Transcripts For CSPAN2 Playing Through The Whistle 20161212

Process if you havent figured out how to donate the money a couple hundred million dollars, youre not a great person, which is different than a person that doesnt have the privilege of being sentenced. You dont get to have the letters of support attempting to donate all this money how you are able to spend and change the communities. We need to have a little bit more of that outrage coming from the people in which they are wanting the approval most from a. Other people see themselves in the same boat facing the same kind of sanctions. You say its not that youre kind of protecting ourselves, but at the same time you should be able to call out and admit mistakes when they are made. The when mistakes happen they happen in major firms. To think anything other than that would be extreme. We can admit them up front and see what we are doing to change those and its a degree of transparency. What we are doing to address this. Host we could spend a lot more time on this as a fascinating book and one is a formeas aformer prosecutor and enforcement lawyer. Undertaking the work as well as a very informative member of the public so its been a grea its e to spend with you. Congratulations on the book. Thank you for sharing it with us. Guest than guest thank you so much. Good evening, everyone. My name is jennifer, and i am the fairly new manager over here at the Carnegie Library and also the third string player tonight because the first and second were not available and im proud that i is both in that sports an analogy. I also pleased to welcome you to this event tonight, to the made local event. This is one of many wonderful events brought to you by the partnership. The library in pittsburgh arts and lectures have been presenting events like this one for many years for broad ranges of audiences. We are always pleased for a nice positive response and we would invite you to a next time bring a friend or two to help promote peace and keep them going. Also the library is open until 8 p. M. So you can head over and get your car after the event this evening. I would like to recognize classic lines books and more they will be selling the book this evening and they want to make you aware there will be a book signing immediately after this evening. So i knew to working at the main librarymainlibrary, but one of t experiences was hearing about all the staff at the library speaking highly of her. We have a longstanding wonderful relationship with her being the executive director of pittsburgh arts and lectures and ive never met her until this evening so i had the great pleasure and i will give you the great pleasure if you allow me to introduce stephanie who will tell you about the remainder of the evening. [applause] we have a great house tonight for s. L. Price. Hes a super nice. You will love him. Playing through the whistle, is compassion for football and american town is the fourth book for s. L. Price Senior Writer for Sports Illustrated or along with more than three dozen stories is written for vanity fair and the New York Times, Time Magazine and the oxford american. American. Assignments propelled him across the u. S. So we are happy to have been spending so muchim spendinn western pennsylvania and canada as well as colombia, argentina, cuba where he wrote a book about cuban sports, jamaica, france, pakistan, brazil, australia, japan, korea. Hes covered 1011 games, world cups and tennis championships, hes interviewed president s george w. Bush and bill clinton and played barack obama oneonone at an iowa ymca. She interviewed and the reviews have been glowing. The New York Times whenever he writes about sports he hits it over the fence. And i got to take him today. Npr sports commentator, i wouldvwouldpay to read a grocef s. L. Price wrote it. Usa today, hes one of the finest writers on sports anywhere. Earlier today we went over to a class and he shared what he stumbled upon and he found a microcosm. He didnt just produce great Football Players, hes where america happened. Please give a warm welcome to s. L. Price. [applause] that was quite the welcome. I dont think that ive ever heard of being described, not in my own home, thats way. Being described as a lecturer you are here for a historic event because ive never really given anything known as a lecturer before except to my kid and theyve never listened even though im paying for their food and rent and everything else. If you dont listen, i certainly will understand. First, thank you all for coming. This is a subject thats incredibly oddly important to me. I think aliquippa is a special place and if anybody is from that area or from aliquippa specifically, i think they understand what im talking about. Last friday, bill clinton became the fourth u. S. President to visit aliquippa. By my account, i think barack obama did spend some time near getting ice cream, during the campaign. But in th the bounds of aliquipi think theres only four president s have visited. The first was jfk in 1962. Two days later, he got news that the russians have put missiles in cuba and the entire cuban missile crisis began. Im not saying theres any coincidence. [laughter] jimmy carter gave a town hall and george bush also did add another point. I think thats