Remember the Titans Fact or Fiction http www
Remember the Titans Fact or Fiction http: //www. chasingthefrog. com/reelfaces/rememberthetitans. php
Were all of the Titan players in the movie based on actual people? • The majority of the Titan players in the film are based on real people (see the Titans team photo below). However, while researching the Remember the Titans true story, we learned that actor Ryan Gosling's character, Alan Bosley, is not a real person. The movie shows Alan giving up his spot to Pete (Donald Faison) during a game. This scene was added to emphasize the selflessness of the players. Ray Budds (Burgess Jenkins) is also a fictionalized character. The film depicts a bigoted Ray being kicked off the team by captain Gerry Bertier. This never actually happened. Former Titan players have stated that this type of player would have been kicked off the team during training camp, before the season ever started. -'71 Titans Website
In real life, did Coach Herman Boone integrate the buses before leaving for football camp? • Yes. This really happened. "I forced them on each other, " Herman Boone says. "I forced them to learn each other's culture. I forced them to be a part of each other's lives. " -ESPN. com • Did the 1971 T. C. Williams Titans really go to camp at Gettysburg College? • Yes. This part of the film is true. The team spent a week at Gettysburg College where they practiced up to three times a day, as depicted in the movie Remember the Titans. -ESPN. com
Was Ronnie "Sunshine" Bass really a longhaired hippie from California? • During our investigation into the Remember the Titans true story, we confirmed that Titan quarterback Ronnie Bass did come from California, but portraying him as a long-haired hippie is a bit of an exaggeration. "I was never quite like that, " Bass told the Greenville (SC) News. "But that's Hollywood. I'll say for the record my hair was never that long. " Also for the record, Ron never did Tai Chi outside the school. • Did Ronnie "Sunshine" Bass really kiss Gerry Bertier on the lips? • No. In the movie, Sunshine (Kip Pardue) jokingly kisses Gerry Bertier (Ryan Hurst) on the lips. This did not happen in real life. The film also implies that Ronnie "Sunshine" Bass might possibly be gay. This is also untrue. In fact, like Ronnie Bass, most of the other players on the team had long hair in 1971, including the real Gerry Bertier. -'71 Titans Website
Was the racial tension at training camp depicted accurately in the film? • No. Coach Boone, Coach Yoast, and many players have said that there was tension at camp, but it existed primarily because of competition for positions on the team. "I wanted to make the team, " Ronnie Bass says in an interview. "I think that's where most of the kids' minds were. We were just trying to play football. • Did Herman Boone really wake the team up at 3 a. m. and make them run to the Gettysburg Cemetery? • No. This did not happen. The team did tour the battlefields on the Sunday they were at camp. The guide did most of the talking though, not Herman Boone. This isn't to say that Coach Boone never gave motivational speeches to his team. In fact, he delivered many speeches to inspire them. Often, his speeches were not about the importance of winning, but about the importance of playing your best
Did Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell become best friends in real life? • As we looked into the question, "How accurate is Remember the Titans? " we discovered that they were friends, but their relationship was not such a pivotal example of integration like it is in the movie. Gerry and Julius were friends just like many of the other players were friends. Theirs was not the only new friendship • Did Gerry really tell the nurse, "He [Julius] is my brother, don't you see the family resemblance? " so that Julius could stay and visit him in intensive care? • As stated on the '71 Titans website, many of the players were stopped by the nurses at the desk on the floor of the intensive care unit. They all replied that they were immediate family, not just Julius Campbell.
Did a plot really exist with the referees to ensure that the Titans would lose a game? • No. In the movie Remember the Titans, we see Coach Yoast (Will Patton) confront a crooked referee, telling him to call the game fairly or else he'll expose the whole plot to make the Titans lose the game, resulting in the firing of Coach Boone. Coach Yoast also tells the ref that he'll personally see to it that the ref never works again. This incident never really happened. The real Coach Herman Boone referred to it in the DVD Commentary by saying, "We got our share of bad calls, and I'm not sure, to this day, that some of it was not racism, " Boone says. "But it was not as overt as appears in the film. “ • Is the part in the movie about Coach Bill Yoast not making the Virginia High School Hall of Fame true? • No. There was no Virginia High School Hall of Fame in 1971, although it does exist today
Was Gerry Bertier really paralyzed in a car accident before the championship game? • In real life, Gerry Bertier was paralyzed in a car accident, but it happened after the season ended, after the Titans had already played the championship game. On December 11, 1971, Gerry was coming home from the T. C Williams High School football banquet, where he had been honored with the Most Valuable Defensive Player Award. After stopping at a local fast-food restaurant and dropping off some friends, Gerry continued home in his mother's new Camaro. Only six blocks away from his house, the car went out of control striking both a fire hydrant and a flashing school sign, the latter of which sent the car tearing across the road into a ditch (Gerry. Bertier. com). It was later determined that the accident had been caused by a mechanical failure in the motor mount of the Camaro's engine ('71 Titans Website).
How good of a football player was Gerry Bertier? • As a nationally ranked defensive player, Gerry Betier was Alexandria's first high school All-American football player. Following the 1971 season, he received accolades which included First Team All-Region, All-State, and All-American honors as well as being named the Alexandria Sportsman's Club Football Player of the Year. He had been approached by elite college football powerhouses, such as Notre Dame and Alabama. Many believe that the movie Remember the Titans failed to accurately depict the true significance of his talent. • How did Gerry Bertier deal with the fact that he was paralyzed? • "You achieve everything you ever wanted, then it all gets cut down in one night, " Bertier said in an early 1970 s' Washington Star article. "It's really hard for you or I to really believe we could be paralyzed. You say, 'Well, I've got an all-star game to play. ' I thought I'd be out the next week. " After his accident, Gerry confided in Coach Bill Yoast, while keeping up a strong front for his family and friends. "It took him two years to accept the fact from the time of the accident that he would be crippled for life, " said Yoast, who remained a close friend of Gerry's, coaching him to a gold medal in shot-put at the Wheelchair Olympics.
Did the real Gerry Bertier really die 10 years after the '71 season? • Yes. This part of the movie Remember the Titans is true. On his way home from a business trip on March 20, 1981, Gerry Bertier's 1980 Oldsmobile was struck by a drunk driver who crossed over the center line. Bertier was pronounced dead two hours later at the University of Virginia Hospital. Like in the film, many of the 1971 Titan players and coaches attended Gerry's funeral. At the time of his death, Gerry had been working as a sales manager for Abbey Medical, a company that manufactured walking braces for the handicapped. He had also been attending Northern Virginia Community College where he had been working toward a degree in business. The rest of his time had been spent traveling the country speaking on behalf of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped. Gerry strived to help make the world accessible to the disabled. -Washington Star
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