Celebrity Patients

Charlton Heston

Famous coaches visit Wheatland Dental Group

Wheatland Dental Care and Mountain View College welcomed the head coaches of the Titans, Coach Hermon Boone and Coach Bill Yoast. Disney portrayed the blockbuster movie of their true story. Dr. Harry Sugg and his wife Kerry helped give a warm welcome to the coaches while in town to give a speech.

Boone spent Monday afternoon at Wheatland Dental Care having a dental exam and sharing many stories with staff and patients regarding football, education and integration of the schools in 1971. Racism ran rampant during that time.

He spoke of his trials and tribulations as a black coach of a newly integrated football team that won 13 games that season.

Wheatland Dental Care and Student Ambassadors greeted the coaches with a luncheon at Mountain View College. Harry and Kerry Sugg presented appreciation gift baskets to the coaches.

Also, autographs where signed, pictures where taken and many stories where shared. Yoast returned to Wheatland Dental Care with Dr. Harry Sugg to spend the rest of the afternoon sharing his story and united and work as a team like he taught the 1971 Titans.

Boone and Yoast were a blessing to have in the office.

Head Coaches of the Titans

City leaders receive autographed photos of the real Titan's coaches.

At recent meetings of the DeSoto and Duncanville City Councils, city officials received autographed photos of William Yoast and Herman Boone, the coaches depicted in Disney's 2000 movie "Remember the Titans".

Kerry Sugg of Wheatland Dental Care presented the photos to DeSoto's Mayor Michael Hurtt and City Manager Jim Baugh at the May 20 DeSoto City Council meeting and to Duncanville's Mayor Glenn Repp and City Manager Kent Cagle at the June 17 Duncanville meeting.

Now the seventh-most-watched movie in the world, "Remember the Titans" has become a favorite of Sugg and her family, who are very selective about the movies they watch. "We pick true stories that make us feel better and relate the values we are trying to teach our children," she told the councils.

The small-budget movie is based on a real-life drama that played out in Alexandria, Va. (a suburb of Washington D.C.) during the 1970-71 school year. The film illustrates the painful integration process that most of the United States (especially the South) went through during the 1960s and 1970s and the effects on T.C. Williams High School's football team, which ultimately set the tone for the entire community.

Sugg's husband, Dr. Harry Sugg, now counts Boone and Yoast among his patients and friends. The entire Sugg family, which includes teenage daughters Laura and Jaclyn, were the only outsiders invited to the team's 31-year reunion at Yoast's home in Bethany Beach, Del., last year.

There, the coaches and players reflected on their experience and how it is relevant for schools programs, communities and companies today as they struggle to overcome racial issues. "We told them about our community and the kinds of family values DeSoto and Duncanville are trying to promote," Sugg told the councils.

She related that Yoast was reuniting with a long-lost daughter as a result of the movie and told how Denzel Washington, who played Boone in the movie, and Will Patton, who played Yoast, grew as a result of observing that the parents of the Titans team members et aside their prejudices and came together for the good of their children.

Repp stressed Duncanville's mission to become a community where people feel safe and comfortable walking through the streets.

Recently, the Duncanville council hosted a seminar featuring former New York Mayor Rudy Guliani, who recalled how the citizens of New York accomplished so much in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by cooperating and working together.

"With the cultural diversity in a community," Lynda Humble, DeSoto's assistant city manager, said, "you can always count on change. That's one reason DeSoto's city management staff decided to incorporate the film into last years planning retreat."

Due in part to the movie's example, Humble said, "Our management team knows they have an impact on change and accountability. We are beginning to see the team really come together. We are making progress."
The late Ben Dial, head football coach at DeSoto High School, saw the movie numerous times, and incorporated its lessons into his coaching style.

Todd Grimes, DeSoto's defensive coordinator, worked with Dial about 12 years.

"I think what he related to more than anything in the movie was the concept of several different types of people coming together to make a whole," Grimes said. "No matter what's going on around you, a team is a family. In that movie you see the guys who are dealing with outside things but you have to block all that out when you become a team. It doesn't matter about race religion."

"These are exactly the family values that we believe in," Hurtt said.

Repp thanked Sugg on behalf of the city of Duncanville and told her "You are a goodwill ambassador for our city and our community."