a significant that bill clinton visited. I will get to that in a second but on the same day, aliquippa played for the First Time Since 1997 and that is noteworthy to me because the relationship is interesting. Hes from the hopewell district and they love to claim them as their own and in some ways they showed. So two things happening were significant and i will start with clinton. What i mean by that is this is a count of 9500 people at this point and getting smaller. At its peak it was only 27,000, maybe 30. The census missed some people but its not a town that is by any means a large city and get, there is something and i think the presence of those president s is testament to this, theres Something Special of aliquippa. T aliquippa. I went in the fall of 2010. An editor at Sports Illustrated who i believe is grandfather worked with the union and they are producing incredible Football Players, winning championships and yet the town is dealing with the forces of the mills of shutting down and obviously 25 years previously, sorry, 15 years previously in the mid80s. So i wrote what was essentially the longest piece ive ever written for Sports Illustrated. Id been there now 22 years, it was nearly 10,000 words and it was a specific story about how aliquippa has produced great Football Players and we all know them but i will say that at this point. Tony garza at to some extent, doral, sean gilbert and a slew of division i players and just an incredible amount. And athletes in general. So, i wrote a story about that and how they were still it was kind of a limited story and that it was about football is about football in the face of great difficulty and great pain and triumph amid the pain and it was a pretty graphic story and some people didnt like it because its maybe went into the pain too much, but the people that wrote about it thanks mika monotony that they wanted their story told. They wanted to understand what it took to make it out of aliquippa. I think anybody who comes from there because you often hear its a aliquippa thing, you wouldnt understand. Anybody thats grown up there and left it never really leaves it behind. Its got its sinew and you cant get away from it. It had its say in me and i didnt even grow up there. I thought theres Something Special going on here but i dont quite understand because its not just the thought. Its henry winning four Academy Awards and i think 16 grammy awards. Its growing up next to show whose son went on to win four Academy Awards for the lord of the rings and avatar. James franco at first black thek president of the ncaa, Jesse Steinfeld who grew up just down the street and Jesse Steinfeld became a Surgeon General and richard x. Anand was fired by Richard Nixon for his opposition to the tobacco industry. It was god forgive me for this, could it be im falling in love. Does anybody know the song . Doctor seals, thank you for coming. I cant tell you what an honor it is for me to have doctor melvin seals here because in many ways, he experienced and told me how special aliquippa was because he was incredibly honest to me when we spoke about his experience there. How did i do on that song, not bad, right . Not great, but [laughter] what i thought was amazing is in doing my research, im finding all these other people whove come from aliquippa. Then im finding out if youre excited about the world series last night, i spoke to tito. Terri is from new brighton and tito has lived there for a while. People think im from there but im from aliquippa. There is a pride of place that continues. That idea of greatness rising out of tragedy and pain is something that is obviously appealing to any human being but as a writer, its gold. It happened on the football field but also, to me that story stuck with me. To me doctor steals was teaching in the aliquippa School System at the time it creates racial turmoil and i dont know if you told me about this but i stumbled upon a story where doctor steals wrote a letter in the paper because he was accused wrongly of starting some race fighting in aliquippa for taking some students to a movie. He defended himself there. Meanwhile when attention was at its height, he and his brother who worked and studied music in philadelphia sent down and at a time of tension wrote a beautiful song. Could it be im falling in love, which is about [inaudible] stanek happy anniversary. Congratulations. You should be up here. [applause] that to me was something about aliquippa. His family coming from south is a tough one. He was emblematic of many who had come up in the great migration to but even at its toughest time, aliquippa was doing tough things. I know there are many towns that have produced great athletes and this book is clearly not just about athletes and i know many towns had troubles and problems of management and certainly after the mills shut down but it is represented in the extreme. I would argue that in the mid80s when an entire crowd of vital working class were suddenly cut out of having the foothold in the american dream, we are dealing today in this campaign without the forces still that were never properly addressed so i think this town and what has happened to it is important. When i say represented in the extreme, there were a labormanagement tensions but they had