With such films as Hoosiers, Cinderella Man, Miracle, Cool Runnings and Remember the Titans, the familiar “sports underdog true story” is one of our most reliable genres — even if these tales often get embellished in the telling.
Chris Raymond’s Men in White, about the saving of the Penn State football program in the wake of the Sandusky scandal, is another thrilling story of this sort — though it succeeds without any of the usual tweaks and fillips.
After all, it doesn’t really need them.
Journalist and sportswriter Raymond — a Penn State alum who will be at Otto Bookstore this Saturday — has avoided embellishment with a unique and compelling narrative device:
The story of this program fighting its way back to greatness after devastating post-Sandusky sanctions is related almost entirely through direct quotations.
The industrious Raymond conducted 60 interviews himself, also culling statements, stories, facts and feelings from literally hundreds of first-person accounts in newspapers, magazines, podcasts and television broadcasts.
Speakers include players, coaches, students, profs, alumni, parents, wives, recruiters, editors, filmmakers, play-by-play announcers and even the team’s mascots — along with writers, reporters and commentators from ESPN, Fox, Lions 247, the Penn State Radio Network, The Athletic, Sports Illustrated and daily newspapers in Altoona, York and Harrisburg.
Though there can’t be many in Webb-land unfamiliar with this story, I should remind readers that in 2012, assistant PSU football coach Jerry Sandusky was found guilty on multiple counts of child abuse and molestation directed toward players on the team.
Shortly thereafter, the NCAA — college football’s overseeing body — punished the college and its sports program with stiff sanctions, making it well-nigh impossible to field a decent team. The squad’s beloved long-time coach, Joe Paterno, had earlier been dismissed and passed away shortly afterward; meanwhile, the NCAA imposed a $60 million fine, a four-year ban from bowl games and a drastic reduction in scholarships. It also made the unprecedented move of releasing all players from obligations to PSU; that meant, to quote one official, “a recruiting meat market,” in which schools from all over the nation worked desperately to lure away PSU’s best players.
To a surprising extent, they did not succeed.
Under the stalwart leadership of veteran players Mike Mauti and Mike Zordich, most of the team toughed it out. This despite an unfamiliar coach, no hope of post-season play and — partly from scholarship cutbacks — a decimated squad that wound up fielding an unprecedented ratio of red-shirts, “true freshmen” and walk-ons (here called “run-ons” — only partly in jest).
For non-fans tempted to suggest that PSU was only getting what it deserved — keep in mind that Sandusky’s repulsive crimes had occurred years earlier, while most of the 2012 squad was still in grade-school.
As Mauti put it in an early press conference: “This program was not built by one man. And this program sure as hell is not going to be torn down by one man.”
Perhaps the most compelling factor in this five-year odyssey is how the team’s underdog status kept returning season after season — due alternately to five different coaches in three years; lousy starting records in some seasons; graduation of older players in the third and fourth years; and, perhaps most notably, many games in which PSU rallied to victory after first-half deficits of 10, 14 or even 21 points (in one case, they needed three overtimes to win).
In relating these come-from-behind thrillers, Raymond captures all the breathless drama of gridiron action, making the book both easy to read and hard to put down.
The author also does a masterful job portraying not only the on-field skills, but also the commitment, work ethic, innate likability and personal integrity of such now-legendary players as Sam Ficken, Christian Hackenberg, Trace McSorley and Saquon Barkley.
His many stories and anecdotes are similarly dandy. To wit:
Decision by Paterno replacement Bill O’Brien — for the first time in school history — to put players’ names on their jerseys; this resulted in the wife of equipment coordinator Spider Caldwell hand-sewing letters on one at a time. (She was grateful for players like Hull and Hill, but somehow managed Stankiewitch and Obeng-Agyapong as well.)
One season-opener in Dublin, Ireland, for O’Brien successor James Franklin, with 9000 itemized articles — 10 tons of team cargo — flying across the Atlantic Ocean.
There’s also the story of 6000 fans turning out well before the struggling teams’ first season; this rally took place at 6 a.m. — for a summertime practice drill!
Not to mention the later unprecedented decision to add this intrepid 7-4 squad to Beaver Stadium’s “ring of honor” — usually reserved for undefeated teams and post-season champs.
The book’s Aug. 13 release will be celebrated Saturday with a meet-the-author from 10 to noon at Otto Bookstore; several PSU players will also be on hand for panel discussion, followed by Q&A and signing.
Registration is required; visit ottobookstore.com.
