Woodlawn (film)

Plot[edit]

Miami Dolphins superstar running back Tony Nathan attended Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, Alabama during the early 1970s. Nathan became a model student and the first black football superstar in Alabama history. He and other black students played on the mainly white team under coach Tandy Gerelds at a time when racial tensions were very high. He was credited with helping to unify the team, which went on to play the biggest high school game in Alabama history. After high school Nathan played for Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant at the University of Alabama. He later played under coach Don Shula with the Miami Dolphins and was a starter in two Super Bowls. The 2015 film Woodlawn starring Caleb Castille as Nathan and Nic Bishop as Coach Gerelds, with Jon Voight as Bear Bryant is based on his high school years.


When Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, Alabama, is controversially desegregated in 1973, gifted black athlete Tony Nathan and several other black players join the school's predominantly white football team. The coach, Tandy Gerelds, tells the team to use their shared anger at repeated violent incidents to unite them, but black and white players clash on and off the field. After a riot at the school, Gerelds lets traveling sports chaplain Hank Erwin speak to the team as a "motivational speaker". Hank's speech moves nearly the entire team to accept Hank's invitation to commit their lives to follow Jesus Christ, and to join in prayer and work. Gerelds does not accept the invitation, and is unsure what to make of the event.


The team loses its first game, but after Gerelds decides to play Nathan over the objections of some of the white players' parents, they win their next game. Nathan becomes a breakout star, and the team goes on a long winning streak leading up to their final game with rival L. Frazier Banks High School.^[7]


Banks coach "Shorty" White instructs his players to target Nathan, and the repeated hard tackles take their toll. Nathan scores a touchdown, but is injured by a vicious late hit and is unable to continue playing. Woodlawn loses, but Gerelds expresses pride in his team for "the men they've become". After coming to faith Gerelds eventually seeks out Nathan's church during a Sunday service, where he testifies to the change in his life, and asks to be baptized.


Many people wonder about the turnaround in Woodlawn's team, and Hank arranges a meeting between the Woodlawn players and Banks players, leading to a spiritual awakening on the Banks team as well. Gerelds and White hold an unprecedented joint football camp before the 1974 season, and a camaraderie develops between the two teams. Both go undefeated for the season until their final game against each other, which because of the stardom of Nathan and Banks quarterback Jeff Rutledge, draws a huge record crowd.


A few years later, now working as an insurance agent, Gerelds admits to a customer that while they did lose that big game, the transformation he witnessed in the lives of many people was miraculous.


After Nathan, now playing for Alabama, carries his team to victory in the 1979 Sugar Bowl, he calls Gerelds at home and expresses his gratitude, encouraging him to return to coaching.