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.

National special highlights Maroons

The story of the Pottsville Maroons finally reached a national audience Wednesday night. Read the Republican review of the 7 1/2 minute special that aired on HBO's "Inside the NFL" on Wednesday night.

ESPN Magazine and the Pottsville Maroons

It was reported in the Pottsville Republican Herald that ESPN the Magazine will be doing a story on the Maroons.

In doing some more digging in the Maroons, Cardinals and the Bidwell family. I found this bit of information. The Cardinals got their nickname from borrowed uniforms from the University of Chicago who incidentally were nicknamed the Maroons.

This is crossposted at the Coal Region Voice.

Bush Likes the Maroons!!!

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

12/19/2007

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.”

PA House Passes Resolution

The PA State House passed a unamous resolution supporting the Maroons in regaining their 1925 NFL title. Read the story here.

Like I have said in the past, the Govenor has to get the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh both on board. He needs to promote it on Eagles Post Game Live. Also, broker a deal between for both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to have a Maroon's Day Celbration in 2008 at a home game.