a de facto. They stoped divisions between ethnic groups and kept them in plans. Part of that was your family comes over thank you go to ukraine or poland. Bubut the enforced but because t was too help stop the union organization. As a tactic of division obviously those that came up from the south got the worst jobs and less of a chance of advancement. They would even take it a step further. They would intimidate the workers to start fights with fights and then very conspicuously allow both of them to be hauled off to jail and with the black worker go free and inciting more resentment. He infamously passed out. Then the wife of the governor essentially rode into town and denounced jn now and sort of broke the stranglehold on the town. The wagner act which is the Foundation Stone of the Legal Foundation of america and so even then there was a great representation. And then the problem hit a aliquippa like a typhoon and there were situations where they were running the biggest crack ring in town. It wa was broken finally by a former quarterback devastates policeman. For whatever reason and i have to say that remains a mystery to me, i dont know how they produce more Football Players. The cultural forces at the blossom iblossom in such an ext. Today the first africanamerican mayor in history and again it is a through line for all of this. Its not just together expression of pride. Its a central meredith thread and it doesnt just belong in the pit of a football field. Its been an extraordinary combination of elements that made aliquippa but it is. I was challenged rightfully from other people. And im not denying that. But. There are a lot of names people dont know, and i include a lot of names and once in a while it is to see tony and understand the story because theyve seen them on tv and recognize them so that was helpful but its also this idea of extreme representation. There was something about this town and made people believe as i said in the introduction that wasnt just a place to produce football. Its where it happened over and over again and america continues to do so. Like i said, it was a place of great racial trouble in the 70s starting even back to the 60s when there was a lack of black cheerleaders in the school for football and basketball and so on but it really had a head and was not unique in the county with the nation at large. I want to take you back to a couple things. Im not very good at speaking. Im just going to read a little bit about the great man. You will all say finally this guy is making some weird sense. Actually, hold on. Like i said its good to have a famous name to deal with a little bit. He felt better seeking out mischief taking beatings in return. He went to saint titus for Elementary School but there was also the time he stole a Christmas Ornament off the tree of a library. They found out and the belt came out. With a couple of my buddies we were on a cement culdesac. Finally they did get it out and firemen came. So my dad is having dinner and they said what happened to the woods. [laughter] that was it. This is the worst one i ever got. I dont think that i smoked this in the. The safest place next into the parameter is a sports. It is a perfect fit. Officials announced they stole the first homerun. After a few walks they made him switch positions then they took his place, too. Another time he would go on, drop a ball in center field, chased him out of the stadium, john defense before they got home. It was bad, he said. I never felt like i was doing anything wrong. I and others didnt feel the way that i felt that i had a ton of vision. I didnt ever expect to lose. Thats why losing wasnt so hard. I was a new attitude by the time he entered high school and 53. Just had their first taste of football glory and the basketball teams would regularly compete for titles. Theyve designated but no one ever could. Football is now preeminent. Why would someone my size be a starting Guard Division iii football because if you were not you would be embarrassed to come home. They wouldnt care if you got your acetate. He gave that cable account and thats all it took. Its a big difference. The reason i read that to you if i feel like he really did set the tone. He was invented in many ways. Youve never met a boring play player. They are always fascinating to two, larger than life, just a little bit crazy. I want to review one other thing about hopewell. In 1953, the future postmaster and historian forever devoted of high sports moved to hopewell. Thats what you get when given the chance to. They worked for eight and was making enough to believe the neighborhood. Housing Development Source bringing up all over. A man could carve out some space. Hadnt they had enough excitement . You could get away from the attention and count the cars on one hand. At least nine other veterans moved into the new development with the bungalows the living room, kitchen, basement. Many would graduate high school in the same year and all of them coming in from hopewell were as far away from township. The father of the basketball coach commuted sweating off 5 pounds agreed overturned and he lasted a year. They enabled the steelworkers ts to put a distance between work and home. It was a small sample starting in 1950 and 18 o 1950, 18 of tht