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Buzz Bissinger

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Buzz Bissinger
Fra Friday Night Lights til Vanity Fair - NMD 2016 (26969919635).jpg
Bissinger in 2016
Born
Harry Gerard Bissinger III

(1954-11-01) November 1, 1954 (age 68)
New York City, United States
OccupationJournalist

Harry Gerard Bissinger III, also known as Buzz Bissinger and H. G. Bissinger (born November 1, 1954)[1] is an American journalist and author, best known for his 1990 non-fiction book Friday Night Lights. He is a longtime contributing editor at Vanity Fair magazine. In 2019, HBO released a documentary on Bissinger titled “Buzz”.

Early life and education

Born in New York, Bissinger is the son of Eleanor (née Lebenthal) and Harry Gerard Bissinger II.[2][3] His father was a former president of the municipal bond firm Lebenthal & Company. He graduated from Phillips Academy in 1972 and from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976, where he was a sports and opinion editor for The Daily Pennsylvanian.[4][5] He is the cousin of Peter Berg, who directed the film adaptation of Bissinger's book Friday Night Lights.[6]

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Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy is a co-educational university-preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year. The school is in Andover, Massachusetts, United States, 25 miles north of Boston. Phillips Academy has 1,131 students, and is highly selective, accepting just 9% for the 2022–2023 school year. It is part of the Eight Schools Association and the Ten Schools Admissions Organization, as well as the G30 Schools Group.

University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania, often abbreviated simply as Penn or UPenn, is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. It identifies as the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, though this representation is challenged by other universities. Benjamin Franklin and other Philadelphians established the university in 1749, which would make it the fifth-oldest institution of higher education.

The Daily Pennsylvanian

The Daily Pennsylvanian

The Daily Pennsylvanian, Inc. is the independent student media organization of the University of Pennsylvania. The DP, Inc. publishes The Daily Pennsylvanian newspaper, 34th Street Magazine, and Under the Button, as well as five newsletters: The Daily Pennsylvanian, The Weekly Roundup, The Toast, Quaker Nation, and Penn, Unbuttoned.

Peter Berg

Peter Berg

Peter Berg is an American director, producer, writer, and actor. His directorial film works include the black comedy Very Bad Things (1998), the action comedy The Rundown (2003), the sports drama Friday Night Lights (2004), the action thriller The Kingdom (2007), the superhero comedy-drama Hancock (2008), the military science fiction war film Battleship (2012), the war film Lone Survivor (2013), the disaster drama Deepwater Horizon (2016), the Boston Marathon bombing drama Patriots Day (2016), the action thriller Mile 22 (2018), and the action comedy Spenser Confidential (2020), the latter five all starring Mark Wahlberg. In addition to cameo appearances in the last six of these titles, he has had prominent acting roles in films including Never on Tuesday (1989), Shocker (1989), The Last Seduction (1994), The Great White Hype (1996), Cop Land (1997), Corky Romano (2001), Collateral (2004), Smokin' Aces (2006), and Lions for Lambs (2007).

Friday Night Lights (film)

Friday Night Lights (film)

Friday Night Lights is a 2004 American sports drama film co-written and directed by Peter Berg. The film follows the coach and players of a high school football team in the Texas city of Odessa. The book on which it is based, Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990) by H. G. Bissinger, followed the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team as they made a run towards the state championship. A television series of the same name premiered on October 3, 2006 on NBC. The film won the Best Sports Movie ESPY Award and was ranked number 37 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Best High School Movies.

Journalism

In 1987, while writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Bissinger won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for his story on corruption in the Philadelphia court system.

In 1998 his article "Shattered Glass", an exposé of the career of New Republic writer Stephen Glass, was published in the magazine Vanity Fair, where he is a contributing editor. The article was later adapted for the 2003 film of the same name.

Bissinger's July 2015 Vanity Fair cover story "Call Me Caitlyn," on the transition of former Olympic decathlete, businessperson, and television personality Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner star of E!'s Keeping Up With the Kardashians and I Am Cait, with photographs by Annie Leibovitz, was one of the biggest international scoops in years. Bissinger had exclusive access to Jenner both immediately before and after her cosmetic surgery. The 11,000-word article was months in the making and kept heavily under wraps until it was released on the magazine's website on June 1.

Bissinger's article for Vanity Fair, "Gone with the Wind" (August 2007), about the saga of 2006 Kentucky Derby Winner Barbaro, has been optioned by Universal Pictures.[7] His magazine work has also appeared in The New York Times and Sports Illustrated.

