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Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream

Author	H. G. Bissinger
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	Addison-Wesley
Publication date	1990
Pages	357 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0201196778
Followed by	A Prayer for the City (1998)

Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream is a 1990 non-fiction book written by H. G. Bissinger. The book follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team from Odessa as they made a run towards the Texas state championship. While originally intended to be a Hoosiers-type chronicle of high school sports holding a small town together, the final book ended up being critical about life in the town of Odessa, Texas, complete with portraits of what Bissinger called "the ugliest racism" he has ever witnessed, as well as misplaced priorities, where football conquered most aspects of the town and academics were ignored for the sake of championships.

Bissinger was a sports writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, when he decided to write a book about high school sports. After a search, he settled on Odessa, TX and their famous Permian Panthers. The Panthers had a long, rich history of winning in Texas' AAAA and AAAAA division, winning championships in 1965, 1972, 1980 and 1984 at the time when Bissinger and his family moved from Philadelphia to Odessa. He spent the entire football season with the Permian Panther players, their families, the coaches, and even many of the townspeople in an effort to understand the town and their football culture and what created such madness for their football team.

In 2002, Sports Illustrated named Friday Night Lights the fourth-greatest book ever written about sports. [1]

Characters

• Boobie Miles - Was the star Fullback for Permian headed into the 1988 season. He is African-American. The previous season he had rushed for 1,385 yards and showed flashes of brilliance. This season would be the season for him to shine and lead the team to a Texas state championship. Boobie was being heavily recruited by major college football programs such as Nebraska, Arkansas and Texas and had professional football aspirations before suffering a knee injury in a pre-season scrimmage. He would never recover 100% and eventually quit the team in a rage.
• Mike Winchell, the starting white quarterback for the Panthers. He is portrayed by Bissinger as a boy who is mostly level-headed, but prone to nerves. His play is unspectacular, but effective.
• Brian Chavez - A very intelligent Mexican-American player. He is valedictorian of his class and attends Harvard after graduating from Permian. He is a bruising Tight End. He is mostly seen as an example of the good in Odessa, a diamond among rocks.
• Ivory Christian, an African-American linebacker for the Panthers. A punishing hitter with excellent reflexes and athleticism, Christian is a religious boy. He struggles to enjoy playing football, realizing that there should be more to life and spends much of his time in thought. He is the only senior player from the 1988 Panther football team to receive a Division I football scholarship, attending TCU.
• Don Billingsley, a rebel student who frequently finds himself in trouble with the coaches. His father is a local legend for winning a state championship for Permian, though Don is known more for his off the field activities.
• Gary Gaines, the head coach for Permian. A bright football mind who constantly deals with the pressures from the fans, the booster club, and the lofty expectations of being head coach for Permian.

Summary

The book begins with Permian's game against their arch-rival, the Midland Lee Rebels. The game is the second to last of the season, and a win would secure the Panthers a spot in the state playoffs. Boobie Miles has recovered physically from his pre-season injury, but has lost most of the quickness and instinct that made him the star player. He has lost his place to Chris Comer, another black player who the coaches prefer to Boobie. The racial undertones of Odessa are present in the first paragraph of the book when Bissinger says that Miles was just viewed as "another dumb nigger" now that he wasn't the star. Permian, despite being heavily favored against Midland, are trailing at half and Boobie walks out of the locker room, ready to quit right then for not being played anymore. None of the white coaches go to stop him and the only black coach, whose main responsibility was to communicate with the black students, stops him and convinces him not to quit. Permian loses the game and their playoff aspirations look bleak. Boobie quits the team two days later.

The rest of the book is a recap of the season's trials and tribulations. Interspersed with the football team's saga is the history of the town of Odessa. It is a town that lives and dies with oil. During the boom years, the town's economy thrives and millionaires are made. Many citizens of the town act reckless with their money during the boom and take out extravagant loans that banks are only too willing to grant. During the bust, the town's economy shrivels. No oil means no money. It is football that holds the town together. The town has a Panther booster club. Many young school children look to the Permian Panthers as gods. High school girls who are lucky enough become Permian cheerleaders. Others become "Pepettes." These Pepettes are assigned to one football player and they bring the players gifts every Friday. They are in charge of pep rallies and personally decorate the homes of their assigned player. There are instances in the book of Pepettes working on their gifts for days and breaking down crying if their player doesn't seem to approve of their gift.

Education takes a back seat at Permian. Precious money allotted to the school goes to the football team. At one point in the season, the football team had vastly superior computers to the school's English department. The racism of the town is appalling. Black students are only tolerated because they make good football players. When the schools were integrated (in the early 80's), Permian and the other high school in Odessa, Odessa High, had to draw up districts to decide which minority students attended each school. Permian used its influence with the town to help have the district lines drawn in a manner which ensured that a large majority of the city's African American population was in the Permian attendance zone. Odessa isn't the only town which is portrayed in this light as football-crazed. Carter High School in Dallas, destined for a semifinal showdown with Permian, is shown to have blatantly changed grades to keep certain players eligible for football because Carter was in the midst of an undefeated season.

Bissinger shows all this and paints an eloquent picture of the lives of the families of the players. Boobie's uncle, L.V., is portrayed as a good man whose only sin was to love his nephew too much. He taught Boobie how to play football and when Boobie's injury shatters that dream, L.V. is almost as hurt as Boobie is. Don Billingsley's relationship with his father is also explored.

The book reaches a climax of sorts when Permian squeaks into the playoffs as a result of a coin toss. They reach the state semifinals against the Carter Cowboys, a heavily African American high school led by standout linebacker Jessie Armstead, a future All-pro linebacker for the New York Giants. Dallas–Carter wins the game and goes on to win the state championship, but faces severe penalties the next year for their grade tampering. The principal changed one of the players grade to a passing grade so he could play in the championship game.

The book ends with Coach Gaines erasing names of the graduating seniors from his board and replacing them with names of the juniors who will replace them next season. Permian goes undefeated the next year, with future NFL player Stoney Case as quarterback, and becomes the 1989 Texas State football champions.

Reaction

The book's release during the 1990 season coincided with the team being under investigation for holding illegal off-season practices, which resulted in the team being declared ineligible for the playoffs and thus not participating in the postseason for only the 2nd time since 1980. Permian's absence from the playoffs allowed San Angelo Central into the playoffs for only the 3rd time since 1966. The negative reaction to the playoff situation was exacerbated by the book, and many residents of Odessa received the book with responses ranging from mild indignation to threats of physical violence aimed at the book's author.

However, over time, the accuracy of the story has held up. The book has been reprinted frequently, recently it was reprinted with a new afterword by the author. In 2002, Sports Illustrated named Friday Night Lights the fourth-greatest book ever written about sports.

A movie version of Friday Night Lights was made and then released in the United States on October 6, 2004. It starred Billy Bob Thornton as Permian Coach Gary Gaines. The film was a box office and critical success and, in turn, spawned an NBC television series of the same name which began airing in October 2006.

External links

• Official Friday Night Lights book website