Rose coached with Gerelds portrayed in Woodlawn movie
from Deshler High 1994 Kevin Rose third row second from end with staff of Tandy Gerelds fourth row on end (contributed)
MADISON- Kevin Rose remembers.
Deshler High School, 1994, he was in his second year as a coach and teacher. The head coach on that staff was Thomas “Tandy” Gerelds, then 52 years old and a legend in coaching. Geralds is portrayed by Nic Bishop in the movie Woodlawn currently in theaters and on home release.
Twenty years earlier Gerelds found himself in the middle of the government-mandated desegregation of Woodlawn High School in Birmingham. How he used football and faith to bridge racial divides and produce a winning team is the crux of the movie. The climax is the historic 1974 game between Banks and Woodlawn that drew 40,000 fans to Legion Field, still a record in Alabama.
Rose and Gerelds would coach together only one season.
“I coached wingbacks and tight ends and we were a wing T offense,” said Rose whose first job out of college was at Handley High.
“I was at Handley and the principal said I had a call from Tandy Gerelds and he offered me a job. I told him I could be there in 3 hours.”
Gerelds eventually moved into administration. Rose stayed at Deshler as Offensive Coordinator. His 1998 team set a season rushing record that still stands today. The next season Deshler won a 4A state championship. Rose eventually became head coach at Sheffield and now at Bob Jones.
“He was my mentor in those early years of coaching,” said Rose who first interned for Gerelds as a student at UNA in 1991.
As a quarterback at Muscle Shoals Rose played against Gerald’s Deshler teams.
“I talked to their players and they all said how much they enjoyed playing for him so when I did my teaching practicum I wanted to learn from him. He was an innovator on offense and made a rapid improvement in their program.”
Rose today
Woodlawn is set in the early 1970’s. Today it is difficult to comprehend the emotions and strong feelings portrayed in the movie.
“I heard those stories from Tandy but unless you lived and coached in that time period you can’t understand the racial tension those guys dealt with. Tandy literally got up and put a gun on his ankle every day to go to work. By the time he got to Deshler he was a winning coach and he was really good at dealing with players of both races.”
Rose said Gerelds would be “very proud of how he is portrayed. He was extremely strong in his Christian faith and he shared that with his coaches and players. He was sincere in his faith and a great influence on his coaches.”
Gerelds died in 2003 after a short battle with cancer. He was only 60 years old. Rose was a pall bearer at his funeral and is still close with Gerelds wife Debbie. Gerelds was inducted into the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame earlier this year.
Rose said that Geralds struggled with the loss in the big game against Banks. He eventually left coaching for 10 years and sold insurance.
“He was so competitive he hated to lose. The hardest thing about being a coach is when you lose a game you have to shake it off and go to the next one. You can’t carry it with you. You have to be the energy for your program to get over a tough loss.”
Geralds son Todd later wrote the book Woodlawn and in 2015 it was made into a movie.
In October Rose took Bob Jones football players to see the movie. Todd Gerelds spoke to the team one Friday that same month.
“Tandy had told stories about his experiences at Woodlawn but to read the book then see the movie was interesting to me. It was a real tearjerker.”
“The players loved the movie. It was one of the most popular activity we did as a team. We filled up all 144 seats. We took all the football players, cheerleaders, some volleyball players. Team bonding means a lot to these players of today.”
