The Perfect Season: How Penn State Came to Stop a Hurricane and Win a National Football Championship (Keystone Book)
Jan. 2, 1987. It is at once the most profound and significant day of the nearly 15,000 Joe Paterno has spent as Penn State's football coach. On that night, in the spotlit Arizona desert, Paterno's Nittany Lions defeated Miami in a national championship matchup whose contrasts were as vivid as the personalities involved. In The Perfect Season, Mike Missanelli carefully dissects and re-creates this memorable game, one that would serve as a perfect little morality play, a showcase for all that was right and wrong with college football. --Frank Fitzpatrick, author of The Lion in AutumnIt's been 20 years since that night in the Arizona desert when Penn State and Miami clashed in a battle of football and philosophy in the Fiesta Bowl. It was the last national championship for Penn State, won in dramatic fashion with a goal-line interception in the final seconds to preserve a 14-10 win. It was, in the eyes of many, the zenith of the program. And many of the players, now middle-aged fathers, remain icons in the history of the sport at Penn State. Mike Missanelli does a masterful job of recreating the game, reconnecting with the key players for both teams, and rekindles fond memories of a night when no star in the college football galaxy shined brighter than Penn State's. --Ron Bracken, Centre Daily TimesMissanelli brings to life the 1986 national football championship season, with a great account of the Nittany Lion victory over the combat fatigue-clad Miami Hurricanes. The Foreword by D. J. Dozier is a delight, as are various vignettes of participants such as Jerry Sandusky, Shane Conlan, Bob White, and the unfortunate-in-life John Bruno. --Ronald A. Smith, author of Big-Time Football at Harvard, 1905It's been 20 years since that night in the Arizona desert when Penn State and Miami clashed in a battle of football and philosophy in the Fiesta Bowl. It was the last national championship for Penn State, won in dramatic fashion with a goal-line interception in the final seconds to preserve a 14-10 win. It was, in the eyes of many, the zenith of the program. And many of the players, now middle-aged fathers, remain icons in the history of the sport at Penn State. Mike Missanelli does a masterful job of recreating the game, reconnecting with the key players for both teams, and rekindles fond memories of a night when no star in the college football galaxy shined brighter than Penn State's. --Ron Bracken, Centre Daily TimesMissanelli brings to life the 1986 national football championship season, with a great account of the Nittany Lion victory over the combat fatigue-clad Miami Hurricanes. The Foreword by D. J. Dozier is a delight, as are various vignettes of participants such as Jerry Sandusky, Shane Conlan, Bob White, and the unfortunate-in-life John Bruno. --Ronald A. Smith, author of Big-Time Football at Harvard, 1905It's been 20 years since that night in the Arizona desert when Penn State and Miami clashed in a battle of football and philosophy in the Fiesta Bowl. It was the last national championship for Penn State, won in dramatic fashion with a goal-line interception in the final seconds to preserve a 14-10 win. It was, in the eyes of many, the zenith of the program. And many of the players, now middle-aged fathers, remain icons in the history of the sport at Penn State. Mike Missanelli does a masterful job of recreating the game, reconnecting with the key players for both teams, and rekindles fond memories of a night when no star in the college football galaxy shined brighter than Penn State's. --Ron Bracken, Centre Daily TimesMissanelli brings to life the 1986 national football championship season, with a great account of the Nittany Lion victory over the combat fatigue-clad Miami Hurricanes. The Foreword by D. J. Dozier is a delight, as are various vignettes of participants such as Jerry Sandusky, Shane Conlan, Bob White, and the unfortunate-in-life John Bruno. --Ronald A. Smith, author of Big-Time Football at Harvard, 1905