In 2008, Bissinger wrote "The Throwback," an online sports column for The New York Times.[8]

Bissinger also served as a columnist at The Daily Beast. On October 8, 2012, Bissinger endorsed Mitt Romney for president.[9]

He briefly hosted a daily radio talk show on WPHT Philadelphia 1210 with Steve Martorano.[10]

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Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting

Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting

The Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting has been awarded since 1953, under one name or another, for a distinguished example of investigative reporting by an individual or team, presented as a single article or series in a U.S. news publication. It is administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia

Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. It is one of the most historically significant cities in the United States and served as the nation's capital until 1800. Philadelphia is the nation's sixth-largest city with a population of 1,603,797 as of the 2020 census. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and one of the world's largest metropolitan regions with 6.245 million residents. Philadelphia is known for its extensive contributions to American history, especially the American Revolution, and for its contemporary influence in business and industry, culture, sports, and music.

Stephen Glass

Stephen Glass

Stephen Randall Glass is an American former journalist and current paralegal. He worked for The New Republic from 1995 to 1998 until it was revealed many of his published articles were fabrications. An internal investigation by The New Republic determined the majority of stories he wrote either contained false information or were fictitious. Glass wrote a fictionalized account of his story in the 2003 novel The Fabulist, and the scandal was dramatized in the film Shattered Glass, which was based on a Vanity Fair article of the same name and starred Hayden Christensen as Glass.

Shattered Glass (film)

Shattered Glass (film)

Shattered Glass is a 2003 biographical drama film about journalist Stephen Glass and his scandal at The New Republic. Written and directed by Billy Ray, the film is based on a 1998 Vanity Fair article of the same name by H. G. Bissinger and chronicles Glass's fall from grace when his stories were discovered to be fabricated. It stars Hayden Christensen as Glass, alongside Peter Sarsgaard, Chloë Sevigny, and Steve Zahn.

Caitlyn Jenner

Caitlyn Jenner

Caitlyn Marie Jenner is an American media personality and former Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete.

E!

E!

E! is an American basic cable channel which primarily focuses on pop culture, celebrity focused reality shows, and movies, owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast.

I Am Cait

I Am Cait

I Am Cait is an American television documentary series which chronicles the life of Caitlyn Jenner after her gender transition. The eight-part one-hour documentary series debuted on July 26, 2015, on the E! network. The series focuses on the "new normal" for Jenner, exploring changes to her relationships with her family and friends. The show additionally explores how Jenner adjusts to what she sees as her job as a role model for the transgender community.

Kentucky Derby

Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of one and a quarter miles (2.0 km) at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds and fillies 121 pounds.

Barbaro (horse)

Barbaro (horse)

Barbaro was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2006 Kentucky Derby but shattered his leg two weeks later in the Preakness Stakes which ended his racing career and eventually led to the need to euthanize him.

Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated (SI) is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice. It is also known for its annual swimsuit issue, which has been published since 1964, and has spawned other complementary media works and products.

The Daily Beast

The Daily Beast

The Daily Beast is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney

Willard Mitt Romney is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer who has served as the junior United States senator from Utah since 2019. He previously served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and was the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States in the 2012 election, losing to Barack Obama.

Books

Bissinger speaks about his book The Mosquito Bowl to Paul Wells in 2023
Bissinger speaks about his book The Mosquito Bowl to Paul Wells in 2023

Bissinger is perhaps best known for his book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, which documents the 1988 season of the football team of Permian High School in Odessa, Texas. This work was the inspiration for the 1993 television series Against the Grain, and was turned into a successful film (which was released in October 2004), and a television series which debuted on NBC on October 3, 2006. The book has sold nearly two million copies. In a list of the one hundred best books on sports ever, Sports Illustrated ranked Friday Night Lights fourth and the best ever on football. ESPN called Friday Night Lights the best book on sports over the past quarter-century.

A Prayer for the City, published in 1998, offers insight into the urban political scene of Philadelphia during Mayor (who later became the Governor of Pennsylvania until 2011) Ed Rendell's term in the 1990s.

The New York Times' bestselling Three Nights in August, published in 2005, chronicles a series in August 2003 between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs through the perspective of Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.

Shooting Stars was published by Penguin Press in September 2009.[11] The book, co-authored with basketball superstar LeBron James, tells the story of James' high school career where he and his four best friends won a championship in basketball. As part of the promotion of Shooting Stars, Bissinger appeared as a "Guest Commenter" on a Deadspin post on October 1, 2009.[12]

In April 2012, Bissinger released After Friday Night Lights, a sequel to Friday Night Lights which focuses on Bissinger's relationship with James "Boobie" Miles, a major character in his first book.

Father's Day, published in May 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is a memoir that revolves around a singular cross-country road trip taken with one of his twin sons, Zach, an autistic savant.

