What Happens After Permian Beat Odessa High Again

Fri Nighttime Lights: A Boondocks, a Team, and a Dream

Author	H. One thousand. Bissinger
Country	United states
Linguistic communication	English
Publisher	Addison-Wesley
Publication date	1990
Pages	419 pages
ISBN	0-201-19677-8
OCLC	21408817
Dewey Decimal	796.332/63/09764862 20
LC Class	GV958.P47 B57 1990
Followed by	A Prayer for the Metropolis (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, Texas, equally they made a run towards the Texas country championship. While originally intended to exist a Hoosiers-type chronicle of high school sports holding together a pocket-sized boondocks, the book ended up beingness critical of life in the town of Odessa. It was after adapted for television set and film.

Inspiration [edit]

Bissinger was a journalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer when he was selected as a Harvard Nieman Fellow. It was while he was at Harvard that the thought to write a book focused upon the part high school football game plays within American society, in particular rural society, took hold. Bissinger returned to The Inquirer briefly, received a Pulitzer Prize, and then took off in search of a community for which loftier school football was paramount. He settled on Odessa, Texas. Permian High School and its football game squad, the Permian Panthers, had a substantial, rich history of winning in Texas' 4A and 5A division, having won championships in 1965, 1972, 1980, and 1984. Bissinger moved his family to Odessa and spent the unabridged 1988 football season with the Permian Panther players, their families, their coaches, and even many of the townspeople in an endeavour to empathize the boondocks and its football-mad culture.^{[ citation needed ]}

Characters [edit]

• James "Boobie" Miles – Star fullback for Odessa high heading into the 1988 flavor. The previous flavour he had rushed for ane,385 yards and showed flashes of brilliance. This season would exist the flavour for him to shine and pb the team to a Texas state championship. Boobie was being heavily recruited by major college football programs such equally Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas A&M and USC and had professional football aspirations before suffering a articulatio genus injury in the preseason. He would never recover 100% and somewhen quit the team in a rage.
• Mike Winchell, the starting quarterback for the Panthers. He is portrayed past Bissinger equally a male child who is mostly level-headed, just prone to nerves. His play is unspectacular but effective. He feels a lot of pressure from the town and peers alike.
• Brian Chavez – A very intelligent player. He is valedictorian of his class and attends Harvard University subsequently graduating from Permian. He is a tight finish and defensive lineman. He is mostly seen as an instance of the adept in Odessa, a diamond amongst rocks.
• Ivory Christian, a Linebacker for the Panthers. A punishing hitter with excellent reflexes and athleticism, Christian is a religious person. He struggles to enjoy playing football, realizing that at that place should be more to life and spends much of his time in idea. He is the only senior player from the 1988 Panther football game team to receive a Division I football game scholarship, attending Texas Christian University.
• Don Billingsley, a Permian halfback who oftentimes finds himself in trouble with the coaches. His father is a local legend for being a star player for Permian in the late 1960s, though Don is known more for his off the field activities, which at the time included drinking, fighting, and womanizing.
• Jerrod McDougal, a Permian offensive tackle, who has sacrificed a lot to become varsity for Permian and, at five'nine", knows he is too small to play at the higher level, and so practices several times a day to bring himself to an reward.
• Gary Gaines, the caput motorcoach for Permian. A bright football game mind who constantly deals with the pressures from the fans, the booster gild, and the lofty expectations of being head coach for Permian.

Summary [edit]

In the 5A playoff semifinals, Permian meets Dallas Carter Cowboys, a predominantly black squad. In a hard fought game in the rain at Memorial Stadium in Austin, the Panthers are defeated 14–9. Dallas Carter, led by future Miami Hurricanes and New York Giants linebacker Jessie Armstead, goes on to win the state championship, just faced severe penalties for their grade tampering, giving the state championship to Judson Loftier School.

Capacity [edit]

Prologue

Bissinger discusses the Midland Lee game, as Permian's curvation rival. The game is played on October 28, 1988. He introduces the characters of Gary Gaines, Mike Winchell, Don Billingsley, Boobie Miles, Ivory Christian, Brian Chavez and Jerrod McDougal and gives insight into their personalities, thoughts and their pregame rituals. Sometime star, Boobie knows his performance against Midland Lee volition exist important for his future. He hasn't played well since August when he injured his knee in a preseason scrimmage, but the coaches never put Boobie in the game. Permian puts up a valiant fight only lose 22–21. After the game, a furious Boobie storms out of the locker room and quits the team two days later.

