Buzz Bissinger

Buzz Bissinger

Buzz Bissinger (Harry Gerard Bissinger III) was born on November 1st, 1954 and is currently 71 years old. Buzz Bissinger was born in New York City, New York, USA. Bissinger attended Phillips Academy and the University of Pennsylvania.

Buzz Bissinger is an author and journalist that is best known for his book Friday Night Lights. Buzz is a longtime contributing editor to Vanity Fair. Peter Berg, his cousin directed the 2004 adaptation of the book.

Buzz won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 1987 for his story about corruption in the Philadelphia court system while writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

When Buzz was a journalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, he was selected as a Harvard Nieman Fellow. During his time at Harvard he had the idea to write a book about the role that high school football plays in American society, especially rural society, took hold.

He returned to The Philadelphia Inquirer for a short time, got his Pulitzer, then headed off to search for a community where high school football was paramount. He settled on Odessa, Permian High School, and the Panthers football team. The Permian Panthers had this rich history of winning in Texas’ 4A and 5A divisions, having won championships in 1965, 1972, 1980, and 1984. Buzz moved his family to Odessa to spend the whole 1988 season with the Panther players, their families, their coaches, and even numerous townspeople to try and understand the town better and the football mad culture there.

“Shattered Glass”, his 1998 article that was an expose about the career of Stephen Glass, was adapted into a film of the same name that was released in 2003. It was revealed that many of his articles were total fabrications.

The 11,000 word article he wrote about Caitlyn’s transition was months in the making and kept heavily under wraps until its June 1 release on Vanity Fair’s site. The July cover story was one of the largest international scoops in years. Buzz had exclusive access to Caitlyn both immediately before and after her cosmetic surgery.

Drexel University awarded Buzz an honorary degree in recognition of his exceptional contributions as being one of the nation’s most distinguished and honored writers.

Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream is a profile of the town of Odessa, Texas, and its high school football team: the Panthers, who is the high school team with the best winning record in Texas history. The book chronicles its dramatic 1988 season and focuses on the bitter struggle between education and sports.

It was originally meant to be a Hoosiers style story of high school sports holding a small town together, it winds up being a critical commentary of town life in Odessa.

Related Authors

Fans of Buzz Bissinger also enjoy these authors:

1. John Grisham, author of the Jake Brigance Series.
2. Stephen King, author of The Dark Tower Series.
3. Michael Connelly, author of the Harry Bosch Series.
4. Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher Series.
5. Jeffery Deaver, author of the Lincoln Rhyme Series.

Buzz Bissinger: F.A.Q