Book Review: No Friday Night Lights (2024), by John M. Glionna

“As the title suggests, the ‘undermanned Bulldogs are Friday Night Lights turned on its head. There are no lights here, no culture of winning, and little more than hope’ (p. 17).* Through the McDermitt Bulldogs, award-winning journalist John M. Glionna depicts ‘how a struggling high school football team reflects the fate of a dying town where scholastic sports are the last bit of social fabric that still binds them [residents] together’ (p. 57). He focuses on the relationships between the coaches, Richard Egan and Jack Smith—often assuming the roles of surrogate fathers—and the football team, where a deficiency of players presents a challenge to instilling discipline, and ‘familiarity breaks down the usual coach-player boundaries’ (p. 51)…“

Read the review in The Museum of Americana (2024):