Chapter 1: Odessa

Bissinger begins the book at the start of the 1988 football game season in August and how Gaines is preparing for it. Bissinger and then chronicles the history of Odessa. It was founded in the 1880s by land speculators from Zanesville, Ohio. They advertised the country as being every bit fertile farmland like in Kansas and Iowa. However, the settlers quickly discovered that it was dry and arid. The town saw fiddling growth until 1926 when oil was discovered in the Permian Basin (hence the high school's name). Most overnight, the boondocks boomed and information technology saw more than growth in a month than it had seen in ten years. The population increased dramatically and coin was everywhere. In town, the roads were so muddy that the oil workers, (nicknamed boomers), often had to bring in cattle to pull the equipment to the oil fields. According to the volume, "diarrhea, lawlessness, overcrowding, bad water, prostitution, and a rat problem" plagued the town. Out in the oil fields, the boomers worked round the clock to make their money. Meanwhile, Odessa High School'southward football game team garnered success past winning the state title in 1946 and making it back to the championship in 1953, thus laying the foundation for football fanaticism. Another smash in the 1950s led to the opening of Permian High Schoolhouse in 1959. Permian proved chop-chop that it was non going to play second to Odessa High. They became known every bit the embodiment of Odessa: small, white and overachieving. Meanwhile, due to demographic shifts and oddly drawn boundaries, Odessa High became populated with mainly poor whites and poor Hispanics—while a substantial majority of the metropolis's relatively pocket-size black population ended upwardly in the Permian attendance zone. This is not to say, nonetheless, that Permian didn't take its share of poor people from all major ethnic groups.

Chapter 2: The Watermelon Feed

Bissinger talks almost the Watermelon Feed held at Permian in August every bit a preseason commemoration. He then chronicles the history of Permian football. Since its founding in 1959, information technology had won the state championship in 1965, 1972, 1980 and 1984. Despite the fact that it merely won one state championship in the 1970s, Permian had statistically been the winningest squad in the state of Texas. Bissinger and so discusses the force per unit area that Gaines is constantly nether because of how intensely devoted the Permian fans are. Loftier schoolhouse football is used as a lark for the once thriving community of Odessa which had gone into a slump when the second boom concluded.

Chapter 3: Boobie

This chapter focuses upon the black star fullback, James "Boobie" Miles, who is Permian's ticket to the state championship. Bissinger uses Boobie as an example of the negative effect high schoolhouse football game can have its players. Boobie is not a good student and doesn't accept to worry about grades because he volition most likely get a football scholarship to a major college. The dream seems all too real until, in Baronial, during a scrimmage in Lubbock, Boobie injured his knee. With the season opener but a week abroad, no 1 knows what to do. Now the pressure level is on quarterback Mike Winchell. Meanwhile, junior running dorsum Chris Comer is chosen up to replace Boobie.

Affiliate 4: Dreaming of Heroes

This affiliate focuses upon the life of Mike Winchell, Permian's starting quarterback. Mike lived with his mother. His father, Billy, died when Mike was just thirteen. Baton had always been keen on Mike'due south playing football when he was a little child. Mike's older brother, Joe Bill, took over that role but, in 1988, Joe Pecker had moved out. Mike was very intelligent and received an offer of admission from Brown University but had prospects of playing football game merely at a smaller college. Don Billingsley is Permian's starting Tailback and son of the legendary Charlie Billingsley who played football in the 1960s. Don, whose mother had been a Permian cheerleader while Charlie played football, moved from Blanchard, Oklahoma to Odessa in 1986 before his sophomore yr. Don and Charlie had always had a rocky relationship only information technology was all made meliorate by football game. Don was always inspired by his father's stories and e'er tried to live up to him. Yet, sometimes he faltered because he sometimes fumbled the ball on key plays.

Affiliate 5: Black and White

Bissinger discusses the issue of race relations in Odessa which he describes as the ugliest racism he had e'er witnessed. The town didn't desegregate until the 1980s and even and so the schools were racially divided. Many viewed football as exploiting the talented blackness athletes by using them and then spitting them out afterwards.

Affiliate half dozen: The Ambivalence of Ivory

Bissinger begins by discussing the life of Permian linebacker Ivory Christian. He originally thought he would go to Ector High School, where many poor blacks went, until Permian was desegregated in the early 1980s. Ivory had ambitions of becoming a minister at a Baptist church. Ivory gains these ambitions when he has a life changing dream that involves a dark tunnel and light. Because of this dream, Ivory decides that he volition change his partying means and turn his life over to God. Considering of this decision, he becomes ambivalent towards football game, what information technology represents, and for its offset the inner battle betwixt Homeric and Christian values.

