In March, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania announced \u201cBeartown\u201d, by Fredrik Backman, as its choice for the 2019-2020 One Book, One Campus program.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, November 12, 2019, ESU will welcome this year\u2019s One Book keynote speaker, Don McPherson, to campus to discuss themes in \u201cBeartown\u201d. The book is about a small town with a big dream \u2013 and the price required to make it come true. The hopes and dreams of an entire town rest on the shoulders of its junior hockey team. But, being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil.\u00a0 Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.\u00a0 \u201cBeartown\u201d explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain.<\/p>\n
McPherson has used the power and appeal of sports to address complex social justice issues for more than 30 years.<\/p>\n
As an athlete, McPherson was a unanimous All-America quarterback at Syracuse University. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles and played for the Houston Oilers in the NFL, and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Ottawa Rough Riders in the Canadian Football League. As captain of the undefeated 1987 Syracuse football team, McPherson set 22 school records, led the nation in passing and won multiple national \u201cplayer of the year\u201d awards, including the Maxwell Award as the nation\u2019s best player, the Davey O\u2019Brien National Quarterback Award and the inaugural Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. He was second in the Heisman Trophy voting. In 2008 McPherson was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. In 2013 Syracuse University retired his #9 jersey – only the fourth number (and one of five) to be retired in the history of the University\u2019s storied football program.<\/p>\n
Upon retiring from pro football in 1994, he joined Northeastern University\u2019s Center for the Study of Sport in Society as national director of athletes in service to America. In 2002 he founded the Sports Leadership Institute at Adelphi University, for which he served as executive director until 2007.<\/p>\n
In 1995 McPherson turned his focus to the issue of \u201cmen\u2019s violence against women,\u201d as director of Sport in Society\u2019s Mentors in Violence Prevention Program, taking over for the program\u2019s founder, Jackson Katz. McPherson emerged as a national leader and advocate for the prevention of sexual and domestic violence. He has conducted workshops and lectures for more than 250 college campuses, community organizations and national sports and violence prevention organizations. His programs and lectures have reached more than one million people.<\/p>\n
Don McPherson has received several honors in recognition of his service, including the Frederick Douglas Men of Strength Award, given by Men Can Stop Rape; Champions for Change, presented by Lifetime Television; The Creative Vision for Women\u2019s Justice, presented by the Pace University Women\u2019s Justice Center; and a Leadership Award from the National Center for Victims of Crime. Most recently Don received the George Arents Award, Syracuse University’s highest alumni honor and \u201cLetter Winner of Distinction,\u201d the highest honor bestowed a former student-athlete.<\/p>\n
McPherson has served as a board member, consultant and advisor for several national organizations including the Ms Foundation for Women, the US National Committee for UN Women and the National Football Foundation. He currently serves on the board of directors for the NYC Chapter of the National Football Foundation, the Advisory Board of the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook University, and is a member the NCAA Task Force on Sexual Violence and the NCAA Board of Governors Commission to Combat Sexual Violence. He is also the author of forthcoming book, \u201cYou Throw Like a Girl: The Blind Spot of Masculinity\u201d (releases September 3, 2019).<\/p>\n
McPherson will give his presentation Koehler Fieldhouse at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now for $30. The first 50 people to purchase tickets will receive a free copy of \u201cBeartown.\u201d \u00a0To purchase tickets visit www.esu.edu\/onebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n Additional book discussions, which will be open to the public, will be announced for fall 2019.\u00a0For more information about ESU\u2019s One Book, One Campus program, to purchase the book online, or to purchase tickets for the McPherson event on November 12, visit www.esu.edu\/onebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Tuesday, November 12, 2019, ESU will welcome this year\u2019s One Book keynote speaker, Don McPherson, to campus to discuss themes in \u201cBeartown\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":18981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[143,42,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-news-release","category-slider"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18979"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18984,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18979\/revisions\/18984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quantum.esu.edu\/insider\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}