In the movie We are Marshall, portrays a tragic moment in NCAA history. This tragedy was the worst moment in sports history. Other schools reached out to this school and especially one of their biggest rivals, West Virginia University. One man’s passion for the game and excellent morals had the guts to become the head coach for the “Thundering Herd”. Coach Jack Lengyel restores the way of life to the town of Huntington, West Virginia. The football program put life back into the hearts of the people of this small town. However, Red Dawson, the parents, and the remaining players have exaggerated emotional portrayals when depicting the reintroduction of Marshall’s football program following the 1970 plane crash.
On November 14, 1970, a horrendous event destroyed the hearts of many and caused the nation to support Marshall University. According to the records of the plane crash, foggy weather was ahead of them. Therefore, the pilots of the plane did not see the landing strip and crashed a few miles before tarmac. The fire and explosion resulting from the crash became out of control and nothing could save the football team and sponsors. The football team had to be rebuilt and a meeting was held to discuss this decision. Nate Ruffin, an injured player who was not on the plane, interrupts this meeting. His impression on the board swayed the board’s decision to keep the program. Starting the process, the Athletic Director decides to hire Jack Lengyel. They originally tried for Red Dawson but he denied the job. Later, he was convinced to be an assistant coach by Jack. At the beginning of the first football season following the crash, the team had trouble-finding players to play. The NCAA allowed the University to play freshmen. They play...
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... chose it because the topics of football and tragedy inspired him to watch it. Although there were a few inaccuracies, the movie really caught the eye of the viewer and sparked an emotion found deep inside the heart. Their ability to overcome this adversity inspired him. In total the viewer gave this movie an 8.5 rating out of 10 for this film.
The depiction of the Universities’ story is heartwarming to many people of the town of Huntington and across the nation. The rest of the year, Coach Jack managed to win one more football game. Coach Red Dawson did not spend another year at the school and decided never to return to college football. The amazing incorporation of accuracies and inaccuracies makes this film really “click”. The important figures in the movie are displayed as very dramatic after the reincorporation of the football program at Marshal University.
High school sports can have a tremendous effect on not only those who participate but the members of the community in which they participate. These effects can be positive, but they can also be negative. In the book Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger shows that they are often negative in communities where high school sports “keep the town alive” due to the social pressure. In this way, Friday Night Lights gives insight into the effects of high school football being the backbone of a community, revealing that the fate of the individual football players are inadvertently determined by the actions of the townspeople.
The Odessa football players couldn't be objective about criticisms of football. Their total self-esteem depended on how they did on Friday night. This was the glorified culmination of their football career: wearing the black MoJo uniform in the stadium under the big lights. Football was more than just a game to them; it was a religion. It "made them seem like boys going off to fight a war for the benefit of someone else, unwitting sacrifices to a strange and powerful god" (Bissinger, p.11). Because football was so meaningful in their lives, to criticize it was to criticize everything they'd worked so hard for and lived for.
There have been many historical moments with the University of Dayton Flyers Men’s Basketball team, but Mark Weaver recalls of the one that meant most to him. It took place on March 24, 1967, in Louisville’s Freedom Hall for the Final Four of the NCAA (National College Athletic Association) tournament against the highly favored North Carolina Tar Heels (Collett 228). This was the third straight NCAA tournament appearance for the Flyers, but their first ever Final Four (Collett 228). It turned out that the Flyers smashed North Carolina, seventy-six to sixty-two. Don May hit a record thirteen straight field goals and scored thirty-four points (Collett 228). Mark Weaver, a lifetime fan said, “I remember that game like it was yesterday, it almost brings tears to my eyes. I have never seen UD party like we did the night of that game. I have been following Dayton basketball since the mid-1960s and I have yet to witness the team getting a greater win than the one over the Tar Heels.”
Remember the Titans is a movie about a high school football team that is diligently trying to win a state championship. The main obstacle that is in the way of them working together and getting the state championship is the fact that their team has both black and white male players. Today, it would be common for us to play with interracial people but in the year nineteen seventy-one it was not common at all. It was decided that Coach Boone (an African American), would be the head coach for the new football team at T.C. Williams High School. Coach Boone asks Coach Yoast, the former coach, to stay and be his assistant coach. He agrees and the white players also join the team along with the blacks. The team goes to Gettysburg College for camp where none of the teammates are comfortable with each other. Eventually, the team finally gets along at the camp and color is no longer an issue with the teammates.
After reports of several transgressions and the surface of a damaging videotape which appeared to show Knight physically assaulting a former player, the president of Indiana, Neil Reed, had explained to Knight that there was a zero tolerance policy where Knight was concerned (Wolff, 2000). Despite the repeated warnings and the newly stated zero tolerance policy, Knight continued to commit transgressions that eventually got him fired from Indiana University where he had coached for almost three decades. Indiana University took a thrashing from Knight fans’ over this decision, but keeping Knight as an agent of the University could have resulted in a legal disaster. From a Biblical worldview, the University showed mercy in the second chances that it provided to Knight. In addition, their actions did not appear to be malicious when they made the decision to let him go.
Van Der Galien’s reactions to Mr. Gladwell’s statements were professional, and to clarify on what could be the real objective of football in colleges. Nevertheless, the article reveals that Van Der Galien’s indirectly attempts to demonstrate that college football should be considered as a right, and if taken away is viewed un-American. Recalling memories from his childhood, which expresses the use of emotion, impacts the reader and gives credibility for those hard core “MERICANS.” Furthermore, with the use of quotes by interviewee, Malcom Gladwell, used in Van Der Galien’s article, can be used to back up his opinion . All in all, I believe that after reading this article I would argue that even with it’s casual use of emotion, understanding of the other issue, and quotes successfully outlines Van Der Galien’s opinion on ...
