Synopses & Reviews
The classic, best-selling story of life in the football-driven town of Odessa, Texas, with a new afterword that looks at the players and the town ten years later.
Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going. Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business. In bad times, the unemployment rate barrels out of control; in good times, its murder rate skyrockets. But every Friday night from September to December, when the Permian High School Panthers play football, this West Texas town becomes a place where dreams can come true. With frankness and compassion, H.G. Bissinger chronicles a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires and sometimes shatters the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms.
Review
"A biting indictment of the sports craziness that grips...most of American society, while at the same time providing a moving evocation of its powerful allure." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"A remarkable book, fascinating from start to finish, full of surprises." David Halberstam
Review
"An engrossing story....Exciting, funny and, above all, horrifying." Tracy Kidder
Review
"[A] superb, if disquieting, portrait of heartland America." Publishers Weekly
Review
"[Bissinger's] language...echo[es] the mythical proportions of...a season that will render the rest of the players' lives a dull denouement. Fascinating even for those, or maybe especially for those, with no interest in football." Library Journal
Synopsis
The classic, best-selling story of life in the football-driven town of Odessa, Texas, includes a new afterword that looks at the players and the town 10 years later. Photos.
Synopsis
With frankness and compassion, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist H.G. Bissinger's national bestseller chronicles the dramatic 1988 season of the Permian Panthers the winningest high school football team in Texas history. Friday Night Lights shows how the town's singleminded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires (or shatters) the teenagers who wear the uniforms.
About the Author
H.G. Bissinger has won the Pulitzer Prize, the Livingston Award, the National Headliner Award, and the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel for his reporting. He lives in Philadelphia.
Table of Contents
Preface xi
Prologue 1
Pre-Season
1. Odessa 23
2. The Watermelon Feed 38
3. Boobie 53
The Season
4. Dreaming of Heroes 73
5. Black and White 89
6. The Ambivalence of Ivory 111
7. School Days 128
8. East Versus West 153
9. Friday Night Politics 173
10. Boobie Who? 194
Push for the Playoffs
11. Sisters 211
12. Civil War 233
13. Heads or Tails 251
Post-Season
14. Friday Night Addiction 267
15. The Algebraic Equation 291
16. Field of Dreams 313
Epilogue 339
Afterword 357
Acknowledgments 364
List of Illustrations 365