According to Coach Herman Boone in an article published by ESPN, he really did integrate the buses before they left for football camp. Boone said "I forced them on each other, I forced them to learn each other's culture. I forced them to be a part of each other's lives."
There is one scene in the film where a brick is thrown through Coach Boone's window. In real life, it was an old toilet that was thrown, but filmmakers thought that would add humor to the serious situation.
After Boaz Yakin was hired to direct the movie, producer Jerry Bruckheimer learned that Yakin did not know anything about American football. He then arranged for Yakin to attend a football camp, where he picked up enough information in two weeks to resume full-speed work afterward.
In real life, Coach Bill Yoast has four daughters: Bonnie, Angela, Sheryl, and Deidre. Unlike in the film, all four daughters lived with their mother, Betty Yoast, after their parents divorced. Bonnie was in college, Angela went to a different high school, and Deidre was only three years old in 1971, but Sheryl attended most of the games and other events with her father, so the filmmakers thought it would be distracting to depict the other three girls. While Bill Yoast was not happy about that, the sisters were fine with it and rather enjoyed the movie.
The real Sheryl Yoast unfortunately led a relatively short life, passing away from an undetected heart condition in 1996 at the age of 34. Sheryl had been a major supporter of her father's coaching efforts, though by her father's own account she was not as rabid of a football fan as the film depicts. However, because of the relationship that she had with her father, her hearty interest in sports in general, and her untimely death before this film was produced, her three sisters had no problem with Sheryl being portrayed as an only child while they were omitted from the film.