50 Fun Facts About Remember the Titans

Who directed Remember the Titans?

It was the first film Yakin directed without also writing it, and its success pushed him into Hollywood's top tier of bankable directors.

Denzel Washington plays which head coach in the film?

Washington's casting mattered at the box office too: the film gave him his biggest opening weekend to that point.

Which actor plays assistant coach Bill Yoast?

Patton had appeared in Armageddon and Gone in 60 Seconds shortly before, and later played Deputy Marnes in Silo.

Which blockbuster producer made Remember the Titans?

It was a rare PG-rated drama from the producer of Armageddon and Con Air, and Chad Oman co-produced.

Who wrote the screenplay?

Howard discovered the story after moving back to his native Virginia and wrote it as a spec script that studios initially passed on.

The main story of the film takes place during which football season?

That season the newly consolidated school fielded what amounted to an all-city all-star team drawn from three former high schools.

In which city is the film set?

The city's public schools had actually been legally desegregated more than a decade before the events of the film.

Where do the Titans go for their preseason training camp in the film?

The real team did tour Gettysburg, though former players say it was much less dramatic than the movie's version.

Which opponent do the Titans face in the film's climactic state title game?

In reality that was a mid-season matchup, though the real Titans did win it on a fourth-down comeback play at the very end.

Which real 1971 opponent did T. C. Williams beat 27-0 in the actual Virginia state final?

The real title game was a shutout played at Victory Stadium in Roanoke, nothing like the movie's last-play thriller.

Gerry Bertier is paralysed in a car accident at what point in the film's season?

The film moves the crash before the title game so the Titans must win it without their All-American linebacker.

Which sport wins Gerry a Paralympic gold medal in the film's epilogue?

The real Bertier had talked since childhood about winning an Olympic gold medal, and after his injury set state and national wheelchair records.

Which song does Julius lead the team in singing at Gerry's funeral?

The 1969 Steam hit was the last multi-week Billboard number one of the 1960s, and it fits the movie's running gag of the team singing on the sidelines.

According to the epilogue, how many more seasons did Boone coach the Titans after 1971?

The film omits that Boone was actually removed from the job by the principal in 1979.

Which character does Ryan Gosling play?

Gosling, then 19, had just been dropped by his agent because of the stigma of children's TV; this small role preceded his breakthrough in The Believer.

Hayden Panettiere plays which character?

The football-obsessed coach's daughter earned Panettiere a Young Artist Award for Best Supporting Young Actress.

What nickname does the long-haired quarterback Ronnie Bass go by?

The real Bass says his hair was never that long and that the locker-room kiss with Bertier never happened.

Donald Faison of Scrubs plays which Titan?

Scrubs later returned the favour: three extras wearing T. C. Williams letter jackets appear in the episode "My No Good Reason".

Wood Harris plays which team captain?

Harris earned NAACP Image and Blockbuster award nominations for the role two years before he became Avon Barksdale on The Wire.

Which actor plays Gerry Bertier?

Hurst had played a paratrooper in Saving Private Ryan two years earlier and would go on to Sons of Anarchy.

Kate Bosworth plays which character?

Bosworth had one prior film credit, The Horse Whisperer, and broke out two years later in Blue Crush.

Which player in the film was invented and did not exist on the real team?

Real Titans said that if a player like him had existed, he would have been cut in training camp.

Who composed the film's score?

Rabin composed twelve cues, but only one, "Titans Spirit", made it onto the soundtrack album.

The film's composer was earlier a guitarist and singer in which progressive rock band from 1983 to 1995?

Rabin also wrote the NBA on TNT theme and once produced a set of alert sounds for Apple's Power Macintosh.

NBC has used "Titans Spirit" over the closing credits of which event since 2002?

The cue also closed out NBC's 12-year run of NBA coverage in 2002.

Which NHL team's 2018 Stanley Cup celebration featured "Titans Spirit" as its captain lifted the Cup?

The New Jersey Devils have also used the piece for jersey retirements, including Martin Brodeur's.

Which Buddy Miles song is heard early in the film but was left off the soundtrack album?

Miles also performed the song with Jimi Hendrix in Band of Gypsys, and it became the title track of his 1970 solo album.

In which US state was most of the film shot?

Atlanta-area schools stood in for the Alexandria campus, and Berry College in Rome doubled for other locations.

The Titans' home games were filmed at which campus?

Practice scenes were shot at Clarkston High and some championship footage at Sprayberry's stadium in East Marietta.

What was the film's production budget?

It returned more than four times that worldwide, an unusually strong ratio for a period sports drama.

Which film did Remember the Titans beat to open at number one at the US box office?

Its $21 million opening was overtaken the following weekend by Meet the Parents.

The film's opening weekend surpassed which earlier Denzel Washington movie as his biggest to date?

The 1995 submarine thriller had paired Washington with Gene Hackman.

What grade did audiences polled by CinemaScore give the film?

Critics were far cooler: it scored 48 on Metacritic and 72% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film's screenwriter had already drafted which boxing biopic before he discovered the Titans story?

Studio delays meant that film reached theaters after Remember the Titans, even though he wrote it first.

What was the real 1971 T. C. Williams Titans' final record?

Nine of those wins were shutouts, and the team finished ranked second in the nation.

By what combined score did the real 1971 Titans outscore their opponents?

Bertier alone was credited with 142 tackles and 42 sacks that season.

Alexandria's public schools were legally desegregated in which year, well before the events of the film?

The three high schools had become racially imbalanced during the 1960s because of redlining, which is what the 1971 consolidation addressed.

Bill Yoast had won the 1970 Virginia state title as head coach of which program before consolidation?

Bertier played three seasons there before the school was merged into T. C. Williams.

Which US president said the integrated Titans "saved the city of Alexandria"?

The White House was across the Potomac, and the team was drawing national attention by December 1971.

On what date did Gerry Bertier's real paralysing crash occur?

He had just left a banquet honouring the team's undefeated season, weeks after the state title was already won.

What was determined to be the cause of Bertier's 1971 crash?

He was driving his mother's new Chevrolet Camaro and lost control, rather than being broadsided as the film shows.

Bertier died in 1981 after a crash on Route 20 near which Virginia city?

He was returning from a business trip when a northbound car crossed the centre line; the other driver was charged with manslaughter and DUI.

Why did teammates give the real Ronnie Bass his nickname?

Bass had moved from Huntington Beach, California, and had already been practising with rival quarterback "Rev" before camp began.

After an injury ended his college career, the real Julius spent his working life in which field?

Campbell attended Ferrum Junior College, and his friendship with Bertier lasted until Bertier's death.

Bill Yoast was born in 1924 in which state?

He served three years in the Army Air Corps and coached at T. C. Williams from 1971 to 1996, adding track and golf to football.

T. C. Williams was renamed in 2021 to what?

The original namesake, superintendent Thomas Chambliss Williams, had been an ardent supporter of segregation.

Which NFL Hall of Famer hosted the Blu-ray featurette "An Inspirational Journey Behind the Scenes"?

The disc also carries a commentary track by the real Herman Boone and Bill Yoast.

The real Coach Boone earned his degrees from which university?

He joined the Omega Psi Phi fraternity there and went on to a 99-8 record in nine seasons at E. J. Hayes High School.

The real Coach Boone joined T. C. Williams in 1969 as head junior varsity coach of which sport?

He had coached football, basketball and baseball at his first job in Blackstone, Virginia, in 1958.

Sheryl is shown as an only child, but how many sisters did the real coach's daughter have?

Her oldest sister was in college and her youngest was only three years old in 1971.