Friday Night Lights

by Bissinger, H. G.

• ISBN13: 9780306809903
• ISBN10: 0306809907
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-10
• Publisher: Da Capo Pr

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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. The author of the highly acclaimed A Prayer for the City, he has written for the television series NYPD Blue and is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He lives in Philadelphia.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Prologue	p. 1
Pre-Season
Odessa	p. 23
The Watermelon Feed	p. 38
Boobie	p. 53
The Season
Dreaming of Heroes	p. 73
Black and White	p. 89
The Ambivalence of Ivory	p. 111
School Days	p. 128
East Versus West	p. 153
Friday Night Politics	p. 173
Boobie Who?	p. 194
Push for the Playoffs
Sisters	p. 211
Civil War	p. 233
Heads or Tails	p. 251
Post-Season
Friday Night Addiction	p. 267
The Algebraic Equation	p. 291
Field of Dreams	p. 313
Epilogue	p. 339
Afterword	p. 357
Acknowledgments	p. 364
List of Illustrations	p. 365
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