cities began its life in the population. The suburbs in biography 60 people. Nobody blames them said the current coach. It was just natural you do what is best for you and your family. Still, it was just a place to lay your head. The men went there to work, pick up supplies. The whole family went back to the festival of weekend of parades and musical, political the home village to so many of the clans. The unattached or not with a drive into the weekly on the second floor of italy hall. The hardwood squeaked from all of that shoe leather and us with. I just want to talk about this one more time because 1964 bit gotten big enough from all the People Living elsewhere. Close miles from the stadium. In 1964 when the original great coach in history and one of the final titles, aliquippa played hopewell for the trophy and he was the quarterback and later went on to be for many in the major leagues and he was only known as hopewell beat them that night as a stunning upset and this is how he put it. Before all that they had one moment by which to measure one moment in his life. They thought we were tougher than that. Who didnt understand a greater upset in the following monday it had been 25 years since he had been so stunned by the loss. They sat silent waiting for the next miracle, the times went on and they wouldnt have changed if the earth openethe earth oped swallowed the stadium. It was a strange relationship. There have been many efforts in recent years or at least flags thrown up by the School District officially or unofficially to somehow get a merger because the population is getting smaller. So there is at least so far. So theres a lot of resentment even though its sort of their brother. But we just tell yo me just tele bit about tony. Eventually, hopewell became the power and they fell on terrible times. A lot of that was because the racial problems in the schools were devastating. What if they had played for aliquippa. Hope all folks dismissed the entertainment and its true that you never went. It would have been easy. They grew up in the 70s. He moved i moved into his path n the house over the line. He lasted just a few days until the neighbor told on them. In the 1960s mount vernon had been one of the first places as a way to ease desegregation. For the twomile walk they would look up to see the bus taking half the neighbors off to hopewell. His father worked in his older brothers were part of a local gang. Tony ran when they tried to stir trouble out and when it came to playing football at the High School Age of 13 to 14. He and his best friend played for the little steelers and in any other era he was there for the taking but in the spring of 1970 just as they were becoming, he was a ninth grader walking a happy holes in even though his mother was taking no chances. She kept him home a few days when it was at its peak. That day has passed. It was a terrible place to go to school. Indeed, any Football Player in town was looking to get out, t too. The chance to win a ballgame every once in a while was zero to nine. So it is a hidden casualty that got away. Two years later they would come back and begin the programs revival. He was finishing up his career in 40 years later the memory still stings. Theres no doubt what would have happened if they had been in charge. I never would have let him play for hopewell. I would have gotten him. I used to take their players. I never lost a player to hopewell again. This is my last day at. They taught literature year after year. He knew that only a crisis would be the right time and the right time came. A year after they handed me the basketball choppy handed him the Football Program and elsewhere in america the age of the programs have long passe on thet that was the point. This was the desperate act of a desperate town they were facing 12 million in the ever shrinking tax base. 300 were specialeducation requiring the funding. Most have to be closed because the money was available for repairs. Everybody assumed that was a matter of grace and of voters try to ensure they would never date a black boy. They think we are better than they are. What makes you better than me . A lot of them left so they wouldnt have to have their kids there. Today i think that feeling has left me a bit. I want to see their teams do well. Theres still something that says they thought they were better than us. Then again with all of the news it was hard to argue the upside. The only sure thing i would offer is that talent and bringing in the team making sure they behaved as the most visible way to show the world of the town was worth investing in and merging with and fighting for. They needed a sheriff to stand firm against any threat to the most visible asset. So that was 1997 and the first time they played until the other night. So that is to say sometimes its a lot more. There is a lot of American History, there is the height of American History thats essentially important to us to this day. Sometimes a game is just a game and sometimes it is and. I would hope it is always loaded in limited in a way that no game is. So thats it for me. No one wants to hear me read more im sure. Happy to take questions. [applause] to tell you the truth it is a financial thing. On the deadlines we were running up against it and that