Herman Boone

Herman Boone

A real hero for me is a person that makes beneficial things for the world using perseverance. An example is Herman Boone. Why is he a hero? Because he created a team of black guys and white guys at a time where racism existed in the USA.

Herman Boone was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, in 1935. He was one of 12 children. He studied at Booker T Washington High. Finishing his studies at this school he went to the North Carolina College in Durham. At this school he was a very good athlete, and he decided to become a coach so he could motivate young people to practice sports.

In 1958 Boone accepted his first teaching position at L.H. Foster High School in Blackstone, Virginia where he coached football, basketball and baseball. "His teams garnered very impressive stats with 26 wins, six losses and three district championships." After his succes, he wanted to become a coach from where he born in North Carolina and in 1961 he accepted a position at E.J. Hayes High School in Williamston. "Inspired and motivated to win, his football teams amassed an astonishing 99 wins with only eight losses in a nine year period." His 1966 team was recognized by Scholastic Coach Magazine as "the number one football team in America. Boone has been selected Coach of the Year six times and is the author of many articles for several national magazines." Then with all these triumphs he wanted to coach Williamston School, but they said that the school was not ready to have a black coach.

In 1971 the University of Alexandria wanted Herman Bonne to become the principal football coach over the coach Billy Yoast, a legendary coach for the city. Herman knew that in that city there were problems with discrimination for black people so he wanted to end that discrimination. He integrated a team from by black guys and white guys from the T.C Williams school. He tried very hard to make one team because every practice they had, there is always a fight. But Herman told the guys, “I don’t care if you never become friends because of the racism but in the team and every single game you will be a family.” Many guys captured the idea of the coach and the guys became friends and they ruled like Titans every game they played and became champions. Then President Richard Nixon was quoted as saying, "The team saved the city of Alexandria."

Today Herman is retired and until today has a very strong friendship with Bill Yoast. I admire these men because everybody wanted to integrate black guys and white guys and Herman did it without fights. Also I admired him because it would have been easy to quit his job, knowing that it would be difficult to join the team, but he took the responsibility and joined the team. I always remember the slogan he uses, "It is acceptable to rest, but never quit.”