H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger to be Keynote Speaker at Community College of Philadelphia’s 44th Annual Commencement

PHILADELPHIA, March. 03, 2010New York Times best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize winning writer H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger will be keynote speaker at Community College of Philadelphia’s 44th Commencement at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, May 8 at Temple University’s Liacouras Center, Broad Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue.

Bissinger has been a reporter for some of the nation’s most prestigious newspapers, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for a series of investigative stories on the Philadelphia court system. His book, “A Prayer for the City,” about former Philadelphia Mayor, now Pennsylvania governor Edward G. Rendell, won critical acclaim nationwide and was hailed as a classic on politics and urban America. Bissinger currently writes a column for the Inquirer’s editorial page on local political and community issues.

His work has been published in magazines, such as Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine and Sports Illustrated. He was a co-producer and writer for the ABC television drama NYPD Blue. Two of his works were made into critically acclaimed films: his book “Friday Night Lights," which has sold two million copies and is the basis of the television show of the same name, and his 1998 Vanity Fair article "Shattered Glass." He is currently working on a screenplay about the life of former boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard.

His book "Three Nights in August," about major league baseball through the eyes of St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, was a New York Times bestseller for four-and-a-half months.
Another book "Shooting Stars," written with NBA basketball superstar LeBron James, was published in September 2009.

A native of New York, Bissinger graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. in 1972 and the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. His journalism career began at The Ledger-Star in Norfolk, Va. He then moved to the St. Paul Pioneer Press and later The Philadelphia Inquirer.