This from EW.com:
Recent Oscar nominee Terrence Howard has two new roles in his future: In the first, he'll star in PDR (Philadelphia Department of Recreation) a movie about real-life inner-city swim coach Jim Ellis.
I know Jim. Great guy. Besides the fact that he had two (or three) black swimmers go to Olympic trials, I'm not real sure what makes this a feature film. It's not like his story is anywhere near "Glory Road." If Michael Norment had made the '96 Olympic team, that would have been something. But maybe it's precisely because Jim got more than one black swimmer to the 1996 Trials that gets the green light.
Why aren't they doing a movie about my age-group coach, who ran an all-black swim team for many, many, many years. Even though I was the only one in his group to do anything swimming-wise, my coach (Mr. Taylor we called him, never by his first name) had polio and had lots and lots of respect in St. Louis, where there are lots of blacks, but was only one black swim team.
Anyway. Terrence Howard would have to bulk up for the role. Jim is (or was about 10 years ago when I saw him last) a bulky guy. Terrence looks a little too slim.
All I hope is that they use real swimmers from PDR, and not actors who think they know how to swim.
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When I first moved to DC after college, I volunteered at the capital hill natatorium tecahing kids to swim. the guy who started the program was one of three black coaches onthe east cost. I think that he might have swam at Tuskeegee. We used to have a black meet. It was weird because none of the parents had any swimming background, and many of the girls didn't want to get their hair wet. the team from Philly always won the meet. I'm not sure i fthis is still going on or not. The UDC physical ed. depart. also tried to do a lot with getting balcks into sports that black kids don't normally get involved in.
When I first moved to DC after college, I volunteered at the capital hill natatorium tecahing kids to swim. the guy who started the program was one of three black coaches onthe east cost. I think that he might have swam at Tuskeegee. We used to have a black meet. It was weird because none of the parents had any swimming background, and many of the girls didn't want to get their hair wet. the team from Philly always won the meet. I'm not sure i fthis is still going on or not. The UDC physical ed. depart. also tried to do a lot with getting balcks into sports that black kids don't normally get involved in.