there was something my editors needed was money but there was something. However you are not the first to ask that. Ive done that a lot and i understand it. One of the students wanted to ask you about the pic. Can you describe the pic as it sounds like a special place. It was built in 1937 and in the one year space of stadium building up so quickly im amazed how slow the infrastructure takes nowadays, and it is falling apart. It is a very tough place to come into it because it is a intimidating as the a talent because it precedes it, but it is now closed and known as the dungeon as unlit in the stadium sort of going back to what i was saying the stadium is on the top of the hill and its gorgeous. Im sure everybody would argue with me. The song was written they start off as this an incredibly brutal boss with the idea of building the utopia that pretty quickly. They really clamped down in a vicious way on the populist but postworld war ii. It became a far more paternalistic and essentially partner in the town many people dont say the same to replace them in this speeds but really its interesting because this is was a place called little siberia and for them to change as people who even experienced that really speaks to how much of a partner in town he became and its pretty striking to me. Can you talk about how the team is thriving today . This book went into i finished it in january and since then its a singl single glass l deciding to move up and its decided to move up to compete for its scheduling reason but its three dozen boys in a single class and meanwhile, you have this town since january the team has been ravaged in a brutal way suffering from leukemia and they are trying to get a bone marrow drive going the teammate on the 2003 Championship Team was i believe the seventh or eighth player killed his body was found on the side of the road and this is a twotime purple heart awarded for his service in iraq. Another player committed suicide at one point in the summer and then today this book was published, two Football Players were arrested for involvement in a murder in town. So, meanwhile the team is eight and two seeded number one playing tomorrow night in the first round of the playoffs. It is really frankly astonishing that they are able to do that. It may be a case of misplaced priorities. But the fact that they are keeping on this remarkable and it is a tribute to the coaches and the assistant coaches. There is almost 20 of them who are there to come and volunteer and are paid. They demand a standard as do the families. In fact, people keep asking me why is it they keep winning and i do keep coming back to that standard they told me this isnt a place where if you lose the game people say that that a boy. That persobut that person isntu just met. They make you feel like crap. Hes notorious for hating. This is all youve got. I keep thinking its not going to last but theyve got two or three or four every year and yet it is still happening. I thought this year to be hopeful that 35, that is in the standard. I am not predicting their demise at the playoffs but i thought with all the hits that he had taken off the field and theyd gone off they would have a close time this year. I am wrong yet one again. [inaudible] ive been to a lot of games it isnt jampacked. You certainly have a cadre under the group set up. But the interest remains and you think are people really interested in this town. Sometimes i think that it doesnt necessarily equate to attendance every week. Over there. Two questions for you please. In your book you mentioned a legend. He grew up until he was 13 and he was the basketball coach and after his great senior season he punched the wall and broke his hand. I might have been a little bit wrong about what he said to me is h keith was better than everybody on the team. My father actually told me stories against him playing around the area. You are a less tough crowd. I will tell you two stories. One is that i needed to i suddenly realized that i got a play but im going to write a column about it and this is 2007. So for 40 minutes i the 40 minut unbelievable than i realized you can learn about somebody by playing basketball, what are they like and so on and so forth. How do they act. But i cant stop the game at every point and write down what happened so what am i going to do this is Sports Illustrated thats really high. I see my 13yearold son and im like okay you are going to film this for me. Again i havent played in a while and so i said to my son youre going to have to film this. Before the game. So he goes under the basket and believe me that was no problem and then he comes along and my son is still doing it. Unlike me when obama came to his side, i would have put the camera down and instead he puts the camera. My son gets me up. Everything we talked about. Its interesting was you could get a shot for doing that. But he was cheap. At one point i said to him this is for the presidency. And believe me i didnt think of that line i just sort of threw it out there. The competitor was sizing me up and you can see he actually got the best moment of it. And how did you do . Scenic in the first game i cant remember the score. It wasnt easy. By the way its much better if you lose them if you when there is an element