The Tri-Central High School football team was one of the worst-performing teams in Indiana. The program had difficulty recruiting enough boys to field a team, leaving school administrators on the verge of considering the unthinkable: closing the football program altogether.

Willing to give the team one last chance, the school hires George M. Gilbert, a recently fired coach looking for an opportunity to end his career on his own terms and with dignity. Where others saw a failing football program, Gilbert saw potential and opportunity. Five years later, the Tri-Central football team was...