13th Public Affairs Detachment

Story by Spc. Eric Glassey

Military contractor Wayne A. Sanders, liaison, Field Support Activity – Iraq, brings a bit of American history to the Victory Base Complex.

Sanders played football with the Titans, which the movie "Remember the Titans" was based on. He was pulled up from the junior varsity ranks by Coach Herman Boone his sophomore year to play in the famous final games, making him a member of the original team from 1971.

While some movies seem completely unrelated to the original event, "Remember the Titans" stayed close to the mark. "It is about 90 percent accurate," Sanders said. "Sunshine never kissed that dude in the locker room. However, we did take a run through Gettysburg and Coach Boone was pretty strict. In another life he would have been a drill sergeant."

"The movie was well done and portrayed to some degree what we went through as players and students," said Kerry Lundin, vice-president of the original '71 Titans foundation. He played offensive tackle and wore number 77. "Disney did take some liberties with some of the things, but on a whole they showed what the coaches dealt with in regards to the politics of the city council and the strain it put on an already powder keg situation for the entire city."

Sanders graduated from T.C. Williams High School with a football scholarship. After two and a half years of college he enlisted in the U.S. Army. After attaining the rank of sergeant, he attended Officer Candidate School. He then served in Vietnam working to locate troops who were prisoners of war or missing in action. He retired from the U.S. Army as a captain.

What Sanders went through with the desegregation of the public schools and the integration of the football team gave him a jump start in his military career. "Regardless of race we had to work together," Sanders said. "We were all different people who had to work together to achieve a common goal."

Sanders was just one man on a team that took boys and made men out of them. "One of the many things I took away from the Titan experience was my self confidence," said Thomas Lewis, a manufacturing engineering manager for ConMed Linvatec Surgical Devices out of St. Petersburg, Fla. "I learned that with the right effort and attitude that I could do just about anything I needed to do."

When reflecting upon this time in history Sanders considered it with mixed feelings. "It was a period of joy and pain," Sanders said. "It takes adjustment for something like that [integration in the school and football team]. Once everybody got to know each other it was a great experience. Overall it was a great education experience."

Sanders is currently the only player from the '71 Titan team serving in Iraq. Other team players are stateside and provided interviews for this article. One of the goals for the '71 original Titan team members is to do a USO tour to support the troops. "I have an appreciation for what our men and women [of the Armed Forces] do for all of us and I want to thank each person for what they do now," Lewis said.

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