Movie spotlights UO's link to storied high school football team

A new movie about a California high school football program that produced several UO players, including one who died tragically just before reporting to campus, is featured in a number of news articles locally and nationally this week.

The movie, “When the Game Stands Tall,” centers on De La Salle High School, a Catholic school about 25 miles east of San Francisco in Richmond. The school has been a football powerhouse, and in 2004 the UO recruited four top players, including standout linebacker Terrance Kelly.

But Kelly died in August of that year, almost 10 years ago to the day, when he was shot four times while sitting in a car outside a Richmond home, where he was waiting for a friend. The shooting appeared to be connected to some kind of neighborhood dispute, news reports said, and his killer is now serving a 50-year prison term.

UO football players watched a special screening of the movie in the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex, and Austin Meek described the event in a story in The Register-Guard on Friday, Aug. 22. The movie also is reviewed in the paper’s Entertainment section.