The White Shadow

Morris Thorpe:
[a new kid shows up wearing a basketball letter jacket] Relax, that jacket said Montana. There can't be more than three high schools in the whole territory.

Jim Willis:
You had it easy sonny boy. You'll never know what it's like have to sit in the back of the bus and then give up your seat to a white man or pee in your pants because you can't find a bathroom that'll take you... Now I know a racist when I see one. And I'm looking at one right now.

Harold:
[after Ken Reeves has done a student reporter a favor] Did you do that as a reward for me writing a positive article?

Ken Reeves:
No, I expect to get raked over the coals the next time we lose.

Ken Reeves:
[Coach Reeves has just pulled all of his starting players from a game except his center] I'd pull you too Coolidge but you're so fat, you need to run.

Ken Reeves:
Dreams die hard... but they die easier if you kill 'em off yourself.

Jim Willis:
Albert! One thing I hated more about being in school, was having to walk to and from it each and every day.

[pauses]

Jim Willis:
I heard you got cut from the team.

Albert Hodges:
What you gonna do about it?

Jim Willis:
What do you think that I should do about it?

Albert Hodges:
Get rid of him.

Jim Willis:
He's a good coach.

Albert Hodges:
It's racist, man.

Jim Willis:
[exits from his car, and catches up with Albert] Wait a second. There's six other blacks on that team. They never had a problem with Coach Reeves.

Albert Hodges:
That's 'cause they never asserted themselves before. White people, give black people all the rights they want, as long as they keep their mouths shut, and don't say anything about it. Well, that ain't good enough for me.

Jim Willis:
You feel as though that's the reason, that Coach Reeves cut you from the team?

Albert Hodges:
[sighs] Why are we talking about him?

Jim Willis:
'Cause I've know him longer than you'ver been alive. I roomed with him in college, it was my idea to bring him here. Now, do you actually think I would do that if I though that he was prejudiced?

Albert Hodges:
I don't care what you think, 'cause you don't know what being black is anymore. Sit all day behind your big desk, in your suit, and your fancy ties. Uh-uh, you're just as white as he is.

Jim Willis:
You little dumb clown. You think you're the only black kid in the world who's ever suffered? Well, let me tell you something sonny boy. You don't know nothin'. Don't walk when I'm talking to you. You ever had to stand on the side of the road, and pee in your pants because, you weren't allowed to use a white bathroom? or ride in the back of the bus and then you have to give your seat up to a white man? Do you know anything about that? Well I do. 'Cause that's how it was when I was coming up. So don't go around telling me how tough it is to be black. If there's one thing I know, it's a racist when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.

Albert Hodges:
What's that suppose to mean?

Jim Willis:
I don't have to tell you what it means. You know exactly what it means. Coach Reeves doesn't hate you bacause your black. You hate yourself because, your black.

Ken Reeves:
Jackie Solomon, Warren Coolidge.

Jackie Solomon:
Understand you're thinking about turning pro under the guidance of Mr. Walter Preston. You must've got the ol' Preston 1-2 Punch, huh?

Warren Coolidge:
What, did he handle you, too?

Jackie Solomon:
Yeah, he handled me... like a hot potato.

Warren Coolidge:
What do you mean?

Jackie Solomon:
Preston had me convinced I was a young Al Attles. Not that I needed a lot of convincing, mind you, I was good and I knew it. I was All-Scholastic in high school and I was gonna be a pro one way or the other. It's just that Preston's way looked like the easy way. In fact, it looked so good, I couldn't think straight. You see, he was workin' with this chick, see, and we had what you might call a "whirlwind romance." She took me off on a weekend to Vegas and by the time I came up for air, I was ready to sign anything. Well. I signed all right, but it was the chick who turned out to be the bonus baby! Seems she got five percent of everything she got her hands on, and let me tell you, sonny, those hands get around!

Jackie Solomon:
[as Coolidge, in disbelief, turns to leave] Where you goin', sonny? I ain't finished my story!

