The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is honored to welcome sports journalist Chris Raymond to Harrisburg for a conversation and signing on his new book, Men in White: The Gutsy, Against-All-Odds Return of Penn State Football. Raymond will be in conversation with former PennLive reporter, David Jones. This event is free and open to the public. Book signing to follow discussion.
To enter the signing line, books must be purchased from the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event, or you may preorder a copy of the book for pickup/shipment. Signed books may not be available for pickup/shipment until after the author’s appearance.
A thrilling sports story, Men in White is the tale of the young athletes who defied the doomsayers and rescued Penn State’s football program from the horrors of the Jerry Sandusky scandal—told by the players themselves.
On November 5, 2011, the news that Jerry Sandusky had been charged with forty counts of child molestation rocked Penn State’s leafy campus, unseating the university president, the athletic director, and head coach Joe Paterno—devastating the football program he had erected and diligently maintained over half a century.
Men in White recounts the saga of the student athletes who elected to stay and rebuild the program in the face of crippling NCAA sanctions, blistering heat from the outraged media, and radio silence from the adults in the school’s administration.
With the once proud program in free fall and their personal fortunes in peril, these young men refused to back down, toiling for five long seasons to rehabilitate the program and its ideals, culminating in the stirring come-from-behind defeat of Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game. Their story echoes that of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, a cast of young men—colossal underdogs—who boldly accepted the challenge of a lifetime, achieving success while shouldering the weight of a bruising political drama.
About the Author:
Chris Raymond has covered sports, politics, and pop culture for thirty years. In addition to various longtime roles at ESPN, he has written and edited on the staff at Details, Esquire, and GQ. He lives with his wife and two sons in Westchester County, New York.
David Jones joined The Patriot-News in 1989 after five years full-time at The Columbus Dispatch as a college football/basketball beat writer (Ohio University and MAC, 1984-85); Television-Radio Critic (1985-87); and police/courts reporter (1987-89). Has covered every NCAA Final Four since 1994 and 25 in all. Has covered Penn State basketball for 28 seasons and Penn State football for 27, first as the beat writer and since 2002 as the columnist. Has been the Patriot-News's full-time sports columnist since 2002. Three-time winner of Pennsylvania Newspaper Association award as the state's best sports columnist (1999, 2004 and 2006) in top circulation category (75,000+). Named by Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors as state's best sports columnist (75,000+) in 2012. Multiple winner of national APSE Top 10, Football Writers Association of America and U.S. Basketball Writers Association awards including 2006 USBWA best feature story in nation. Winner of 2010 APSE first-place national columnist award (75,000-175,000 circ.). The 74th president of the Football Writers Association of America in 2017. To be inducted into the United States Basketball Writers Association hall of fame in April 2018. Son Nicholas is an undergrad at Point Park University in Pittsburgh. Lives with wife Anna and in Downingtown, PA.
