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`Confessions Of
A Hero-Worshiper'
Stephen Dubner examines what it means to need
a hero, and what it means to be one.
SANDEE BRAWARS KY
Special to the Jewish News
27925 Orchard Lake Road, north of 12 Mile • Farmington Hills
248.489.2280
679180
Just North of Maple across from Meijers
6343 Haggarty Road
West Bloomfield, Ml 48322
248.699.7400
S
tephen Dubner dates his foot-
ball obsession back to 1972.
He was 9: That was the year
he got a football for
Christmas, and it was the year of the
Immaculate Reception — an awesome
catch and touchdown scored by Franco
Harris of the Pittsburgh Steelers, in the
last moments of a game that would
send the team to the Super Bowl.
Dubner was rapturous, watching it
live on a black-and-white television set
in his family's house in upstate New
York. Just about a year later, his father
died, and that only deepened his infat-
uation with Harris and his sense that,
CONFESSIONS OF'
A HERO-WORSHIPER
STEPHEN
d
.
DUBNER
MEDITERRANEAN MARKET
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,
from beneath his helmet, the running
back was watching out for him.
You don't have to love football to be
enchanted with Dubner's latest book,
Confessions of a Hero Worshipper
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(Morrow; $24.95). The memoir is not
quite a sequel to his first book,
Turbulent Souls, his account of being
raised in a large Catholic family, unrav-
eling the story of his parents' journey
from Judaism to Catholicism before
they married, and his own journey
back to Judaism.
In Confessions of a Hero Worshiper,
the author, who called himself Franco
Dubner when he was a kid, examines
his own infatuation with Harris and
looks more generally at the nature of
heroes and heroism. It's a funny, know-
ing and tender book that's ultimately
about love and loss, about understand-
ing and growth.
Franco Harris was the son of an
Italian mother and an African-
American father; he's described as hav-
ing caramel skin and Roman features,
and is seen as more principled, private
and humble than most ballplayers.
When asked, in an interview in his
Upper West Side apartment in
Manhattan, about what drew him to
Harris, Dubner says, "I never felt like I
chose him, at least consciously. I chose
him in the way you choose to fall in
love. It just kind of happens."
He did sense a kinship, that Harris'
mixed-race status made him a bit of an
outsider, as did Dubner's own crypto-
Jewish background.
Dubner admired his hero from afar,
channeling his presence to fill a hole
left by the death of his father. For
many years, he had a recurring dream
about his hero visiting him at home.
About 20 years after those dreams
and obsessions faded, he happened
upon Harris' face on the cover of Black
Enterprise magazine; the glimpse of his
former hero reawakened many feelings
as well as great curiosity, which landed
him in the Pittsburgh airport, finally
meeting Harris face-to-face.
At lunch, he told Harris that he
wanted to write a book about heroes
and hero worship that would tell both
of their stories.
Harris was polite but probably not
very interested. For months, he dodged
the author's attempts to set up addi-
tional meetings. Many people would
have read Harris' behavior as disinterest
even though his words were always
kind, but Dubner persisted, and he
recounts his misadventures.
Originally, he and his publisher
thought the book would be a kind of
Fridays with Franco, sharing the guy's
wisdom. "I didn't expect to extract a
philosophy, although I did expect to
connect with him in a way that ulti-
mately proved non-existent," says
Dubner.