Chapter 7: Schoolhouse Days

Bissinger spends the affiliate discussing the situation at Permian High Schoolhouse. He highlights the misplaced priorities as well as bad spending. More money is spent on sports medical supplies than the entire English department. The teachers make less money than the coaches who are financially at the mercy of the boosters who seldom care about didactics. Permian's Sabbatum scores accept plummeted dramatically since the 1970s and no one seems to care as long as Permian wins football games. Equally a result, everyone including the football players suffers. Equally the season progresses, Permian begins winning games.

Chapter 8: East versus West

Bissinger discusses the Permian–Odessa High game. The cross town rivalry is fueled by the cultural difference betwixt the schools. For 1 matter, Permian besides got the bulk of the Ector Canton education budget while Odessa High typically got what was left (which wasn't that much). Odessa High had once been the buoy of hope in the urban center. Information technology won the 1946 country championship and did well overall. Then, Permian opened in 1959. The middle class whites went to Permian and the Mexicans went to Odessa High. Also, Permian hasn't lost to Odessa in over twenty years. Permian wins the game 35–7.

Chapter 9: Fri Night Politics

Bissinger discusses the political views in Odessa which has long been a Republican voting urban center. The 1988 election is coming up and information technology is clear that majority of its residents are going to vote for Republican candidate and so Vice President George H. West. Bush-league, who lived in the area in the 1940s and 1950s. They had loved Ronald Reagan so the selection was clear. Many view Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis as far also liberal and remember he is out to destroy their mode of life from his comfortable home in Massachusetts. Meanwhile, Permian rolls over Midland Loftier Schoolhouse winning 35–0. Bissinger also discusses the life of Brian Chavez, the Permian tight end. Chavez is extremely smart and has ambitions of going to Harvard. His father Tony is a successful lawyer originally from El Paso, Texas. Tony had enlisted in the U.s. Regular army after high school. Afterward he was discharged, he took his GI Bill coin and decided to take law classes at Texas Tech in Lubbock eventually graduating with a law degree in 1978. He supported the family unit by working as a police officer in El Paso. On his trips betwixt the two cities, he drove through Odessa and thought it was dirty, seedy and trashy, and then decided to piece of work in Midland. Notwithstanding, once he graduated, he got a job offer in Odessa and moved his family there. In 1982, the family moved to the Country Society estates, the nicest part of town. Tony was, in many means, the embodiment of the American dream.

Affiliate 10: Boobie Who?

Bissinger discusses Boobie's football career after his injury. He thought the injury wasn't that serious and constantly tried to convince the coaches he could play. He played as a backup in several games but never got whatever serious playing fourth dimension. But as Boobie'southward career is falling Mike Winchell'south is soaring.

Chapter 11: Sisters

Bissinger discusses the Permian-Midland Lee rivalry. Fifty-fifty though the two towns were very like, the hatred ran deep. Odessans viewed Midland as a town total of rich snobs and Midlanders view Odessa as a city full of rednecks, money burners and drunks. In 1983 an article in Forbes magazine named Midland one of the nicest places to alive in America. At the aforementioned time, Newsweek named Odessa "Murder Capital U.South.A." with a record 29.8 murders per 100,000 residents. Bissinger traces the roots of the hatred to the second oil boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The boom had been brought by the oil embargo by OPEC as well as the Iranian Revolution, the 1973 Oil Crunch, the 1979 Energy Crunch and the Carter Energy Policy. Oil prices skyrocketed and for the 2nd time in forty years the smash was on. People were making money left and right in both Midland and Odessa. There were stories of welders who could barely read making as much as $90,000 a year. Stories abounded of concern men ownership Lear jets and edifice huge homes for no other reason than the fact that they could. The oil executives thought they were in control of everything and didn't realize it was all circumstantial. One time the embargo ended, the boom was over. The last nail in the bury was the closing of the Kickoff National Bank of Midland in October 1983 as a result of the 1980s oil overabundance and the Permian Bowl never fully recovered. Bissinger also discusses the furnishings that the Reagan 1980s had on the Odessa-Midland Surface area.