Abstract: High school football in the state of Texas has become out of control. The sport is no longer played for the sake of the school but rather has become a Friday night ritual to these small towns in Texas. The players are no longer just high school kids inter acting in school sports but have now become heroes to these small town communities. Communities simply no longer support their local high school team but rally in pride of their hometown rivalry against another team. School administrators and coaches no longer are teachers and mentors for the kids but are the equivalent to what in professional football are team owners and "real coaches". Parents have become agents and sacrifice their jobs and homes so that their child may play for the right team. Finally the fans, the fans have lost the sense that it is just a high school sport and changed the game to a level of professional sports. I plan to prove and show that for all these reasons Texas high school football has become out of control. It is no longer the game that it was originally meant to be.
Pappano, Laura. “How Big-Time Sports Ate College Life” Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition, 8th ed. Pages 591-600. 2013.
There is a scene in this movie where the coach takes the team on a long run in the middle of the night. They end up at the break of dawn at a cemetery. The coach tells the young men of the battle that was fought on that ground. He told of the blood shed on those grounds that turned the whole area red. This can help many people that want to make a difference in this world. They had to stand up for their new knowledge to people that they love and trust.
Boone faces the challenge of being accepted by the community, encouraging them to work together rather than judging and persecuting one another. At that time in Alexandria, Virginia there was an active atmosphere of racial tension within the community between both the African American and Caucasian population. Boone, a black coach, faces the challenge of taking on a new position as head coach of the T.C Williams High School football team. This is fraught with conflict and peril however due to the opposition of those that do not and will not accept the integration of black and white students into mixed race schools. In a move by the school board coach Boone is now unknowingly threatened by the loss of his job if The Titans loose a match. If The Titans are to loose a match Coach Boone will not only loose his job, both himself and the community will loose the hope of ever having this system of integration work. Boone in an effort to be accepted by the community uses his work with the football team to support the system of integration by emphasizing that he is in fact a valued ...
Sperber, M. (2011). Pay for Play: A History of Big-Time College Athletic Reform. Journal of American History, 98(2), 595-595.
The advantages that college athletics bring to a university’s metaphorical table are numerous. Promoting positive character development, creating and endorsing unity, and supporting college experiences and traditions just scratch the surface of the deep impact that athletics have had and continue to have on higher education. The important influences that college athletics carry with them are unquestionable, even to opponents of college sports. Critics will always have their views, facts, statistics and reasons on why college athletics should be taken off a positive pedestal or even completely banned. No system or organization is flawless and will always come with a few hiccups along the way. But despite those, college athletics will always remain an integral and a valuable part concerning their role in higher education.
The movie I decided to analyze was Remember the Titans. I examined the dilemmas and ethical choices that were displayed throughout the story. In the early 1970s, two schools in Alexandria Virginia integrate forming T.C. Williams High School. The Caucasian head coach of the Titans is replaced by an African American coach (Denzel Washington) from North Carolina, which causes a fury among white parents and students. Tensions arise quickly among the players and throughout the community when players of different races are forced together on the same football team. Coach Boone is a great example of a leader. He knows he faces a tough year of teaching his hated team. But, instead of listening to the hating town or administrators, Boone pushes his team to their limits and forces good relationships between players, regardless of race. His vision for the team involves getting the players concerned in what the team needs to become, and not what it is supposed to be; a waste. Boone is a convincing leader with a brutal, boot camp approach to coaching. He believes in making the players re-build themselves as a team. When Boone says, You will wear a jacket, shirt, and tie. If you don't have one buy one, can't afford one then borrow one from your old man, if you don't have an old man, then find a drunk, trade him for his. It showed that he was a handy Craftsman and wanted done what he wanted done no matter what it took.During training camp, Boone pairs black players with white players and instructs them to learn about each other. This idea is met with a lot of fighting, but black linebacker Julius Campbell and stubborn white All-American Gerry Bertier. It was difficult for the players to cope with the fact they had to play with and compete with ...
Coach Herman Boone, who is played by Denzel Washington, is a very influential person. He is a perfect leader. While it cannot be found out for sure, Coach Boone can be classified under the trait theory of management, that “Leaders are Born”. The type of leadership he displays cannot be taught, he is able to bring together two different types of groups to act as one, to respect each other and play together. He shows power in the movie, he has a large capacity to influence others. Using his power, he gets the players to conform and forget how others think they are supposed to act towards each other. The goal specificity is also clear in the movie. Coach Boone expects his team to be ‘perfect’, he expects them to win the Virginia State Championship. Former head coach and now assistant coach Bill Yoast, played by Will Patton, is also a very influential person and good leader. He is in charge...
...town rivals, Saint Francis, the number one seed in the playoffs. They played them the best they could, but would end up losing to them by two points at the buzzer, as the All American, Ty Crane, hit the game winning three pointer. Coach Carter’s team was heartbroken after the loss because they had done everything possible to get the victory. After this heartbreaker, Coach Carter comes in to give a speech that uplifts the players. Coach Carter ended his speech with this quote, “I came here to coach basketball players, and you became students. I came here to coach boys and you became men.” This movie had a great purpose that should be implemented into more athletes’ lives to help them in life. I rate this movie as a 5 because it was very inspirational to me. Being a former athlete, I think I would have learned some valuable life lessons from a coach like Coach Carter.