Photo by: Karla Swintz
The Disney movie “Remember the Titans” is loved by many across the country and around campus. Its messages of hard work and racial acceptance have made it an inspirational and important piece of work in our society.
The team was led by Coach Herman Boone who was played by Denzel Washington in the movie. On Wednesday DU students were able to hear a lecture from the real Coach Boone.
Talking to a crowd in Davis Auditorium, Boone joked he had to be “as wise as Sodom, and poetic as Isaiah and funny as Bernie Mac” if he hoped to make an impact on the students here.
Boone praised the students of DU and placed a lot of hope on the future that the students of DUcan bring about.
“I hope that you students will keep the torch of understanding and learning going. If not you then who? If not now then when?” he said.
Boone also said he did not believe that the Princeton Review, which gave DU poor marks for diversity was accurate. The students that came to his lecture and the fact that DU is changing that image is proof of that.
Just as the movie portrayed, Boone talked about his troubles with bringing his team together.
“The white kids didn’t like me because I was black, and the black kids didn’t like me because I wasn’t black enough,” said Boone.
Events such as making the players room with a team member of different color and mixing up the busses on the way to training camp actually happened.
Other events in the movie, such as Gerry Bertier being injured right before the state championship, were moved around a bit. While Bertier did loose the ability to walk after a car accident, the accident did not happen until after the state championship.
In real life Bertier was named the MVP of that game, and it wasn’t a close last second win that the movie depicts, the Titans won that game by a landslide.
Boone also talked to the students about the importance of winning and striving to be the best.
“Winning is important in our society,” explained Boone, “no one sends their child off to school and tells them to come in second.”
Boone said he was impressed by DU’s hockey team which he considers to be our football team.
“The fact that they have won the national championship the past two years in a row reflects well on their character and hard work,” said Boone.
Despite the praise Boone had for DU students he warned that we still live in a society of racism and separation.
“Our rituals of seperativeness are better developed then our rituals of togetherness,” he said.
He believes that even though people of different colors are better at working together and getting along now and just about everyone has friends from a variety of races if you were to go into any cafeteria you would still find whites eating with whites, and Spanish eating with Spanish, and blacks eating with blacks, and so on, and it is up to students to try and break this and include everybody in a group.
Boone reminded everyone that “dreams have no expiration date” and urged students to remember that “true diversity begins and ends with the individual.”
The event was sponsored by DUPB and run by the Co-Directors of Diversity and Culture Monica Kumar and Jordan DeHerrera.
