The Perfect Season by M G Missanelli
The 1987 NCAA championship game between the Penn State Nittany Lions and the University of Miami Hurricanes is often considered the most memorable championship game in all of college football history. This book retells the story not just of this championship game but also of Penn State's entire season.“It’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 BowlIt 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 re-creating 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 Times
“Missanelli 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
“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 match-up 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 Autumn
“An engaging story about the people involved and the events leading into one of the most exciting games in college football history.”
—Joe Paterno, Penn State
“Missanelli’s book is eight yards ahead of the other two, a poignant look back at that colorful bunch that went unbeaten in the regular season and then whipped favored Miami in the Fiesta Bowl. Nobody who heard Missanelli’s barbed-wire sarcasm when he was a regular on WIP ever described him as warm and fuzzy, but the best parts of his book are the chapters where he visits with ex-players and their families.”
—Stan Hochman Philadelphia Daily News
M. G. Missanelli, Penn State Class of 1977, is a well-known media personality in Philadelphia who has worked for more than twenty-five years in the area of sports journalism. He is also a 1986 graduate of the Delaware Law School of Widener University and is a licensed attorney. Currently, he teaches a class on sports and entertainment law at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780271032832 |
| ISBN 10 | 0271032839 |
| Title | The Perfect Season |
| Author | M G Missanelli |
| Series | Keystone Books |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Pennsylvania State University Press |
| Year published | 2009-10-15 |
| Number of pages | 232 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |