Bush loves Breaker Boys
I know what your thinking, but author Dave Fleming has received a hand-written note from the White House. Read the Republican's account below.
‘Breaker Boys’ author surprised by hand-written note from White House
BY STEPHEN J. PYTAKSTAFF WRITERspytak@republicanherald.com
President Bush called David Fleming’s book on the 1925 Pottsville Maroons “illuminating” in a surprise hand-written letter to the author dated Dec. 12 and delivered Tuesday.
“I just finished ‘Breaker Boys.’ You were correct. I did enjoy the book. You are a fine writer. And your history of the Maroons was illuminating,” Bush said in the letter sent to Fleming’s Davidson, N.C., home.
After opening it Tuesday morning, the author said he found the “rather thoughtful” letter in blue pen on White House letterhead.“The way this book has gone so far, nothing surprises me anymore,” said Fleming, a writer for ESPN: The Magazine who was greeted by long lines and signed thousands of copies of “Breaker Boys: The NFL’s Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship,” while promoting the book in Pottsville in October and earlier this month.
Fleming started an online petition Oct. 16 to encourage the NFL owners to return the 1925 championship to the legendary team. It’s received a total of 10,275 signatures as of 11 p.m. Tuesday.
He said the president’s comments will become “more ammunition for supporters. If people run across a skeptic, or somebody who just wants to say ‘it’s 82 years ago, let’s let it go,’ it’s pretty nice to say to the commissioner of the NFL ‘the president of the United States begs to differ.”
The president’s letter impressed Mayor John D.W. Reiley.
“How about that. It shows that the book’s getting around, from the streets of little ol’ Pottsville all the way up to the White House. And I think the president’s comments are pretty consistent with what other people are saying about the book. All the comments are favorable,” Reiley said.
Alex Conant, a White House spokesman, said Bush is a “voracious reader.”“He reads a lot of books. And typically the White House doesn’t do book and movie reviews, but I will check out to see if I can find out anything more about this letter,” Conant said.
No further comment was made by late Tuesday.
“Somebody from the White House had contacted ESPN looking for my address. So I felt something was going on, but I was expecting like a stamped photo, not expecting a hand-written note that he had actually read it and enjoyed it,” Fleming said.
Fleming said he isn’t sure how the president received a copy of the book, but believes it was sent by someone who attended a book signing in Pottsville.“I remember the first time I was in Pottsville, somebody in one of the long lines had me sign a copy for him. And they explained that either they worked in D.C. or knew somebody who worked in D.C., I don’t remember exactly who it was. But my guess is that’s how it got to him,” Fleming said.
Reiley said he does not know who sent the book to the president, though City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar thought it could be U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III, a Pottsville native.
But when contacted in Harrisburg Tuesday, Jones said it wasn’t him.
The president ended his letter to Fleming stating: “I appreciate having an inscribed copy of the book. With best wishes, George Bush.”
