The best book on Great Plains sports is H. G. Bissinger\u27s Friday Night Lights (1990). That classic has spawned a critically acclaimed television series and numerous awards. FNL not only told the story of a football season at Odessa Permian High School in urban West Texas; it also asked and answered some very big questions that concerned high school athletic corruption, coaching pressures, cheerleader/ football player interaction, school integration, local community politics, treatment of players of color, Texas\u27s new rules prohibiting playing with failing grades, pressures on teachers, drugs, player abuse, and on and on. It remains a beautifully written and crafted expose.
Our Boys is not Friday Night Lights. The location and subject are comparable: a season with a Great Plains football community with a winning tradition. Smith Center, Kansas, county seat of Smith County situated in northwest Kansas near the Nebraska border, is a small community of 1,931 hardy Kansans. Note that Odessa, Texas, has a population of 90,000 plus-a significant difference, but the passions in Odessa and Smith Center seem quite similar. Many of the Smith County residents are farmers and make use of the hotly contested Republican River waters for irrigation. Farmers, whom Ag schools term producers, produce grains and beef for regional and national markets; Smith Center High School produces football players, occasionally for Kansas State University and more often for regional four-year colleges