Chapter 12: Civil War

After Permian loses to Midland Lee the fate of the season is unclear. Gaines is now under tremendous pressure and wonders if he volition however accept a task in a yr's time. In two seasons Gaines had just gotten as far as the third round of playoffs. Boobie Miles quietly quits the team. Meanwhile, Jerrod McDougal, the Permian defensive tackle who knew he wouldn't play football in higher, was devastated at the prospect of the flavour catastrophe so early. Permian, Midland High and Midland Lee are all tied with one district loss each and just ii can become to represent the district in the 1988 playoffs. It volition be decided in a coin toss.

Chapter 13 : Heads or Tails

Permian ends the regular flavour chirapsia the San Angelo Bobcats 41–7. Only now it all comes down to a coin toss. Coach Gaines and Mike Belew drive to meet the head coaches of Midland High and Midland Lee. The issue is held at a truck cease on the south side of Midland at two:00 am local time. The location is undisclosed and information technology is broadcast alive on TV. When the coin toss finally happens there it is originally thought to exist a tie. Then it turns out that Permian and Midland Lee landed heads and Midland High landed tails. The ii teams will continue their seasons while Midland Loftier'south flavor is over.

Affiliate 14: Friday Night Addiction

The playoffs have finally arrived. Permian get-go defeats Tascosa High School in Amarillo 21–vii. They so play Andress High Schoolhouse in El Paso in the Sun Bowl, winning 41–13. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Permian beats the Irving Nimitz Vikings, a team ranked sixth in the state, 41–7. Bissinger also explores the fates of many famous Permian players and how many of them ended right back in Odessa. He cites these stories every bit key examples of the faux world Permian football tin can take on its players. Permian then beats Arlington Lamar 21–7. But now it was on to play the team many called the all-time high school football game squad in the land if not the country—the David W. Carter High School Cowboys from Dallas.

Chapter 15: The Algebraic Equation

Bissinger spends the chapter discussing the football players at Dallas Carter High School, which is an all-black upper-middle-class loftier school. The football obsession at Carter dwarfs the 1 at Permian. Players skipped classes, left school to become luncheon, and had their grades fixed by teachers so that they could play. This led to a court case when a instructor, Volition Bates, refused to lie nigh the algebra grade of a key player, Gary Edwards. The case was won and Dallas Carter got to continue their season. During the week of the game the coaches from Permian and Dallas Carter meet to make up one's mind where the game will be played. They eventually agree on Texas Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas at Austin. They also concur on a racially mixed officiating crew to minimize any possible bias from that source.

Epilogue

A week afterwards, Dallas Carter won the 1988 Texas land championship. For the players, the sense of entitlement and the feeling that they could do whatever they wanted to accomplish an all-time high. Gary Edwards got a full scholarship to the Academy of Houston. Still, in May 1989, Edwards and several other players committed an armed robbery in Dallas. They were arrested and they were tried in September. Information technology was then discovered they had committed as many as 10 robberies prior. Edwards, who initially thought he would merely get probation, was sentenced to 16 years in prison. After some review it was decided that considering of grade irresolute on the player's^{[ who? ]} activity, Dallas Carter was stripped of its land championship.

Bissinger then discusses the fates of the 1988 Permian Panthers. Brian Chavez went to Harvard but quit the football team after but one 24-hour interval because in that location was no bond. He instead decided to play rugby. Boobie Miles played football at Ranger College, a junior college. Jerrod McDougal attended Odessa College and then Midland College. Although he missed football he could find happiness in the knowledge that Permian football would keep forever. Don Billingsley went back to Oklahoma and at showtime played football for East Central Academy but and so he severely injured his genu and needed surgery. Ivory Christian went to play for Texas Christian University merely quit playing football game after his freshman year. Mike Winchell played football for Baylor University simply said it wasn't as great equally Permian and lost a lot of his abilities.

1989 saw the cost of oil rise as high every bit $20 a barrel. Yet that same year saw 46% of the nation'southward oil imported, the highest in twelve years. Every bit a result, West Texas continued to suffer economically. That twelvemonth Odessa was named the 2d-worst identify to alive in America by the Places Rated Annual. Meanwhile, Permian was dominating on the football field. They redeemed themselves, chirapsia Midland Lee 17–13. Permian connected to win in the playoffs and eventually got to the land championship. Amid the players was quarterback Stoney Case who would eventually proceed to play in the NFL for the Arizona Cardinals and Baltimore Ravens. Earlier the game Gary Gaines told the players, "Everybody in this room has paid a beloved, honey price. That ought to make your endeavor that much more intense, that much more than fanatical, because of all the difficult work and sacrifice that's gone into getting you here. It ought to make y'all play that much harder. You correspond a lot of people. Nosotros're gonna represent them well and nosotros're gonna win this sucker!" The players then took the field. Odessa had gone through a ridiculous corporeality of change in the 1980s going from a identify where anything was possible to a place where nothing was sure and everything was finite.^{[ citation needed ]} Nonetheless football had always been at that place. Bissinger ends the book by saying, "It would ever go on just as Jerrod McDougal had realized, because it was a way of life. The Permian Panthers ended the decade the same way they had begun information technology. Two days earlier Christmas, they became the country football champions of Texas."

