Remember This Titan: The Bill Yoast Story: Lessons Learned From A Celebrated Coach's Journey (2007) - Plot & Excerpts
Remember The Titans is a real life, nonfiction novel written by Bill Yoast and Steven Sullivan. Yoast is the actual hero that the movie Remember The Titans is based upon. Sullivan is an American author, artist, editor, publisher, and radio host. The action of the story took place in 1972 in a suburb of Virginia. The main character is Coach Herman Boone, who is an African American whose goal was to combine black and white students in order to create a football team. Coach Boone’s goal was to bring an end to the racism and discrimination that was present in Virginia at the time. The main conflict in the book was when the T.C. Williams High School tries to bring their white and black students together; this caused a huge problem throughout the town, but Coach Boone does not let this affect him. Having black students in the high school and on the football team caused a lot of fighting and much hate was created. The thing I enjoyed the most about my book was the Coach Herman’s goal was for everyone to become equal; he never gave up, nor did he let anyone get to him. He is the reason why the team was so successful. The only thing I disliked about the book was that a tragic injury occurred in the middle of the book and a key player was injured for his final grade and rest of his life. I would recommend this book to athletes and to high school aged students because it was both interesting as well as educational; the author really lets the reader know how bad racism was in Virginia in 1972. Also, the fact that the book was a true story made it even more exciting while reading. If you’re planning on reading Remember The Titans, please do, it will not disappoint you.
This isn't as much a biography as it is what the subtitle states--lessons the coach has learned. Parts of his life are related, and I was interested to know the difference of the real man and what little you get from the one on-screen. I loved reading his lessons learned, which are great aspects of leadership and being the best you. There were some editing mistakes. Normally I ignore the here or there that I see, but there were enough that I couldn't help notice and comment. There were also some unsmooth transitions (if they could even be called transitions!) at some parts. So the writing could have been slightly better. And sometimes I was left thinking--so WHEN did this happen? Or DID this happen? Overall, not a bad book. Definitely some great lessons related that we all could use. If you were expecting any more about the Titans from the film, you won't get too much. A little more on the real Gerry Bertier, but that's it. I would have classified this more in a leadership section rather than a bio. For those who want to make the best of life no matter what, and see an example of a regular, ordinary man who tries his best.P.S. In the Book Challenge, I read this for someone who lived in my state/geographical region. It was fun to read city names that I'm much more familiar with having now lived here for 19 months.
What do You think about Remember This Titan: The Bill Yoast Story: Lessons Learned From A Celebrated Coach's Journey (2007)?
I finished reading this book 10/24/12. In this autobiography written by Bill Yoast and Steve Sullivan, Bill explains his coaching career. There is 153 pages in the story of Coach Yoast. Through out the story Coach Yoast tells about his coaching strategies. How he found and came up with the strategies. He tells about his experiences coaching at schools and players he coached. He tells about his life before coaching and his family. He also tells about his perspective on confidence and "facilitating the process." This book is alright but I wouldn't waste my time on it. My favorite movie is Remember the Titans. I thought this book would be more about that and Coach Yoast experience. Not his whole life story and all of his strategies. I was disappointed about this book. It bored me reading it. He almost talked about the same things over and over again. "Facilitating the process this... Facilitating the process that!" none of it made sense. The best part was at the end when he talked about where his best players are in life now. All I'm saying is that Bill Yoast is a coach, not an author.
—Jackson
Remember the Titans is one of my favorite movies. Since it was based on a true story, I decided to find the book (inter library loan!) to get more meatiness to the story.I found this. This wasn't a more detailed version of the 1971 Titans win. Though it did give some backstory to some of the movie. This was a book on a coach's life and philosophies. As someone who was never fabulous at sports and didn't grow up being pushed to excel in them, it took me a bit to get into this. Fast enough read with some nice tidbits on life.
—Krissy
