Herman Boone was played by Denzel Washington in the recent film "Remember the Titans," which is based on his experiences as a high school football coach in 1971. Boone was made coach of T.C. Williams High School, which had just merged with two other schools and became integrated in the process. The residents of Alexandria, Va., were against him, as were many of the players, but Boone succeeded in uniting the team and winning the state championship with a 13-0 record. Now retired ("I rest, I dress, I play golf), Boone will be the keynote speaker at the Greater Pittsburgh Council, Boy Scouts of America Whitney M. Young Jr. Service Awards Dinner Saturday at the Sheraton Station Square. Call 412-471-2927.
Q. What was it like to see a movie about your life?
A. To watch your life on the silver screen in a movie is like coming outside of your body in the church while your funeral's being preached. I don't know whether that's good or not.
Q. Could you watch the movie objectively, or did it feel too real?
A. It was so real, so true to form that I just found myself remembering everything that took place. It was just absolutely real. I can't look at it too much today. I guess they did it so well and they injected so many funny things in there that really happened that you don't have time to cry.
Q. Did you give Denzel any pointers?
A. Denzel did an excellent job, but they could at least have found someone better looking than me. Nevertheless, they probably did the best they could. We spent a lot of time together, but my wife told him more than anyone else, my little sayings, my little quirks, like "John Brown it" and hind parts. When you're from North Carolina, you refer to your rear end as hind parts, but nobody else in the country knows that. And when I say John Brown, I'm cursing like mad. Little things like that. How rather than curse you out I'll just look at you.
Q. Were you aware at the time that your accomplishments were in any way extraordinary?
A. Heck no. I never thought I had a story in the first place. You go to work every day, and you find that the best thing you can do is be a referee to keep kids from killing each other. I never thought about anything else.
Q. Do you remember what your thoughts were at the time?
A. There was so much pressure and stress connected with that job that my thoughts were primarily centered around how do you stay ahead, not only of people who did not want you to succeed, but players who did not particularly want to play for you. How do you motivate a child to make him believe that no one is guilty of a crime based on the color of his skin? I was thinking of things I could do to help these kids learn to respect each other.
Q. And what did you come up with?
A. You're going to have to talk with people. You can't respect people unless you talk with them and know what you're respecting. Unless you talk with people and learn something about people, you'll never learn to appreciate people based on what they are instead of what you think they look like. This is what I did. I made them talk to each other.
Q. Were you surprised at the success of the movie?
A. Yes. Because when I saw them putting it together every week I didn't think it would be diddly squat. Of course, obviously, it was made in bits and pieces. That was my first experience on a movie set, and I didn't know how things were put together. I thought it was boring, really.
Q. What effect has the movie had on your life? Are you famous now?
A. People recognize me and want my autograph or picture with their children, and that's OK. The only thing that bothers me is people tend to not respect your space when you're eating. I guess if they did that, I would be much happier.
Herman Boone 
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