to see the actual person,”
Boone’s lecture, which cost $11,500 including $10,000 in speakers fees, centered around team building and how to sustain a winning team, much like in the movie Remember the Titans. He went on to talk about the diversity and racial tension that he personally dealt with while becoming the first black coach at T.C. Williams High School. Also talking about the struggles the community dealt with when they had to close three high schools and put all the students in to one.
Boone said, “A team with one objective and one heartbeat makes a community. It’s a community that serves with justice and with more than anything, trust.”
Boone said he hopes if anything, the students can walk away from his lecture on Oct. 13 knowing it is okay to celebrate differences and better to face differences instead of allowing our deficits to become a problem.
The Artist-Lecture series is a series that implements to bring well-known speakers and performers to the campus and the community going into its 51st year. It allows them to bring different intellects and personalities from all aspects and all walks of life. It blends lecture piece and performing arts piece to give itself balance.
The next performer will be m-pact in Akin Auditorium, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m.
