New Recording 2 (1)

Hello everyone, I'm Ebonia and welcome to Student1038 with Hit Music Now. Today we have something different for you, introducing the one and the only, three time championship winning coach, Bin. Hello Bin, and thank you for the great introduction. Ah Bin, a great intro from one of the greats. Now let's get into this, I'm sure everyone is eagerly waiting to hear this. Give us a bit about yourself Herman, if I can call you that. Yes, Herman is fine. Well, I would call myself a person of two worlds, a football world and everything else in between. My football life really took off in 1971 at a school called William High School in Alexandra, Virginia. I will come back to my football life, but I feel my childhood was everything to do with my success. I kind of had an idea, your background being influential to your success. Please tell us about it. Well I grew up with one thing on my mind, football. Can we say we're surprised? Everyone, certainly not me. I'm sure there is. Please go on and tell us more about your childhood. My childhood was different, not full of opportunities nor equality. It was tough. I was different, not full of opportunities nor equality. It was tough. I was black. Life was full of opportunities nor equality. It was tough. I was black. Life was hard. Life was hard. Always wanting what I couldn't have. Missed opportunities just because of a skin colour. Life was hard, but that's what made me strong. Well, that gave me the chills. What about family? Were there support systems for you? Family was a massive help. Family was a massive help. I was very lucky to have married parents who helped me and showed me what love was. Family was a massive help. I was very lucky to have married parents who helped me and showed me what love was, even if the community around didn't show that to me, to black people. I have an older brother as well. And what was his name? Michael. Michael is his name. He's three years older, which made football some competition, you know. Where did you play football when you were younger? I went to Blue Ridge in Virginia, which was for all the black people. That was all that was allowed now. It's been mixed, so improvements are being made. Well, I've never heard of Blue Ridge before. Did you play football there? Yes, of course, but we were only allowed to play other skills with black children, so options were limited. Let's get on to the Titans. When did you start this? I started October 8, 1971, my first time as a co-coach. I was coaching alongside Coach Youngst, who is one of my closest friends now. I was ready to win. What did the players think of you? They thought it gave him the right to come in here and start changing everything up. It was a team of two skin colours, and they didn't mix, but we changed that. Did any players help to make it easier for the teams to come together? Gary and Julius were incredible. Gary and Julius were incredible. They made God damn sure them boys mixed, and if they didn't, it would be healthy play. God bless Gary. Gone too soon. Incredible player. He will never be forgotten. I think Gary's death impacted everyone. He was an incredible person. One last question for you, Herman. If you could go back in time, would you do anything differently? No, I wouldn't, either. No, I wouldn't, either. I'm very happy the way everything turned out. Thanks so much to Coach Boone for coming on FM 104. We hope to see you again. Thank you all for listening.