Bill Yoast, Assistant Coach of ‘Remember the Titans’ Team, Dies at 94

Former T.C. Williams High School football team assistant coach Bill Yoast, who was portrayed in the film "Remember the Titans," died Thursday.

Former T.C. Williams High School football team assistant coach Bill Yoast, who was portrayed in the film "Remember the Titans," died Thursday at the age of 94, reports the Washington Post. No cause of death was provided. 

Yoast coached at the high school in Alexandria, Va., from 1971 to 1996. He was one of the main characters in the 2000 film that focused on how Alexandria integrated its high schools into one and the season filled with racial tensions that followed the decision. The team went undefeated that season and won the Virginia AAA state championship. In the movie, Will Patton portrayed Yoast. 

Yoast was the favorite to win the head coach job at the newly integrated T.C. Williams, but the position went to Herman Boone (portrayed in the film by Denzel Washington) instead. Yoast joined his staff as the defensive coordinator. 

"No doubt, the beginning of our relationship was rocky," Boone told the Post. "I didn’t know Yoast. Yoast didn’t know me. I knew that Hammond had no black athletes and I didn’t know if coach Yoast had anything to do with that. But we got to [training camp] and became roommates and found a way to talk to one another. 

"I think that’s the formula for race relations throughout the world. People have to learn to talk to one another. You have to learn to talk to that individual, and when you talk to that individual, you learn to trust that individual, and that’s the greatest gift God to give to man."

In January, Julius Campbell, who was a fellow member of the '71 team and star in the film, died at the age of 65.