Remembering The Real Titans

In 1971, a high school football coach fought racial discord within the community and with his players and the team went on to win the state tile. The film Remember the Titans, based on those events, has opened to both critical and box office success. CBS Sports Correspondent Lesley Visser talked with both the film's star and the coaches of the real team that inspired the movie.

Playing a mostly all-white competition, the integrated Titans became the first high school football state champion team from Alexandria, Va.

Titans coaches Herman Boone and Bill Yoast reflected on the trials of teaching their 1971 squad to get along, while attempting to get along themselves.

Yoast, who is white, had believed he was going to lead the team. When Boone, a black man, was appointed to the head-coaching position, the two had to set an example of cooperation for the rest of the team.

"I look at the kids that were involved...and I like to think Herman and I had something to do with shoving them out of where they were and helping them get to where they are," says Yoast who served as Boone's assistant coach.

"Being a tough coach in that era; that's all we knew," says Boone, who is portrayed in the film by Denzel Washington. "We were supposed to be the hard, tough-nosed father-type person, and that wasn't difficult for me because that's all I knew."

With black coaches and general managers more and more prevalent in professional sports, Washington shared why the film is still relevant. "This isn't about the coaches and the (general managers) and all. It's about the kids," says Washington.

"It's about where it starts, where the differences start. And if we mend those differences or if we bring those kids together at that age, then they will turn into the GMs and in fact they already are."

Washington, who was a high school junior in 1971, was a quarterback. Sports played an important role in his life, he says. "That's all I did, you know, growing up in the Boys Club and playing high school, college. All I did before I was an actor was work with kids and play sports. I was a counselor and a coach."

The actor says stepping into the role of the strong-willed taskmaster coach Boone was a real rush. When asked how he would sum up Washington's characterization of himself, Boone jokes,"I am better looking than he is."

When Yoast was given a chance to answer the question, he didn't shy away from ribbing his former boss. "He made Herman look better than - if he was as nice a guy as Denzel made him look, we would have been buddies a long time."