Bissinger wrote a piece in August 2020 saying that he and his wife would move to Italy if Donald Trump was re-elected President of the United States.[13]

In 2022 Bissinger wrote The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II, which was widely reviewed.[14][15][16][17][18]

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American football

American football

American football, also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or passing it, while the defense, the team without possession of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense, but if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the drive. Points are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins.

Against the Grain (TV series)

Against the Grain (TV series)

Against the Grain is an American drama television series that aired on NBC from October 1 until December 24, 1993. starring John Terry, Donna Bullock, Robyn Lively, Ben Affleck, and Vanessa Lee Evigan. The show was inspired by Buzz Bissinger's book Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream.

Friday Night Lights (film)

Friday Night Lights (film)

Friday Night Lights is a 2004 American sports drama film co-written and directed by Peter Berg. The film follows the coach and players of a high school football team in the Texas city of Odessa. The book on which it is based, Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990) by H. G. Bissinger, followed the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team as they made a run towards the state championship. A television series of the same name premiered on October 3, 2006 on NBC. The film won the Best Sports Movie ESPY Award and was ranked number 37 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Best High School Movies.

Friday Night Lights (TV series)

Friday Night Lights (TV series)

Friday Night Lights is an American sports drama television series developed by Peter Berg and inspired by the 1990 nonfiction book by H. G. Bissinger, which was adapted as the 2004 film of the same name by Berg. Executive producers were Brian Grazer, David Nevins, Sarah Aubrey and Jason Katims who also served as showrunner. The series follows a high school football team in the fictional town of Dillon, a small, close-knit community in rural West Texas. It features an ensemble cast led by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, portraying high school football coach Eric Taylor and his wife Tami Taylor, a school faculty member. The primary cast includes characters associated with football and high school. The show uses its small-town backdrop to address many issues in contemporary American culture like family values, school funding, racism, substance use, abortion and lack of economic opportunities.

NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are located at Comcast Building in New York City. The company also has offices in Los Angeles at 10 Universal City Plaza and Chicago at the NBC Tower. NBC is the oldest of the traditional "Big Three" American television networks, having been formed in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America. NBC is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network," in reference to its stylized peacock logo, introduced in 1956 to promote the company's innovations in early color broadcasting.

Ed Rendell

Ed Rendell

Edward Gene Rendell is an American lawyer, prosecutor, politician, and author. He served as the 45th governor of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2011, as chair of the national Democratic Party, and as the 96th Mayor of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2000.

Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located on Chicago's North Side. The Cubs are one of two major league teams based in Chicago; the other, the Chicago White Sox, is a member of the American League (AL) Central division. The Cubs, first known as the White Stockings, were a founding member of the NL in 1876, becoming the Chicago Cubs in 1903.

LeBron James

LeBron James

LeBron Raymone James Sr. is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is considered to be one of the greatest basketball players in history and is often compared to Michael Jordan in debates over the greatest basketball player of all time. James is the all-time leading scorer in NBA history and ranks fourth in career assists. He has won four NBA championships, and has competed in 10 NBA Finals. He has four MVP awards, four Finals MVP awards, and two Olympic gold medals. He has been named an All-Star 19 times, selected to the All-NBA Team 18 times and the All-Defensive Team six times, and was a runner-up for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award twice in his career.

Deadspin

Deadspin

Deadspin is a sports blog founded by Will Leitch in 2005 and based in Chicago. Previously owned by Gawker Media and Univision Communications, it is currently owned by G/O Media.

Italy

Italy

Italy, officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern and Western Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, it consists of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands; its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical region. Italy shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione, and some islands in the African Plate. Italy covers an area of 301,230 km2 (116,310 sq mi), with a population of about 60 million. It is the third-most populous member state of the European Union, the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the tenth-largest country in the continent by land area. Italy's capital and largest city is Rome.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump

Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.

Mosquito Bowl

Mosquito Bowl

The Mosquito Bowl was a football game played December 24, 1944 between two regiments of Marines at Guadalcanal during World War II. Buzz Bissinger in 2022 wrote an account, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II, which was widely reviewed.

Personal life

Bissinger has been married three times.[19][20]

Bissinger is married to Lisa C. Smith, a former Assistant Vice Chancellor of NYU Abu Dhabi.[21] He has three sons.[22] [23] A resident of Washington state, he divides his time between homes in Philadelphia and the Pacific Northwest.

In a column published in GQ, Bissinger states he is a shopaholic with an obsession for expensive designer clothes, spending $638,412.97 between 2010 and 2012.

