Bridget+and+Kaitlin



Kaitlin Schneider

Odessa, TX

Odessa is a small town in West Texas. It began in 1880 by some men from Ohio who saw the land as a great way to make money, if they could convince people to live there. The problem was that they had to deceive people into thinking there were great things there, but there really weren’t. Luckily for the men, it was successful. Although there was originally a ban on alcohol, the town’s sheriff found it unnecessary and opened a bar. The cowboys and ranchers who lived there first started causing trouble, and that would eventually result in murders, which would make it one of the most dangerous places to live in the country. Eventually, the ranchers and cowboys got too poor and had to let their animals die. It was hard for everyone to find work that paid and to survive. Eventually, it was discovered that the town was on top of the Permian Basin, which is “a geological formation so lush it would ultimately produce roughly 20 percent of the nations’ oil and gas.” From that point forward, the town did much better, although there were very distinct booms and busts.

Despite all this, Odessa was also very dedicated to religion and the citizens were very neighborly, for the most part. Still, there was racism. The town was very old-fashioned in their values. The situation slowly improved, fortunately. It wasn’t until the 1920’s that high school football became the favorite of the town. Since then, it has been the most important thing to everyone. The team has done very well. It is all the town has for entertainment, so they poor everything they have into it (Bissinger).

Works Cited

Bissinger, H.G. //Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and A Dream//. Massachusetts: De Capo Press, 1990. Print

Bridget McFadden


 * H.G. Bissinger**

H. G. Bissinger, The author of __Friday Night Lights__ lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his wife and three sons. Bissinger was working as a newspaper editor for the //Philadelphia inquirer// when he got the idea to go in search of a town where high school sports kept the town alive. In March of 1988 Bissinger visited Odessa, Texas where he talked to the coach, saw the town, and decided that Odessa is where he would live for a year and spend a season with the Permian Panthers high school football team. In the preface of __Friday Night Lights__ Bissinger says, “My heart told me that I would find the answers to all these questions in Odessa, not because it was a Texas town, but an American one” (Bissinger). Bissinger had many questions as to why the team held the town together and also how the town functioned socially and economically. In July of 1988 Bissinger and his family, which at the time was twin boys and his wife moved to Odessa. He left his job for the newspaper and dedicated the next four months to learning about the football team of Odessa, which he chose as the setting for his novel, __Friday Night Lights.__ Bissinger has been very successful with his writing; he won the Pulitzer Prize, and his well-known book, __Friday Night Lights__ became a major motion picture. Bissingers work has also appeared in the //New York Times// and //Vanity Fair// magazine. He currently lives in Philadelphia with his family, and his most recent work is a book called __Shooting Stars__, which will be published in September of 2009.

Work Cited Bissinger, H.G. //Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and A Dream//. Massachusetts: De Capo Press, 1990. Print

"H. G. Bissinger -." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. Web. 25 Aug. 2009. .