ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, Dec. 18, 2019 (UPI) — Herman Boone, the iconic high school football coach portrayed by actor Denzel Washington in the movie “Remember the Titans,” died Wednesday. He was 84.
Former T.C. Williams High School principal John Porter informed the school Wednesday of Boone’s death. The school’s football boosters club then announced it on social media.
“He touched many lives and hearts across the world,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings Jr. said in a statement. “He was so inspirational for so many people, including me as one of his former students. Alexandria City Public Schools was fortunate to have him as an icon at such a critical time in our history. He will be dearly missed.”
Boone became the first African American head coach at T.C. Williams in Alexandria, Va., in 1971, the first year the city’s high schools were integrated and consolidated. Under Boone and assistant coach Bill Yoast, the Titans football program overcame racial tension and went undefeated, winning the Virginia state championship.
Boone and the team’s success story was memorialized in the 2000 Disney film starring Washington.
Boone’s death comes six months after Yoast died in May at the age of 94.
