Bill Yoast Dies at 94; HSFB Coach Portrayed in 'Remember the Titans' Movie

Former T.C. Williams coach Bill Yoast, a key figure in Disney's Remember the Titans movie, died Thursday at the age of 94.

Per Alexandria City Public Schools, Yoast was living at the Aarondale Retirement and Assisted Living Community in Virginia when he died. No cause of death was given.

From 1971 to 1996, Yoast served as the T.C. Williams football team's defensive coach, also coaching the track and field and golf teams during that 25-year period. He won a regional football championship in 1969 as head coach at Francis C. Hammond High School.

In an interview with Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post, Herman Boone, the head football coach at T.C. Williams from 1971 to 1979, explained how their relationship evolved:

"No doubt, the beginning of our relationship was rocky. 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 gave to man."

Will Patton and Denzel Washington, respectively, portrayed Yoast and Boone in the film that depicted the team's 1971 state championship season.

In addition to his work as a high school athletics coach, Yoast served three years in the Army Air Corps before moving into the Air Force.