Bissinger is addicted to both shopping and sex, and has been to therapy for both.[24] He has questioned his own sexuality as well as his gender preference.[25]

In 2013, Bissinger was awarded an honorary degree by Drexel University in recognition of his exceptional contributions as one of the “nation’s most honored and distinguished writers.” He has received numerous other awards for his writing.[26]

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New York University Abu Dhabi

New York University Abu Dhabi

New York University Abu Dhabi is a degree granting, portal campus of New York University serving as a private, liberal arts college, located in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest (PNW), sometimes referred to as Cascadia, is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common conception includes the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Some broader conceptions reach north into Alaska and Yukon, south into northern California, and east into western Montana. Other conceptions may be limited to the coastal areas west of the Cascade and Coast mountains. The variety of definitions can be attributed to partially overlapping commonalities of the region's history, culture, geography, society, ecosystems, and other factors.

GQ

GQ

GQ is an American international monthly men's magazine based in New York City and founded in 1931. The publication focuses on fashion, style, and culture for men, though articles on food, movies, fitness, sex, music, travel, celebrities' sports, technology, and books are also featured.

Compulsive buying disorder

Compulsive buying disorder

Compulsive buying disorder (CBD), or oniomania, is characterized by an obsession with shopping and buying behavior that causes adverse consequences. It "is experienced as an irresistible–uncontrollable urge, resulting in excessive, expensive and time-consuming retail activity [that is] typically prompted by negative affectivity" and results in "gross social, personal and/or financial difficulties". Most people with CBD meet the criteria for a personality disorder. Compulsive buying can also be found among people with Parkinson's disease or frontotemporal dementia.

Drexel University

Drexel University

Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry, it was renamed Drexel Institute of Technology in 1936, before assuming its current name in 1970.

Source: "Buzz Bissinger", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, January 20th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Bissinger.

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References
  1. ^ "FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS / ABOUT THE AUTHOR". fridaynightlights.pbworks.com. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
  2. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths BISSINGER, HARRY GERARD II". The New York Times. October 29, 2001.
  3. ^ "Sarah Whiting Macdonald Is Married To H. G. Bissinger 3d in Massachusetts". The New York Times. February 12, 1989.
  4. ^ "Phillips Academy - Notable Alumni: Short List". Phillips Academy. Archived from the original on June 2, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  5. ^ "The B/R Interview: H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger". Bleacher Report. Retrieved October 29, 2011.
  6. ^ "'Friday Night Lights' Author Slams Peter Berg's Letter to Mitt Romney: 'Uninformed and Offensive'". The Hollywood Reporter. 12 October 2012. Retrieved February 17, 2013.
  7. ^ Bissinger, Buzz (October 20, 2009). "Gone Like the Wind | Culture". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on February 17, 2010. Retrieved September 9, 2010.
  8. ^ Bissinger, Buzz (July 26, 2008). "All-Stars and Layoffs". The New York Times.
  9. ^ Bissinger, Buzz (2012-10-08). "Buzz Bissinger: Why I'm Voting for Mitt Romney". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
  10. ^ "Buzz Bissinger joins Steve Martorano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT". philly.com. June 10, 2012.
  11. ^ "Shooting Stars | Written by Lebron James and Buzz Bissinger". Buzzbissinger.com. Retrieved September 9, 2010.
  12. ^ "Book Excerpts That Don't Suck: Shooting Stars". Deadspin.com. October 1, 2009. Retrieved September 9, 2010.
  13. ^ https://airmail.news/issues/2022-8-20/the-view-from-here
  14. ^ "Review: A war story, 'Mosquito Bowl' defines courage, duty". AP NEWS. 2022-09-19. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  15. ^ "Buzz Bissinger On 'The Mosquito Bowl' : Fresh Air". NPR.org. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  16. ^ Daniel, Douglass K. "Review: A war story, 'Mosquito Bowl' defines courage, duty". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  17. ^ Jennings, Jay (2022-09-13). "The Football Players Who Fought and Died in World War II". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  18. ^ Daniel, Douglass K. (2022-09-19). "1944 Marine 'Mosquito Bowl' defines football, courage, duty". Navy Times. Retrieved 2022-09-20.
  19. ^ https://deadspin.com/buzz-bissinger-admits-to-shopping-addiction-dabbling-i-459022230
  20. ^ https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-soul-searching-of-buzz-bissinger
  21. ^ https://www.english.upenn.edu/people/buzz-bissinger
  22. ^ https://www.english.upenn.edu/people/buzz-bissinger
  23. ^ https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-soul-searching-of-buzz-bissinger
  24. ^ https://business.time.com/2013/03/27/addicted-to-leather-for-friday-night-lights-author-buzz-bissinger-gucci-is-like-heroin/
  25. ^ https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-soul-searching-of-buzz-bissinger
  26. ^ https://www.english.upenn.edu/people/buzz-bissinger
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