Friday Night Lights (1990)
A Town, a Team, and a Dream
H. G. Bissinger
rating fantastic
type nonfiction/journalism audiobook
concepts sports
2025/07/29 And I continue my quest of listening to books that popular TV shows / movies were based on (previously: *Masters of the Air*, *Killers of the Flower Moon*, *American Prometheus* / *Oppenheimer*…). Another recurring theme: impact of sports on societal structures (previously: Spanish soccer & politics)
- Odessa → one of many small towns in America, isolated from the big cities, defined by quintessential conservatism, individualism… tight-knit community (often centered on the church) and racism…
- Terrible agricultural resources but happened to be on the Permian Basin → rode the booms and busts of the oil economy
- What is there to talk about in towns like these? In Minnesota, it was hockey. In Indiana, basketball. In Ohio, Alabama, Texas, and many more, it was Friday nights.
- Odessa’s Permian HS → winningest football dynasty at any level (as of 1988)… not the most skilled or strongest players, but the most fearless
- Football was a crucial factor for both why desegregation of schools was opposed for so long (“redistributing the kids will ruin with the team!”), and how it eventually gained support (“they could be such good running backs, though…”)
- The tragedy of high school sports & the false (for all but 200 kids a year) promise of going pro