Friday Night Lights Book Review

Elodia Hilliard

An English teacher at Permian."It still amazes me when I give a test in grammar and the kinds can do it" then she said "it used to be the other way around. I used to be surprised whenever they didn't know it. Now I'm amazed when they do know it"

Nate Hearne

A black JV coach, his primary job was to handle the black players on the team

Shawn Crow

He was a former player. Boobie was taking his spot this season.

Ector High School

It was 90% minority, it shut down and was divided between OHS and PHS, the better athletes were maneuvered to go to Permian

John Wilkins

Previous Permian coach. After the loss at states, people were saying that they wanted him back

Chris Comer

The new black hope, he was Boobie's replacement, he was a junior

Mike Belew

The running back coach for Permian.

Trapper(Tim O'Conner)

The trainer for Permian

Charlie Billingsley

A legend in the Permian Football Team. One of the meanest people to play for Permian.

Laurence Hurd

A minister of Church of Christ. He demanded a desegregated school system. He spoke with passion,which made him a wonderful figure in the south side. Later in life he went to jail for 18 years for robbing a bank.

Derric Evans

A star player for Carter High School in Dallas. They didn't have to attend classes and were assured lucrative college scholarships. Arrested for armed robberies and couldn't attend college.

Gary Edwards

A star player for Carter High School. His "failing" grade in math led to a court case when a teacher, Will Bates, refused to lie about the algebra grade of a key player, Gary Edwards. The case was won and Dallas Carter got to continue their season.

Will Bates

A teacher at Carter High doesn't pay homage to the Carter Cowboys. He has a notoriously high failure rate. He is intent in not turning his class into a mill where everyone passes regardless of how much or how little they know. Edwards struggles in his class with test scores of 40, 60, 60, and 35. Then, one day he cuts his class to watch game films. That becomes a real problem about whether he should receive a zero for class participation and how that will affect his average. He must have a 70 to be eligible for football.

Jane Franks

A teacher. "They don't seem to care about their grades, they don't seem to care about each other, they seem to care about having a good time, but don't know how to define good"

Dwaine Cox

He owned a restaurant downtown. He was raised in Odessa. He went to Permian High School when it was an all white school, he wanted the same for son. His son (Michael) got in fights a lot and wasn't doing to well. Michael (his son) started as a defensive tackle for Permian when the team went all the way to state semi finals. Dwaine blamed all of his son's problems on desegregation.

Joe Bob Bizell

He played for Texas A&M. Former Permian Panther. In high school, he was all-state for 3 years. He was a fantastic player

Eddie Driscoll

He ranked two in the senior class and because he was an intellectual, stood out like a sore thumb, often wonders what it would be like to sit in those two rows where the players sit during pep rallies.

JW Hanson

He was a black minister who was the pastor of Rose of Sharon Missionary Baptist Church on the south side. Tow the Line- behave as you are supposed to, don't stand out

Daniel Justus

He was a dentist in Odessa, he was an All-State running back at Permian on the 1970 team that went to state finals. He thought the team just wasn't the same nowadays "I blame it on the n****** coming to Permian. He thought blacks were treated differently then whites-true.

Jerry Hix

Herelives his greatness as a Permian Panther in the State Championship won 8 years before. He re-plays the film of the game over and over and knows every play by heart. He has created a nice life for himself over the last 8 years including his own business, but there is still something missing. He can only find that missing something by returning to the film or speaking before the present players about the glories of a State Championship.

Midland, Texas

Midland was the fair-haired, goody-goody one, always doing the right thing, Midland was also the wealthier town, people go to Midland to raise a family

Marshall High School

Private jet to the game, Permian lost

Dale McDougal

She is Jerrod's mother. She lives for the wonder of watching her son under the Friday night lights

Sharon Gaines

She is the Permian football coach's wife and feels the animosity of the town as keenly as, if not more than her husband. She must sit in the stands and hear the insults and read the letters in the newspaper that vilify him. She must even face the criticism from someone who contacts the school board, because she dares to stand up at times during the games and block his view. She lives an agonizing existence until the season is over.

Odessa High School

It was 93% white. 9. There is a strong dislike between Odessa High and Permian, because of the school lines.

Permian High School

It was 99% white.

Odessa, Texas

The west-Texas oil town is definitely a major character in the way it is consumed with football and how the season is all that seems to bring pleasure to the lives of its citizens. Its booms and busts in the oil business give it an almost desperate characteristic that can't help but impact on the young men who seem to carry the hopes and dreams of Odessa on their shoulders. Odessa was the naughty one, the sassy one who didn't come home and hung out with the wrong crowd. Odessa had the title of "Murder Capital USA."

Sam Davis

a Confederate scout during the Civil War. After he is captured by the enemy, he is told he will go free if he reveals the name of the one who had given him his information. Davis refuses, saying, "I would die a thousand deaths before I would betray friend." The reaction of the team is not the usual hue and cry, but instead a strangely vulnerable look on their faces. Coach Gaines emphasizes the ideas of friendship and loyalty to encourage them in such a vulnerable moment against their cross-town rivals, Odessa High School.

Steve Genter

a swimmer who had been set to go to the Olympics in Munich in 1972. Then, he had a lung collapse. He was cut open to repair it and the only way he could swim was to take painkillers, which was illegal in the Olympics. But it was his dream, and he decided to swim without them. He swam and he screamed and his stitches came loose and there was blood in the water. But he never stopped and Gaines said this is the kind of athlete he wants in his corner. Genter had come too far to let it all go.

