P2+How+does+the+history+of+Odessa+affect+the+expectations+of+the+1988+Permian+Panthers+football+team?

5. The history of Odessa is one of great struggle but also of significant triumph. The history sort of repeats itself, it marks the city of great depression and hard times but there is always something that pulls it out of its torment. According to Allen, “There are so few other things we can look at with pride, we don’t have a large University that has thirty or forty thousand students in it, we don’t have the art museum that some communities have and are world-renowned, when somebody talks about West Texas, they talk about football” (Bissinger 24). The Permian football players of 1988 are now that something, the heroes that will make the city forget about the bad times and focus on one night of glory, bravery, courage and happiness. The football players are the history of Odessa; football is the only thing that has ever gone right for this town, aside from oil. The expectation of the Permian Panthers never decreases, no one ever stops caring how they play, with every new season the new players are expected to do better than the year before them. Football is the one thing the town has always had to rely on, the one thing that could make them forget about how terrible life in Odessa is. Football is the only thing any one will ever remember about Odessa; how the Permian Panthers played that season is all that matters. When all that matters is how they play every Friday night, the expectations are unbearably high but that is just how it is in Odessa, it is just what they live for.

-Kara Grubb

5. The history of the Odessa definitely has a major impact on the Permian Panthers, and the citizens and town of Odessa in general. It is clear that Bissinger wanted to highlight this idea, and make sure the reader understood this importance. There are so many aspects of Odessa's history that could impact the football team. Not only did Odessa have a high crime rate (which goes along with their serious gun control problem, that no one wanted to address), and poverty issues, but it also (through it's history) was a boom-and-bust oil town. Bissinger couldn't have described the oil situations this town dealt with when he stated, "From 1926 on, Odessa became forever enmeshed in the cycles of the boom-and-bust oil town. It made for a unique kind of schizophrenia, the highs of the boom years like a drug-induced euphoria followed by the lows of the bust and realization that everything you had made during the boom had just been lost, followed again by the euphoria of boom years, followed again by the depression of another bust, followed by another boom and yet another bust, followed by a special prayer to the Lord, which eventually showed up on bumper stickers pickups in eighties, for one more boom with a vow “not to piss this one away”. In my opinion the phenomenon of this “boom-and bust economy” must have really affected the minds, feelings, attitudes, and decisions of not only the players of the Permian Panthers, but also all of citizens of Odessa. I think the constant unknowing fear and suspense that Odessa was going to boom or bust again would have really affected the players emotionally, and on other mental levels. I could not imagine growing up in such a strange town, and living such a unique lifestyle.

-Patrick Schulte

5. The history is actually a major factor in the expectations of the 1988 Permian Panther football team. Odessa was a boom and bust oil town for decades of its first existence. There was nothing there to be proud of but oil. Bissinger says, "you drive into Odessa the first time and become immersed in a land so vast, so relentless that something swells up inside, something that makes you feel powerless and insignificant" (xi). Constantly living on the edge, not knowing wether or not one can provide for their family or not puts a negative strain on everyone, including the children who do not work. Through football people can connect to each other in positive ways rather than the negative commons like being poor and living in a raciest environment. Football being one of the only positives connections put an extremely high expectation on the team though. If the team were to lose, the whole city would experience negative and bitter feelings. With that in mind, the players are under an extremely large amount of pressure to preform well and to be superior over every other football team.

- Randi Gardner

 5. The history of Odessa affects the expectations of the 1988 Permian Panthers football team by adding onto the pressure that the team has for the season already. "But no one came close to matching the performance of Permian. Since 1964 it had won four state championships, been to the state finals a record eight times, and made the playoffs fifteen times. Its worst record in any season over that time span had been seven and two" (Bissinger 25). The pressure was on the football team to repeat those records year in and year out. The goal for the team at the start of the season is to win the state playoffs. The players of the Permian Panthers football team know that, and the town of Odessa, Texas knows that. It is up to the players of the Panthers football team to get the job done. If that does not cause any pressure, there are very few things that would. The moral of an entire city lies on the shoulders of the Permian football team. These kids are young (17-18 years old) for many of them the only pressure they have ever had was to get good grades, or do good in sports.

-Daniel Kron

5. The history of Odessa greatly affects the expectations greatly of the 1988 Permian Panthers football team. There is not much to the history of Odessa, except that their whole economy is based on the boom-and-bust oil business, and that it has been named one of the worst towns to live in. In //Friday Night Lights,// H.G. Bissinger quotes a number of different sources saying that “ //Money// magazine ranked it as the fifth worst city to live in the country…A year later //Psychology Today//, in a ranking if the most stressful cities in the country based on rates of alcoholism, crime, suicide, and divorce, placed Odessa seventh out of 286 metropolitan areas” (31). Even though everything about Odessa seems really bad, they do have a good football team. And that’s where everyone turns to, for not only entertainment, but also as source of pride to have for their town. The Permian football team had won the state championship in 1965, 1972, 1980, and 1984. So with the great line up that the team had in 1988, it only added to the expectations of having a great season. With everything in the town beginning to look downhill again, the people of Odessa are expecting the 1988 Permian Panthers football team to have a great season, to bring back some pride and joy back to the town, and maybe even another state championship.

- Josh Wilson

5. In the town of Odessa, high school football is what dominates their history. According to H.G. Bissinger, "Of all the legends of Odessa, that of high school football was the most enduring. It had a deep and abiding sense of place and history, so unlike the town, where not even the origin of the name itself could be vouched for with any confidence" (24,25). Football was the only real relative thing in their history other than oil. The football team was very successful unlike the oil industry. The oil industry was the reason for people to come to the city of Odessa. When it failed, people were still left in this town with nothing. Through out the generations, they stated football. This was what the town became known for. The history of High School Football is so important in this town that the 1988 Panthers were faced with all the pressure to hold up this tradition.

- Adrian Barone

5.There are so many things that affect the expectations of the Permian Panthers. According to Allen, “There are so few other things we can look at with pride, we don’t have a large University that has thirty or forty thousand students in it, we don’t have the art museum that some communities have and are world-renowned, when somebody talks about West Texas, they talk about football” (Bissinger 24). This really shows that the expectations of the High School football team are high. Simply because there is nothing to Odessa, other than oil, everyone looks forward to going to the football games on Friday night and they expect great things to come from them. Going to state is one of the main things that is expected from the Permian Panthers. There is nothing to do in Odessa other than go to football. The need for some kind of entertainment in a town where there is nothing, comes football, Permian Panthers, and everyone knows that the team is a great and can go far. People knowing this means that they expect them to go to state and possibly further.

- Tyler Blaker

5. Odessa's history brings a great weight onto the shoulders of the Permian Panthers. According to // Friday Night Lights, ""But basically it became a transient town, a place to come to and make money when the boom was on and then get as far away as possible with the inevitable setting in if the bust" (Bissinger 29). Within Odessa, a cycle of prosperity and turmoil resides. The oil is found for a time and people flock into the town. Soon, the oil disappears and the prospectors move on. In this time, the town has one life line in the Permian Panthers. With football being an important of Texan life, the people are given hope in the time of drought. In this, the hopes and life of the town is placed on the shoulders of the Permian Panthers. As long as they can continue to win and give hope to the town, their town shall persist. If they should fall, and let vixtory slip through the fingers, the hope will die and the town may soon follow. In their hands, the fate of the town is placed on the edge of a knife. Such is the burden of the Permian Panthers.

- Caelan Hartnett //