Got this off an Internest site, pretty interesting:
The winning coach of last Saturday's U.S. Army All-American Bowl, was presented with the Herman Boone Trophy, named in honor of the former high school football coach played by Denzel Williams in the film Remember the Titans.
Meantime, though, a former player named Greg Paspatis - a kicker, it should be noted - has been making it a personal mission to educate people to the wide discrepancy he claims between the real and the fictional Coach Boones.
"I don't think the movie should be more important than the truth," he says.
Any time Paspatis reads that some organization is honoring Boone or bringing him in to speak - Boone's speaking fee is $15,000 per speech - he sends out a packet of clippings from Boone's coaching days. The clippings tell of a different man from the one portrayed by Denzel Washington and now honored by the trophy.
Paspatis is bothered that the movie gave viewers the idea that racial harmony was the reason for the success of the T.C. Williams Titans in 1971. He points out that the consolidation of three schools into one prior to that season gave T.C. Williams more juniors and seniors graders than any other school in the state, and made an already deep pool of talent even deeper. His contention seems to be borne out by the headline in the Washington Post's 1971 prep-football preview, which reads,"Williams Loaded."
Paspatis's clippings focus on accusations of mistreatment of players and the wholesale departure of his coaching staff that led to Boone's firing as coach in 1979.
One clipping from the July, 1978 Washington Star was headlined "Three Aides Resign over Coach's Methods at T.C. Williams", and it contains accusations that Boone verbally and mentally abused his players. One former assistant is quoted as saying he left because Boone's conduct was "detrimental to the kids involved."
Remember the Titans did get one thing right, Paspatis admits, and that is that Boone did unite black and white players - just not the way the movie shows him doing it. They were united, he says, by their dislike of him.
"Herman Boone treated everybody horribly, no matter what race," says Paspatis, calling Boone "arguably the most hated coach in the history of Northern Virginia high-school football."
So he maintains his one-man campaign. "All I do is point out facts. And Herman Boone is out there feeding the myth of the movie. It's a distortion of history."
Paspatis was a kicker on T.C. Williams' 1977 team, a team that was rated the top team in Northern Virginia in pre-season polls. Midway through the season, though, following Boone's behavior after a loss, the Williams players voted as a group to quit.
"We mutinied," says Paspatis. "Herman Boone's actions crossed the line, but really that incident was just one thing. It had been building up and building up because of the way he treated players, just singling guys out in the locker room to humiliate them in front of the whole team. Finally, the leadership of the team told him everybody had enough."
Boone later apologized to the team, and the players agreed to return, but the team never achieved the success predicted for it before the season.
Boone now admits to being a disciplinarian, and says the end for him at T. C. Williams was "inevitable" once his brand of discipline fell out of style in education and coaching.
"You got one or two people who sit back and say they don't want to play under a strict disciplinarian system and infiltrate the team with that hippie mentality," Boone told Dave McKenna of the Washington City Paper But it was at that time that teachers and coaches allowed students and players to call them by their first names, to walk into their classroom 15 minutes late with their pants hanging out....Herman Boone stood against that, and I became the bad guy. That was the times. Well, the hell with the times."
"I was very tough," Boone, told McKenna. "I believe in discipline and respect. And one or two [players] who I jacked up, who I chastised, those one or two people...wanted things to go their way, instead of my way. My way was being challenged. A lot of people don't like this, but the day they joined that team, I said, 'This football team is not a democracy! It's a dictatorship! And I'm the dictator! If you don't like it, go find yourself a soccer team!"
The winning coach of last Saturday's U.S. Army All-American Bowl, was presented with the Herman Boone Trophy, named in honor of the former high school football coach played by Denzel Williams in the film Remember the Titans.
Meantime, though, a former player named Greg Paspatis - a kicker, it should be noted - has been making it a personal mission to educate people to the wide discrepancy he claims between the real and the fictional Coach Boones.
"I don't think the movie should be more important than the truth," he says.
Any time Paspatis reads that some organization is honoring Boone or bringing him in to speak - Boone's speaking fee is $15,000 per speech - he sends out a packet of clippings from Boone's coaching days. The clippings tell of a different man from the one portrayed by Denzel Washington and now honored by the trophy.
Paspatis is bothered that the movie gave viewers the idea that racial harmony was the reason for the success of the T.C. Williams Titans in 1971. He points out that the consolidation of three schools into one prior to that season gave T.C. Williams more juniors and seniors graders than any other school in the state, and made an already deep pool of talent even deeper. His contention seems to be borne out by the headline in the Washington Post's 1971 prep-football preview, which reads,"Williams Loaded."
Paspatis's clippings focus on accusations of mistreatment of players and the wholesale departure of his coaching staff that led to Boone's firing as coach in 1979.
One clipping from the July, 1978 Washington Star was headlined "Three Aides Resign over Coach's Methods at T.C. Williams", and it contains accusations that Boone verbally and mentally abused his players. One former assistant is quoted as saying he left because Boone's conduct was "detrimental to the kids involved."
Remember the Titans did get one thing right, Paspatis admits, and that is that Boone did unite black and white players - just not the way the movie shows him doing it. They were united, he says, by their dislike of him.
"Herman Boone treated everybody horribly, no matter what race," says Paspatis, calling Boone "arguably the most hated coach in the history of Northern Virginia high-school football."
So he maintains his one-man campaign. "All I do is point out facts. And Herman Boone is out there feeding the myth of the movie. It's a distortion of history."
Paspatis was a kicker on T.C. Williams' 1977 team, a team that was rated the top team in Northern Virginia in pre-season polls. Midway through the season, though, following Boone's behavior after a loss, the Williams players voted as a group to quit.
"We mutinied," says Paspatis. "Herman Boone's actions crossed the line, but really that incident was just one thing. It had been building up and building up because of the way he treated players, just singling guys out in the locker room to humiliate them in front of the whole team. Finally, the leadership of the team told him everybody had enough."
Boone later apologized to the team, and the players agreed to return, but the team never achieved the success predicted for it before the season.
Boone now admits to being a disciplinarian, and says the end for him at T. C. Williams was "inevitable" once his brand of discipline fell out of style in education and coaching.
"You got one or two people who sit back and say they don't want to play under a strict disciplinarian system and infiltrate the team with that hippie mentality," Boone told Dave McKenna of the Washington City Paper But it was at that time that teachers and coaches allowed students and players to call them by their first names, to walk into their classroom 15 minutes late with their pants hanging out....Herman Boone stood against that, and I became the bad guy. That was the times. Well, the hell with the times."
"I was very tough," Boone, told McKenna. "I believe in discipline and respect. And one or two [players] who I jacked up, who I chastised, those one or two people...wanted things to go their way, instead of my way. My way was being challenged. A lot of people don't like this, but the day they joined that team, I said, 'This football team is not a democracy! It's a dictatorship! And I'm the dictator! If you don't like it, go find yourself a soccer team!"
