Great Maroons Debate Friday, April 18th!!!

Lasting Legacy discusses debate details, Maroons effort
BY STEPHEN J. PYTAKSTAFF WRITERspytak@republicanherald.com
04/14/2008

The Great Maroons Debate will feature questions submitted by the public, a moderator and a video message from Gov. Ed Rendell, said Eric Lipton of Lasting Legacy of Pottsville.

Lipton provided details about the event, and the hectic schedule the debaters, David Fleming of Davidson, N.C. and Joe Horrigan of Canton, Ohio, will experience, starting Thursday, when the two arrive in Pottsville.

Fleming and Horrigan will attend a meet-and-greet at Greystone Restaurant, 315 N. Centre St., from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday. Then on Friday afternoon, the two will attend a press conference. A time for this event has not yet been set, Lipton said.

The Great Maroons Debate will be held at 8 p.m. Friday at 209 N. Centre St. All 224 free passes to the event have been given out, Lipton said.Lasting Legacy asked Jim Coles, sports director for WNEP-TV 16, Moosic, to serve as moderator, and Lipton said Coles is donating his time.

The questions Coles will ask Fleming and Horrigan will be selected from suggestions submitted to WNEP-TV and The REPUBLICAN & Herald over the past month, Lipton said.

“Coles is selecting which ones he’s going to ask,” Lipton said.

The debaters will each be given time limits in which to answer each question.

“That’s going to be the moderator’s decision, based on the question. Some questions will require more elaborate answers and some will not,” Lipton said.

The debate is Lasting Legacy’s latest effort to bring the Maroons controversy to the public’s attention, while encouraging the NFL owners to give the legendary team its 1925 championship.

The last time the NFL owners put the Maroons on their agenda, Oct. 30, 2003, the owners struck down a motion to reopen the 1925 files to re-examine the NFL title with a vote of 30-2.

Interest in the team resurged locally in October, when ESPN Books released Fleming’s book, “Breaker Boys: The NFL’s Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship.”

In early December, Lasting Legacy of Pottsville mailed copies of David Fleming’s book about the legendary team to 19 of the 32 NFL owners, according to Pottsville Mayor John D.W. Reiley.

Lasting Legacy mailed 20 packages containing the book, letter signed by Reiley and Rendell, a copy of a six-page article about the Pottsville Maroons written by Fleming in 2003, “Lost In Time,” published in ESPN Magazine, a copy of “Breaker Boys” and a DVD copy of a ESPN video history of the Maroons. Two packages were sent to representatives of the San Francisco 49ers, based on Fleming’s recommendations.

On April 2, Fleming encouraged Lasting Legacy to “be patient.” He said he’s hoping the movie based on his book would be made and released in theaters first.

The book was optioned by Sentinel Entertainment, Los Angeles, in April 2006. And Sentinel and Fortress Features are co-producing with Solaris Entertainment, Venice, Calif. Gavin O’Connor, director of the 2004 Walt Disney film “Miracle,” is still attached to direct, according to Patrick Rizzotti, a partner of Fortress Features, Los Angeles.

“There’s no rush. I know it’s hard to say after 83 years, but it’s more important to do it at the right time,” Fleming said.