Boobie Miles
Encyclopedia
James "Boobie" Miles was a high school football tail back, and was a primary subject in the book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
by H.G. Bissinger, and the movie inspired by the book. He attended Permian High School
in Odessa
, Texas.
Miles is a major figure in Bissinger's book as one of the top high school running backs in Texas
. He was sought by dozens of top college football schools, but his promising career was derailed by a knee injury.
without him. Around the age of five Miles went to live with his father, James Sr. The elder Miles was working two jobs, as a truck driver and printing-plant laborer. His father lost custody of Boobie when he started dating a woman who, Boobie claims, physically harmed him. He was placed in a foster home in the Houston area, and eight months later he was put in the care of his uncle L.V. Miles in Odessa, Texas. The two shared the house with L.V.'s wife, Ruby, and her three daughters.
Miles started playing football for the Vikings, a Pop Warner
football team that L.V. coached.
However in a pre-season scrimmage against the Amarillo Palo Duro Dons , Miles' leg was caught in the artificial turf when he planted his left leg to stiff-arm a tackler; another player then fell on it from the side. The next day he was examined by a local doctor. The initial diagnoses of the injury was that is was only a sprained ligament. Four days later an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Thurston E. Dean, examined Miles and felt the injury was severe enough to require arthroscopic surgery. The surgery was performed the day before Permian's season opener against El Paso Austin. Miles had severely torn the anterior cruciate ligament
. He had also torn the cartilage in his left knee. Miles was given the option of immediate reconstructive surgery, which Dean had recommended, or a program of rehabilitation. Rehab would allow Miles to play football with a knee brace. Both Boobie and L.V. opted for the brace.
Miles returned against Abilene High School
, however left the game limping with a cramp after only a handful of carries. The next week against Midland Lee High School, Permian lost, with Miles threatening to quit the team at halftime for his lack of playing time. Miles spent the rest of the season on bench, and in November 1988 Dean performed reconstructive surgery on his knee. After rehabilitation from the surgery Miles lost much of the speed that had made him an effective running back.
After his injury Miles was the target of racial epithets and was told he "should be shot like an animal" after being injured. After a fight with L.V., Miles moved out and with Chris Comer taking his place at running back, Miles did not play for Permian High School again.
follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School
Panthers football
team from Odessa
as they made a run towards the Texas
state championship. Miles was a key figure in the book. In 2002, Sports Illustrated
named Friday Night Lights the fourth-greatest book ever written about sports.
A movie version of Friday Night Lights was made and then released in the United States
on October 6, 2004. It starred Billy Bob Thornton
as Permian Coach Gary Gaines
. The film was a box office and critical success and, in turn, spawned an NBC
television series of the same name
, which began airing in October 2006. Boobie was played by Derek Luke
(who played the title role in Antwone Fisher
).
for a year and played as a fullback before flunking out and has since had trouble holding jobs. He then spent some time playing semi-pro football in Culpepper, Virginia though he was never able to regain his high school form or confidence in his ability. He regrets trying to play on his injured knee before having surgery to repair it.
He has two children who live in Midland with their mother. As of August 2009 Miles lives in Dallas and is not working. In May 2009, he was charged with aggravated assault. Police said he struck his stepbrother repeatedly in the head with a beer bottle. He received a sentence of five years' deferred probation in district court. The charge will be dismissed if he successfully completes probation.
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream is a 1990 non-fiction book written by H. G. Bissinger. The book follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team from Odessa, Texas as they made a run towards the Texas state championship...
by H.G. Bissinger, and the movie inspired by the book. He attended Permian High School
Permian High School
Permian High School is a public high school located in Odessa, Texas and is part of the Ector County Independent School District. It was the subject of the book Friday Night Lights which in turn inspired a movie and TV series of the same name.-History:...
in Odessa
Odessa, Texas
Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small portion of the city extends into Midland County. Odessa's population was 99,940 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Odessa, Texas Metropolitan...
, Texas.
Miles is a major figure in Bissinger's book as one of the top high school running backs in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. He was sought by dozens of top college football schools, but his promising career was derailed by a knee injury.
Early life
Miles was born en route to St. Luke's Hospital in Houston with a police escort on April 16, 1970. He lived with his parents until he was three when his mother left him with his maternal grandmother in Houston and moved permanently to OklahomaOklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
without him. Around the age of five Miles went to live with his father, James Sr. The elder Miles was working two jobs, as a truck driver and printing-plant laborer. His father lost custody of Boobie when he started dating a woman who, Boobie claims, physically harmed him. He was placed in a foster home in the Houston area, and eight months later he was put in the care of his uncle L.V. Miles in Odessa, Texas. The two shared the house with L.V.'s wife, Ruby, and her three daughters.
Miles started playing football for the Vikings, a Pop Warner
Pop Warner Little Scholars
Pop Warner Little Scholars is a non-profit organization that provides youth football, cheerleading, and dance programs for participants in 43 U.S. states and several countries around the world. It is headquartered in Langhorne, Pennsylvania...
football team that L.V. coached.
