Remember This Titan: The Bill Yoast Story: Lessons Learned from a Celebrated Coach's Journey As Told to Steve Sullivan

by Steve Sullivan

Bill Yoast is the real-life hero of Remember the Titans, the inspirational hit movie that chronicled the struggles of black and white high school football athletes to create a championship season in racially charged Alexandria, Virginia, in 1972. Will Patton played Yoast's role and Denzel Washington played the role of Head Coach Herman Boone. Uniting in a common effort, Yoast and Boone led T.C. Williams High School to an undefeated season, and in the process brought the school and polarized community together. The real-life Yoast is even more compelling than his film version. At one time, the former World War II veteran considered going into the ministry. Fortunately, for the hundreds of young men and women whose lives he helped mold, he found his calling in coaching.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Sports, Adult, Inspirational

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Tyrelle Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember The Titans is one of my most favourite movies of all time and I wanted to see if there was a book about it. I liked this book because it is about football and racism and how the coaches and team had to over come it. This book showed me that all players learn differently and the coach has to adapt to the way each player learns and use it to his advantage. This book is quite different to the movie because it was based on the assistant coach instead of the head. This book was a biography/non fiction about his life and sporting life. He coached many teams at Hammond high school. He was a great coach because he explains in the book how he coached and the many styles of coaching he used for each player and the different attributes the players he coached had and how different they were with skin colour, race or skills on the field and off the field.

[Starri Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Remember The Titians” is probably one of the greatest movies in history! It has my favorite sport, football but it is about so much more. It touches on the subject of race and how integration happens and how both sides felt about it and how it effected the community of a small town in West Virginia. Now this book is all about Coach Yoast, although it has some main key points that were not in the movie it was nice seeing everything through Coach Yoast’s eyes. He had been through a lot and some how overcame that and stayed close with his team players and made a lifelong friendship with Coach Boone. Yes, he had special relationships with many of his players but no one tops the list like Gerry Bertier. This is such an amazing read for anyone who enjoys football and the movie and how the topics of race effected a lot things back then, some of which we still face today. If you enjoy a good book about someone’s life and seeing everything in a whole new perspective pick up this book, it may not be a fast paced book but it is definitely worth the read.

[Walt Walkowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a difficult book to read and finish. I had the impression that it was a biography of Bill Yoast. If it is, it’s incomplete. In fact, I think there were more coaching and leadership tips contained in the pages than actual stories from Yoast’s life. And there really wasn’t much of a rhyme or reason for when or why this information was included in the sections it was. Add to that very poor grammar, misspellings, and typos, and the result is a fairly convoluted book.

[Isabella Dardin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely one of the best books I've read of all time and my favorite movie. Love the history and never ending life lessons from this book. Tells the sad yet true way of life back then and how it still hasn't changed by much still to this day. This life changing remarkable story is highly recommended.

[Curtis Jensen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good nuggets of philosophy. You don't have to like football to enjoy the book; most of it is about leading. The way it is told is not appealing. It is hard to understand many of the references. It feels like thoughts are only half expressed. I think the intent is for the reader to fill in the gaps, but the gaps are often too large for me.

[Mike Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book. I was interested in, of course, because of the movie, Romberg the Titans. Precious little of this book is about that 1971 season. It’s primarily a book about Yoast’s philosophy of leadership and coaching. Interesting, but I’d have preferred more about the
‘71 season and truth or fiction from the movie. Yoast was clearly an interesting guy.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I don’t follow American football, Remember the Titans is one of my favourite books. Needing a short book to help with GR goal, I found this and knew I’d appreciate it, especially given most of the content is around leadership and people management that can be applied outside of sport too.

[Cher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very uplifting book. Kind of a self help book with a lot of advice on how to be your best self. I was sort of disappointed there wasn't more about the Titans, especially given the title.

[Sawyer WIcker · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is pretty good. I love how it tells the story form the coaches prospective.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to read Yoast's insights and lessons. Remember the Titans is one of my favorite movies so this was a fitting read for me.

[Savannah Byus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted it to be better

[Alex Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite movies ever. Not exactly what I expected from the book. It was interesting learning more about Coach Yoast’s life and leadership styles.

[Patti Abernathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a member of the TC class of ‘73 it was a fun walk down memory lane and interesting to read more of Coach’s philosophy.

[coriolis]

I wish this had dug more into detail. It felt very surface level and that we didn't get enough about any of the stuff he talked about. It felt very impersonal.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, keeps you entertained and gives you a new perspective of the racism of the 1960’s

[Daniel McCormack · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Krissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Heidi-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

YAY--another book about events from a movie I love!

That's the oddest thing. I thought I had written a review for this one. I read it in August. Hmmm.... Oh well. It was pretty good. Felt more like a stream of consciousness book. Not as much about the team as I had hoped for, but still some great lessons from life that he shares. A bunch of editing mistakes that started to get to me, but they did not detract from the overall messages one could take from the book.

[Morgan R · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book over all was extremely informative and a great new perspective of sports, It will have you close to tears at moment with the wonderful stories of learning and understanding the ever changing world from an old coaches point of view. I suggest if you have watched the movie Remember the Titans that you should add it to your books to read.

[Paula]

Awesome this author is a pen pal of mine, he sent me an autographed book. Its about the football team when he was a quarterback with Coach Youst, and all the diversity that went on in the Alexandria VA high school.

[Ethan Bryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was good and all but wasn'tmy type of book therefore I did not really like it. Apart from the fact that the author was good but not my theme so i did not like it very much. I was suprised that i didn't like it that much.

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many management books, this one had very little original information in it but reiterated many of the points of great coaches and managers.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly motiational book. As a teacher and a coach, I can relate to what Yoast is saying.

[Mohammed L · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is one of the best book that i have ever read.. it also thought me somethings that i didnt know about

[Jim Swike · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are fan of Remember the Titans you will love this book. Tells the real story of being a lifetime football coach, enjoy.

[Jim Bouchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The truth behind the movie. A moving story and a real look at an American life.