Story of De La Salle's Legendary Winning Streak Hits Theaters

The true story of a Concord high school football team’s legendary 12-year winning streak will fill some 3,000 movie screens this weekend during the nationwide premiere of When the Game Stands Tall.

Based on a book by the same name by former Contra Costa Times columnist Neil Hayes, the movie chronicles the journey of award-winning Coach Bob Ladouceur and his record-breaking 151-game winning streak as head coach of De La Salle High School’s Spartans football team.

The movie, starring Jim Caviezel as Ladouceur and Laura Dern as his wife, is a dramatized version of the football team’s unprecedented no-loss record starting in 1992 and its end in 2004.

“To have a great story from De La Salle High School brought to the screen by such a talented group of people is an honor,” said school president Mark DeMarco in a prepared statement. “And what thrills us most is that so many people who didn’t know us before have grasped what this school is all about,” he said.

Also portrayed in the film is the tragic death of 18-year-old De La Salle football player Terrance “TK” Kelley, who was gunned down in Richmond on Aug. 12, 2004, just days before he was set to begin his freshman year at the University of Oregon.

Proceeds from a fundraising premiere of When the Game Stands Tall at Century Blackhawk Plaza in Danville last Sunday went to the Terrance Kelley ‘04 Endowed Memorial Fund for Financial Aid.

Hundreds of school staff, students and other community members attended, according to De La Salle High assistant football coach Terry Eidson.

The Terrance Kelley Youth Foundation, started by the late teen’s father, offers tutoring, mentoring and other services for at-risk Richmond youth. Eidson, who is portrayed in the film by The Shield actor Michael Chiklis, said he hopes the movie “brings positive attention to Terrance Kelley and the kind of kid he was.”

The film’s creators gave Eidson, Ladouceur and other school athletic staff the first cut of the movie last November to ensure there were no glaring inaccuracies, he said. Eidson said that while the film includes some fictional characters and the timeline strays slightly from real-life chronology, for the most part, it stays true to the school’s athletic program and coaching philosophy of instilling its players with values that transcend beyond the football field.

“What our program tries to do is take young boys and give them a true authentic team experience, which means the sacrifice of self for your team and learning important values of commitment, dependability and accountability,” he said.

“We kind of use it as a vehicle to teach kids about what it means to be a man,” Eidson said.

The assistant coach said he’s seen the movie at least five times and isn’t sure he’ll watch it again any time soon, but that the halls of De La Salle are still buzzing about it.

When the Game Stands Tall posters adorn the school’s walls and students and staff who haven’t seen it yet are looking forward to getting a glimpse of their school’s story on the big screen.

“Everybody takes a lot of pride in this, the whole team is pretty excited,” Eidson said.

---Bay City News