Boone, whose newly integrated team overcame racial tensions to win a Virginia state championship in 1971, will speak in Carroll Hall Auditorium. His talk, sponsored by the Campus Y's Students for the Advancement of Race Relations committee, will be the keynote address for the Y's celebration of Black History Month.
Visitors can meet Boone at a reception in Carroll after the talk.
He will bring valuable insight on race relations, because he lived through segregation and a lot of the racial turmoil in the South. Denzel Washington portrayed the coach in last year's inspirational movie. Va. The city combined enrollments from three schools, two black and the third white, at Williams, previously one of the black schools, where Boone had been head coach. Tensions escalated when the school system chose Boone over Bill Yoast, the local favorite among whites and successful head coach of the former white Hammond High. Remarkably, the two coaches were able to put aside their prejudices, and in doing so they unified their players to form a team whose common vision was to respect each other and win football games.