The history of black high school football in segregated Texas: “Though this book is long overdue, it is also right on time.” —Texas Observer At a time when “Friday night lights” shone only on white high school football games, African American teams across Texas burned up the gridiron on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Temple Dunbar, Austin Anderson, and other segregated high schools in the Prairie View Interscholastic League—the African American counterpart of the University Interscholastic League, which excluded black schools from membership until 1967—created an exciting brand of football that produced hundreds of outstanding players, many of whom became college All-Americans, All-Pros, and Pro Football Hall of Famers, including NFL greats such as “Mean” Joe Green, Otis Taylor, Dick “Night Train” Lane, Ken Houston, and Bubba Smith. Thursday Night Lights tells the inspiring, largely unknown story of African American high school football in Texas. Drawing on interviews, newspaper stories, and memorabilia, Michael Hurd introduces the players, coaches, schools, and towns where African Americans built powerhouse football programs under the PVIL leadership. He covers fifty years of history, including championship seasons and legendary rivalries such as the annual Turkey Day Classic game between Houston schools Jack Yates and Phillis Wheatley, which drew standing-room-only crowds of up to 40,000. In telling this story, Hurd explains why the PVIL was necessary, traces its development, and shows how football offered a potent source of pride and ambition in the black community, helping black kids succeed both athletically and educationally in a racist society. “[A] groundbreaking book.” —Houston Chronicle “In America’s current Colin Kaepernick-inspired moment, with sports once again taking on a conspicuous role in debates about black citizenship and the persistence of white racism, this book is especially timely and important.” —Great Plains Quarterly

Return once again to the enduring account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa -- the winningest high school football team in Texas history.

Telling an inspiring, largely unknown story, Thursday Night Lights recounts how African American high school football programs produced championship teams and outstanding players during the Jim Crow era.

A gripping and deftly plotted narrative of family and belonging, Lights All Night Long is a dazzling debut novel from an acclaimed young writer "Lights All Night Long is utterly brilliant and completely captivating. . . . One of the most propulsive, un-put-downable literary novels I've read in ages."--Anthony Marra, author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena Fifteen-year-old Ilya arrives in Louisiana from his native Russia for what should be the adventure of his life: a year in America as an exchange student. But all is not right in Ilya's world: he's consumed by the fate of his older brother Vladimir, the magnetic rebel to Ilya's dutiful wunderkind, back in their tiny Russian hometown. The two have always been close, spending their days dreaming of escaping to America. But when Ilya was tapped for the exchange, Vladimir disappeared into their town's seedy, drug-plagued underworld. Just before Ilya left, the murders of three young women rocked the town's usual calm, and Vladimir found himself in prison. With the help of Sadie, who has secrets of her own, Ilya embarks on a mission to prove Vladimir's innocence. Piecing together the timeline of the murders and Vladimir's descent into addiction, Ilya discovers the radical lengths to which Vladimir has gone to protect him--a truth he could only have learned by leaving him behind. A rich tale of belonging and the pull of homes both native and adopted, Lights All Night Long is a spellbinding story of the fierce bond between brothers determined to find a way back to each other.

“This is an elegant piece of living theater. . . . A book to bathe in, reminding readers that something magical is happening every instant.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) At 9:59 on a Thursday morning, Jodie draws a duck. As she’s about to add a silver button to the duck’s boot, her little brother, Jonathan, takes his first step. At the exact same moment, a man buys fresh bread at the bakery, a baby is born, a soldier says good-bye to his mom. . . . From an ordinary scene in an apartment strewn with a child’s artwork to a bird’s-eye view of a city morning pulsing with life, Bob Graham celebrates a whole world-vision in a single moment.

For one group of men in Cincinnati, Ohio, therapy comes every Thursday night in the form of late night basketball under the lights. For thirty years, this game has provided a release--a "fix," as one player calls it--that only physical exertion and the bonds of community can provide. Thursday Night Therapy: Thirty Years of Basketball and Camaraderie chronicles the thirty-year history of this game, the players involved, and the profound impact that basketball has had on those who play this beautiful game. Freelance writer, author, and former award-winning sports editor Aaron M. Smith takes the reader on a reflective and sometimes humorous journey that identifies and explains the significance of this weekly gathering. Not only is Smith the son-in-law of the founder and host of this game, he has been playing in this regular game for nearly a decade. From humble beginnings to a sort of therapeutic ritual, Thursday night hoops has become a necessity for all involved.

Describes the unique light phenomena of the Alaskan Arctic and the way animals adapt to the temperature and daylight changes each month of the year. Reprint.