Summary
Return once again to the enduring account of life in the Mojo lane, to 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, Bissinger chronicles one of the Panthers' dramatic seasons and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires--and sometimes shatters--the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms.
H. G. "Buzz" Bissinger graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. He has worked for many newspapers, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, and he shared a Pulitzer Prize for reporting in 1987 for a series on the Philadelphia Court System. He has written for magazines including Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Magazine, and Vanity Fair, for which he has been a contributing editor since 1996. Bissinger also co-produced and wrote for the ABC television drama NYPD Blue and published the nonfiction books Friday Night Lights, A Prayer for the City and Three Nights in August.
(Bowker Author Biography)
