By TOM FOREMAN Jr.
With his health declining, Herman Boone was still mapping out football strategy as if he were about to walk the sidelines one more time.
“His daughter said the other night he asked for a clipboard. He started drawing plays,” said Aly Khan Johnson, an assistant on Boone’s staff in 1972.
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Boone, the Virginia high school football coach who inspired the movie “Remember the Titans,” died Wednesday after battling cancer. He was 84. Boone guided T.C. Williams High School to a state championship while navigating the early days of desegregation. In the movie, he was portrayed by Denzel Washington.
Johnson said the coach died at his home in Alexandria, Virginia. Johnson said a funeral home operated by his wife is handling the arrangements, which are not complete. He said Boone had been battling cancer, adding that he visited the coach regularly and had planned to see him Wednesday when he learned of his death.
Johnson recalled Boone as being one of the influential coaches in his career and a person after whom he tried to model his own style. Their association went back to the 1960s, when Boone coached at a black high school in Williamston, North Carolina, and Johnson lived several doors down. He said they would sometimes run plays that Boone had drawn up.
“What I picked up from coach Boone all those years was his dedication to young people, being organized and being persistent in doing what you’re doing, planning ahead,” Johnson said.
