Fan Casting Brian's Song

High school junior Abigail "Gail" Sayers joins her Chicago suburban high school's football team the Adlai E. Stevenson High Patriots and is befriended by Brian Piccolo, an over-achieving running back. Although they compete for the same spot on the team when there is looming integration on gender lines of mixed sports teams, and despite the fact that Sayers is a black girl and Piccolo a white boy, they become teammates over the practice season and very close friends, especially when Sayers is injured and Piccolo helps her recovery. Later, they and both Gail's boyfriend Larry and Brian's girlfriend Joy must both deal with the harsh reality of Piccolo's terminal cancer that foreshadows he won't live to graduation or prom.