Spiritual Emphasis Week this year featured four great days of teaching by Ryan Guard, breakout sessions hosted by faculty and staff and a time of worship led by Riley Engquist ’12 and Rylan Cole. On Friday, students, faculty, staff and our community joined in the Bradley Gym for an advanced screening of the upcoming film Woodlawn.
The movie proved to be a powerful and inspiring end to an already great Spiritual Emphasis Week. Following the movie, actor Kevin Sizemore joined Head Football Coach Jeff Rutledge and the marketing director for a Q&A hosted by Greg Tonkinson.
Sports360AZ’s Jordan Hamm was out at the event and wrote this about the day:
The school had an advanced screening of the film “Woodlawn”, which tells the story of Woodlawn High School in Birmingham, AL in the early 1970s. The school and city were torn apart by racism, but the team came together through their faith.
Rutledge went to rival Banks High School and was a top quarterback in the country. Through organizations like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the help of chaplain Hank Erwin, played by Sean Astin, Woodlawn and Banks came together to pray and practice together. When the two teams met up in 1974, it had an attendance of upwards of 40,000.
Both Rutledge and Woodlawn’s Touchdown Tony Nathan went on to play at Alabama together and had extensive NFL careers.
After the screening, a visibly-moved Rutledge explained to students, teachers, and members of the “Woodlawn” production about his experience in high school during that period and how prayer eventually helped lead them out of that tough time.
Rutledge had shared his stories with his players, but to see it on the silver screen gave a bigger picture of how different things were and how much faith influenced the players, and eventually the entire community, in Birmingham.
Rutledge told the crowd he had tears in his eyes for nearly the entire movie because it was a trip down memory lane.
“It portrayed everything pretty accurately,” Rutledge said “It’s neat to see the revival that took place at Woodlawn and from Woodlawn it went to Banks and lives changed.”
That’s exactly what Rutledge and the entire crew hope this film, which hits theaters October 16th, will do. The coach said he spoke to Tony Nathan Friday morning and Nathan said if one life changed from this film, it would be worth it.
Based on the response of the gym after the screening, it’s safe to say it was.
We highly recommend seeing Woodlawn in theaters when it is released on October 16.