Where Dreams Die Hard: A Small American Town and Its Six-Man Football Team - Hardcover

Stowers, Carlton

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0306814048 ISBN 13: 9780306814044

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2005

Synopsis

An hour's drive south of Dallas, in the tiny community of Penelope (population 211), Carlton Stowers found the perfect vantage point from which to view a small town as it came together around their six-man high-school football team. Here, where shopping for groceries is a forty-five-minute round-trip drive and there is no stoplight on Main Street, he followed the hapless Penelope Wolverines in their quest to win their second game in four years since reviving their football program after a thirty-seven-year hiatus. But even as the team struggled, the entire town still came out to show its support every Friday night. Why? Because as one Texas writer recently said, "Texas high school football is a six-point favorite over Sunday-go-to-meetin' in most small towns." A wide-open game in which teams sprint up and down the field and where the combined score can typically exceed one hundred points, six-man football was invented in Nebraska in 1934. At its peak in 1953, 30,000 teams across the country and in Canada competed in the sport. Though there are fewer teams now, it is still played in states as far flung as Texas, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, and Kansas, among others. A poignant story of a small town, and its unwavering support-through thick and a lot of thin-of the winless Wolverines, Where Dreams Die Hard is a warm and revealing slice of life in the American heartland and of a culture fast disappearing.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Carlton Stowers has written an evocative tale about a tiny Texas town and its undying love for their community and football team. High school football in Texas is both sport and religion, and Stowers brilliantly brings this to light in Where Dreams Die Hard" (Jim Dent, author of NY Times bestseller, The Junction Boys)

"Where Dreams Die Hard> is about so much more than six-man football. Through his unforgettable depiction of innocence, goodness, loyalty, and friendship in the Texas town of Penelope (population 211), Carlton Stowers gives us a moving portrait of a community that, in the words of one of the Penelope faithful, is "like stepping into a Norman Rockwell painting." (Billie Letts, author of the Oprah Bookclub pick, Where the Heart Is)

About the Author

Carlton Stowers has twice won the Edgar Award for the year's Best Fact Crime Book, for Careless Whispers and To the Last Breath. He has written for Sports Illustrated, People, and TV Guide, among other publications. He lives in Texas.

About this edition

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0306814048
• ISBN 13: 9780306814044
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224