Investigation [edit]

While Bissinger, who had taken a leave of absenteeism from reporting for The Philadelphia Inquirer to follow the team and write Friday Night Lights, was writing the book, the University Interscholastic League (UIL) investigated the Permian Panthers football plan, alleging that Bissinger took players out to swallow and paid for the meals while interviewing them for the book, a violation of amateur rules. He besides paid for Boobie Miles' car for an interview.^[one]

Reception [edit]

The book'southward release during the 1990 season coincided with the investigation of the team for holding illegal off-season practices, which resulted in the team being alleged ineligible for the playoffs and thus not participating in the post flavour for but the second 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.^[2]

In response to the negative reaction in Odessa, a local bookstore cancelled a volume signing by the writer, and T-shirts possessed past locals bore the words, "Buzz off, Bissinger".^{[3] [4]}

Yet, over time, the accuracy of the story has held upwards. The book has been reprinted frequently, including a 2000 reprint with a new afterword by the author detailing the squad's accomplishments in the early part of the 1990s followed past the demise of the plan in the latter part of the decade.^{[ commendation needed ]}

In 2002, Sports Illustrated named Friday Nighttime Lights the fourth-greatest book ever written about sports, and its quaternary identify position fabricated information technology the highest rated book focusing on football.^[5] In 2015, the volume was reissued as a 25th anniversary edition and included a new afterword past Bissinger in which he provided an update on players from Odessa's 1988 squad.^{[6] [seven] [eight]}

Censorship [edit]

Friday Dark Lights has been a frequent target of censors; the novel appears on the American Library Association listing of the 100 Nigh Frequently Challenged Books of 2000–2009 at number 89.^[9]

Legacy [edit]

The book inspired the short-lived television set serial Against the Grain (1993) starring a immature Ben Affleck.

A movie version of Friday Night Lights was made and so released in the U.s.a. on Oct 6, 2004. It starred Billy Bob Thornton every bit Permian Coach Gary Gaines. The film was a box office and critical success and, in turn, spawned the NBC television receiver series of the same name, which ran for v seasons from 2006 to 2011.^[10]

References [edit]

1. ^ "UIL Probing Journalist's Links with Permian". Dallas Morning News. November nineteen, 1988.
2. ^ Hutchinson, Earl Ofari (Oct 18, 2004). "'Fri Dark Lights' fumbles opportunity". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved March 4, 2022.
3. ^ Merron, Jeff (Oct 5, 2004). "ESPN.com: Page 2 : Buzz Bissinger". ESPN . Retrieved March 4, 2022.
4. ^ "2D Sports: FRIDAY Dark FRIGHTS". The Miami Herald. March 29, 2004. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
5. ^ McEntegart, Pete, L. Jon Wertheim, Cistron Menez, & Marker Bechtel (Dec 16, 2002). "The Summit 100 Sports Books of All Time". Sports Illustrated/Time, Inc. Retrieved 2017-06-25 .
6. ^ Bissinger, H. Chiliad. (July 29, 2015). "The men of Friday Nighttime Lights football team reunite to relive their story 25 years subsequently". Sports Illustrated . Retrieved March iv, 2022.
7. ^ "Reflecting On Football And Addiction Every bit 'Friday Dark Lights' Turns 25". NPR.org. August three, 2015. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
8. ^ Davis, Danny. "The Statesman Interview: Buzz Bissinger". Austin American-Statesman . Retrieved March 4, 2022.
9. ^ Part of Intellectual Freedom (2013-03-26). "Summit 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009". American Library Association. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved 2021-06-20 .
10. ^ Hutton, Robert (September 10, 2021). "Friday Nighttime Lights True Story: Real-Life Football Team & Accuracy Explained". ScreenRant . Retrieved March 4, 2022.

External links [edit]

• 'Friday Nighttime Lights' turns thirty: Revisiting race relations in Odessa from The Sunday Long Read
• Friday Night Lives from Texas Monthly

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Night_Lights:_A_Town,_a_Team,_and_a_Dream

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