Warren Coolidge:
I don't want to hear anymore!

Jackie Solomon:
Well, in that case, I'll make the rest short and simple! The pros wanted me to have a season in the Eastern League for the experience, the experience I didn't get in college. I might as well have been playin' for the Steelers! Those guys play strictly bump and run! My knee got wrecked in the third game, I got 6,000 bucks! And, that was all she wrote for the young Al Attles!

Warren Coolidge:
Hey, think small, live small. Think big, live big.

Ken Reeves:
Jackson made a big mistake. But should he have to pay for it the rest of his life?

Ken Reeves:
[Referring to Jackson's bets, on basketball games and the loss from the Vernon game] Now, you for a few lousy bucks, maybe paying the same price. If Witherspoon, writes all about this, there's no basketball scholarship in this country, that will touch you with a ten foot pole. That means, no college, not scholarships. Nothin'!

Ken Reeves:
You always had time for everyone except your family! And now you want me to eat with you?

Jake Reeves:
Go! Go, go, go, go!

Ken Reeves:
No, 36 years, and now you want to have a sandwich? Why?

Jake Reeves:
Because I'm dying!

Jake Reeves:
Am I gonna see the Yankees in the World Series again?

Dr. McCabe:
No, Jake.

Jake Reeves:
Meaning you think it'll be the Red Sox?

Jim Willis #2:
Well, flunking him now could have a tremendous effect on his life. Do we have the right to interfere like that? [pauses] You're right, Finneman. As long as he remains, a student at Carver. We don't have any choice, he can't graduate.

Ken Reeves:
According, to Ms. Buchanan, you are this close, from flunking Biology. If you don't, keep your grades up Coolidge, I'll bench you.

Warren Coolidge:
You wouldn't, do that.

Ken Reeves:
Oh, would I?

Warren Coolidge:
You would.

Student:
You're Wade, right?

Mack Wade:
Yeah, are you the g...

Student:
[Cuts, him off] It don't matter, who I am.

Mack Wade:
[Student, takes test scores out of his pocket] Is that, the test?

Student:
No, it ain't the test, it's just the answers. Where the 10?

Mack Wade:
What 10?

Student:
The 10 bucks!

Mack Wade:
I don't have, 10 bucks.

Student:
What am I, one of the students in the mimeo work, for school credit.

Mack Wade:
Listen, I ain't got 10 bucks.

Student:
Okay, how much do you got, I haven't got all day. [Wade, gives him money, and the student, gives him the paper] It's multiple choice, just write it, on your arm or something.

Ken Reeves:
[Coach Reeves walks in to substitute teach gym class and blows his whistle] Alright, let's line up!

Ken Reeves:
[looks over at the bleachers and sees Lucius lounging instead of lining up] You a part of this class?

Lucius Robinson:
Sometimes.

Ken Reeves:
Then how come you're not on the floor like the rest of us?

Lucius Robinson:
I don't feel good.

Ken Reeves:
You been to see the nurse?

Lucius Robinson:
I got a doctor's note.

Ken Reeves:
Let me see it.

Lucius Robinson:
I don't have it.

Ken Reeves:
What's wrong with you?

Lucius Robinson:
I got this rare tropical disease called 'I can't stand gym'!

Ken Reeves:
Alright, I'll be with you in a minute. In the meantime, take your feet off the bleachers. Alright, roll call! [calls several names] Robinson!

Lucius Robinson:
Present!

Ken Reeves:
I thought I told you to take your feet off the bleachers. You don't put your feet on the furniture at home, do you? Don't do it here!

Lucius Robinson:
I always put my feet on the furniture at home.

Ken Reeves:
What does your mother say about that?

Lucius Robinson:
She says, 'where do you think you are, school?'! [class members start laughing]

Henry Judd:
I never saw Randy happier than when he made your team. Thank you for giving him that chance.

Willie Jackson:
It's the only time that I don't have to think about things, that I don't want to think about.