High school football career
In 1987 Miles and rushed for 1,385 yards. Expectations were high every year at Permian High School and in 1988 the Associated Press, in its preseason predictions, had chosen Permian to win the state title based partly on the play of Miles. From the spring through the early fall of '88 Miles was heavily recruited by numerous top football schools. Letters came from Notre Dame, Nebraska, Houston, Texas A&M, Clemson, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, LSU, SMU, UCLA and Arkansas.However in a pre-season scrimmage against the Amarillo Palo Duro Dons , Miles' leg was caught in the artificial turf when he planted his left leg to stiff-arm a tackler; another player then fell on it from the side. The next day he was examined by a local doctor. The initial diagnoses of the injury was that is was only a sprained ligament. Four days later an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Thurston E. Dean, examined Miles and felt the injury was severe enough to require arthroscopic surgery. The surgery was performed the day before Permian's season opener against El Paso Austin. Miles had severely torn the anterior cruciate ligament
Anterior cruciate ligament
The anterior cruciate ligament is a cruciate ligament which is one of the four major ligaments of the human knee. In the quadruped stifle , based on its anatomical position, it is referred to as the cranial cruciate ligament.The ACL originates from deep within the notch of the distal femur...
. He had also torn the cartilage in his left knee. Miles was given the option of immediate reconstructive surgery, which Dean had recommended, or a program of rehabilitation. Rehab would allow Miles to play football with a knee brace. Both Boobie and L.V. opted for the brace.
Miles returned against Abilene High School
Abilene High School (Abilene, Texas)
Abilene High School is a public high school located in Abilene, Texas and is part of the Abilene Independent School District. Abilene High School is the name given to three different schools in the past 150 years. The first Abilene High was an old warehouse. Not long after that, the school was...
, however left the game limping with a cramp after only a handful of carries. The next week against Midland Lee High School, Permian lost, with Miles threatening to quit the team at halftime for his lack of playing time. Miles spent the rest of the season on bench, and in November 1988 Dean performed reconstructive surgery on his knee. After rehabilitation from the surgery Miles lost much of the speed that had made him an effective running back.
After his injury Miles was the target of racial epithets and was told he "should be shot like an animal" after being injured. After a fight with L.V., Miles moved out and with Chris Comer taking his place at running back, Miles did not play for Permian High School again.
Friday Night Lights
In 1990 a non-fiction book written by H. G. BissingerH. G. Bissinger
Harry Gerard Bissinger III, also known as H. G. Bissinger and Buzz Bissinger , is an American journalist and author, best known for his non-fiction book Friday Night Lights.-Early life and education:...
follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School
Permian High School
Permian High School is a public high school located in Odessa, Texas and is part of the Ector County Independent School District. It was the subject of the book Friday Night Lights which in turn inspired a movie and TV series of the same name.-History:...
Panthers football
High school football
High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
team from Odessa
Odessa, Texas
Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small portion of the city extends into Midland County. Odessa's population was 99,940 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Odessa, Texas Metropolitan...
as they made a run towards the Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
state championship. Miles was a key figure in the book. In 2002, Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
named Friday Night Lights the fourth-greatest book ever written about sports.
A movie version of Friday Night Lights was made and then released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on October 6, 2004. It starred Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in several early 1990s films including On Deadly Ground and Tombstone...
as Permian Coach Gary Gaines
Gary Gaines
Gary Gaines is a high school football coach. Gaines was the head coach of the 1988 Permian High School football team which was the focus of the H. G. Bissinger book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team and a Dream and the 2004 motion picture Friday Night Lights starring Billy Bob Thornton...
. The film was a box office and critical success and, in turn, spawned an NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television series of the same name
Friday Night Lights (TV series)
Friday Night Lights is an American sports drama television series adapted by Peter Berg, Brian Grazer and David Nevins from a book and film of the same name. The series details events surrounding a high school football team based in fictional Dillon, Texas, with particular focus given to team...
, which began airing in October 2006. Boobie was played by Derek Luke
Derek Luke
Derek Luke is an American actor. He won the Independent Spirit Award for his big-screen debut performance in the 2002 film Antwone Fisher, directed and produced by Denzel Washington.-Early life:...
(who played the title role in Antwone Fisher
Antwone Fisher
Antwone Quenton Fisher is an American director, screenwriter, author and film producer. His 2001 autobiographical book Finding Fish is a New York Times Best Seller...
).
After high school
Miles attended Ranger CollegeRanger College
Ranger College is a community college located in Ranger, Texas, a small town west of Fort Worth, Texas. The college's website asserts that it "is one of the oldest public two-year colleges in continuous operation in the state of Texas." In conjunction with its main campus in Ranger, the college...
for a year and played as a fullback before flunking out and has since had trouble holding jobs. He then spent some time playing semi-pro football in Culpepper, Virginia though he was never able to regain his high school form or confidence in his ability. He regrets trying to play on his injured knee before having surgery to repair it.
He has two children who live in Midland with their mother. As of August 2009 Miles lives in Dallas and is not working. In May 2009, he was charged with aggravated assault. Police said he struck his stepbrother repeatedly in the head with a beer bottle. He received a sentence of five years' deferred probation in district court. The charge will be dismissed if he successfully completes probation.