Real life Poteet at VMI or Citadel

The tragedy of the overweight academy freshman, Poteet, is that he should have never been admitted into that academy in the first place. In real-life a grossly overweight young man like him would have failed the entrance physical exam. Note in the movie how every other cadet was slim, not even a slightly overweight one existed. But as the movie alluded to, powerful family and political connections got Poteet in, and then to his death.

There was a moral to that. All fathers want their sons to grow into fine, masculine men. The tragedy of Poteet is an example of how NOT to do that.

Back in the early to mid-1990s, there was a national, political furor over a young woman's political crusade to be admitted as the first female cadet into either, VMI, or the Citadel. There was a lot of nastiness in this fight.

After all the lawyers had their say including inside Congress, this young woman, Shannon, got admitted. But she didn't finish her first year due to poor physical conditioning. Astonishingly, Shannon had nearly a year to get herself into proper physical conditioning and weight reduction and she didn't do either. When she entered the academy, she could not cope with its physical conditioning regimen. It didn't help that Shannon was also born with a more endomorphic-type body. Endormorph body types tend towards muscular softness and have to work harder at physical conditioning compared to the mesomorphs and ectomorph body types. Many people though, are born with traits of several body types. To make a long story short, while Shannon ultimately failed, she did pave the way for other female cadets. Another young women entered the same academy the year after. This other young woman was slimmer, trimmer, and in better phsyical condition. She made it through to graduation four years later.