The Penn Stater Magazine

Penn State Football: Last of a Dying Breed? Michael Weinreb Thinks So

August 6, 2010 at 5:17 pm Lori Shontz 1 comment

You won’t find one of Penn State’s trademark bland uniforms on the cover of the new book by Michael Weinreb ’94, and you won’t find Joe Paterno’s picture there, either. But Penn State football—particularly the 1986 Orange Bowl team and the 1987 Fiesta Bowl and national championship team—was part of the inspiration for Bigger Than the Game: Bo, Boz, the Punky QB, and How the ’80s Created the Modern Athlete.

We know this because Weinreb adapted part of his book into an essay for our September/October issue, which we finished this week and will be arriving in your mailboxes in a couple of weeks. He writes often for us—most recently, our November/December cover story on the Men of ’47—and we’re all eager to read more of the book than the essay, which contrasts Penn State football with those guys on the book cover, Bo Jackson, Jim McMahon, and most notably Brian Bosworth.

The book came out Thursday, so Weinreb has been making the media rounds—it’s highly possible you’ll catch him doing a radio interview on a station near you. And while you’re waiting for our magazine, you can check out this interview that Weinreb did with the blog Sports Crackle Pop, and this piece that he wrote for the Wall Street Journal.

Lori Shontz, senior editor

Entry filed under: The Penn Stater Magazine. Tags: Fiesta Bowl, Men of '47, Michael Weinreb, Orange Bowl, Sports Crackle Pop, Wall Street Journal.