Julie Gardner

came from a small town in Montana, find the atmosphere at Permian difficult to adjust to. She is proud of her intellectual abilities, but she is ostracized because of them. She knows that girls are expected to "dumb down," and being a Pepette or a cheerleader is a special mark.

George Bush

comes to Odessa for a campaign appearance. The crowd is demonstrative of life in Odessa: no blacks or Hispanics in the audience, no sign of poverty, no signs of homelessness or abuse, no signs of the social fissures that are tearing apart America's urban centers to the east and the west. It is perfect and unblemished on this day. He says just what the crowd wants to hear: that America is still great, still number one, and that what they believe in, what they care about is the very essence of what it means to be an American. He says, "Texas is on the way back!" and it is an absolutely mystifying statement. Even though they are in bad shape because of his administration

LaRue Moore

Brian Chavez's favorite teacher. A dynamic English teacher who bemoans how much money is reserved for the football program as compared to the educational program. She cites how the medical supplies needed for football cost $6,750 while the entire English department is only allotted $5,040.

Michael Dukakis

Bush's opponent. is antagonistic to them, because of all he represents. He can't gain a foothold in the minds of West Texans, because of their history. They are descendents of the John Birch Society, and they have their own conservative groups like Odessans for Decency and the Christian Voting Block. Dukakis thinks he can win the state on the basis of the economy, but he never left the lofty heights of the east and attended a high school football game in Texas. There he would have seen just by watching the people and how they reacted with their children and to the game that there is a heartbeat in West Texas that can't even consider the idea of a liberal in the White House.

Callie Tave

College counselor for the senior class(700ppl.), "girls are condition towards liberal arts courses rather than engineering and science"

Hugh Hayes

He became superintendent of schools in 1986, was determined to make improvements in the educational program; however, he soon discovers that there is little he can do. It is all a matter of priorities and the priority at Permian is football.

Willie Hammond, Jr.

He had become the first black city councilman in the history of Odessa in 1972 and later the first black county commissioner in the history of the county. He went to jail for arson conspiracy and perjury. Involving a burning building. He pleaded innocent, and said it was a political setup.

Ivory Christian

He is the black player whose vomiting before each game is almost a comforting sound to the other players that events are moving along like they're supposed to. He has ambivalent feelings about football - he hates it at the same time it has a funny hold on him.

Don Billingsley

He is the excellent football player who cannot get his drinking problem under control. He loves the game but looks forward to the girls, alcohol, and parties that follow every game.

Tony Chavez

He is the father of player Brian, who is very proud of his son. He feels blessed that things are turning out great for his son; he is a great athlete, friend, and most of all, student. His father is also a successful lawyer, running his own practice in Odessa. He accepts his son's commitment to the Mojo madness, although he disagrees with most of what the school stands for.

Gary Gaines

He is the head coach of Permian High School football team who agonizes over every game both because he cares about his players, but also because he becomes the scapegoat in the community if the team loses. His job is just coaching, not teaching, so his livelihood depends on the whims of the townspeople and whether or not they believe he can "get it done."

Brian Chavez

He is the only Hispanic who is a starter and unlike the other players to whom school and grades are incidental to football, his goals involve being accepted by Harvard. He is the valedictorian of his class, but loves the thrill of the hits that come with football.

Jerrod McDougal

He is the player who readily admits that even years after he graduates, he can't let go of Permian football. He likens the experience to gladiators or Christians versus the lions with Caesar standing up in the arena asking the crowd to yell "yay or nay."

Mike Winchell

He is the team's quarterback whose lack of confidence in himself leads to mistakes that he questions the rest of his life. His hopes and dreams are to play college ball, but in the end, he knows that his dream will probably never come true.

Vickie Gomez

In 1976 became the first minority candidate ever elected to the school board. The school board and the administration "were determined that whatever happens, MOJO was not going to suffer in any way." She also said "If we prepared our kids academically as we prepare them for wining state championships, there is no telling where we would be now."

Boobie Miles

One of the six players the narrator focuses on, he is the ultimate example of "woulda, shoulda, coulda" after a knee injury during a scrimmage ends a promising career.

Setting

Permian High School in the west Texas oil town of Odessa, Texas in 1988; the cities of Midland, Texas and Dallas, Texas are also settings for parts of the story.

David W. Carter High School

Permian loses in the semifinals 9-14

Midland Lee High School

Permian's arch-rivals. Permian lost to them 21-22

Bridgitte Vandeventer

The most popular cheerleader. She had lived with her grandparents since she was eight. Homecoming queen. She dated Brian Chavez. She wanted to go into the medical field, be Miss Universe

Lanita Akins

She thought Hammond was a brilliant politician who had provided blacks in Odessa with their first real public voice. She was a supporter of immigration, white, democrat, she took the Lord's name in vain.

H. G. Bissinger

The author of the this book is also the narrator who unfolds his experiences with the Permian Panthers during the 1988 football season. His viewpoint, being an outsider, is integral to understanding the events and the emotions they spawned during that painful season.

L.V. Miles

Was Boobie's uncle. As a child Boobie was "devoured"(consumed) by the Texas Department of Human Resources". He drifted through foster homes until his uncle legally adopted him. From that moment on He vowed to give Boobie a chance at life, and that chance was football.

Midland High School

Weak football team, in the same district as Midland Lee- Permian won 35-0