ISSUED: 30 January 2020
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — The Shepherd University Common Reading program and the Shepherdstown Film Society is presenting a showing of the film “Requiem for a Running Back” on Friday, February 7, at 7 p.m. in Reynolds Hall. A post-film discussion will be led by Dr. Stacey Kendig, director, Shepherd’s School of Recreation, Sport, and Exercise Science. The event is free and open to the public.
“Requiem for a Running Back” revolves around filmmaker Rebecca Carpenter’s personal experience with how Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) impacts football players. Her father, Lewis Carpenter, was a running back for the NFL’s Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers. When he died, Boston University’s brain bank requested his brain and he became the 18th NFL player diagnosed after death with CTE.
This year’s Common Reading is “Concussion” by Jean Marie Laskas, the story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, the former Allegheny County Coroner’s Office pathologist who made the discovery of CTE in a retired Pittsburgh Steelers football player, setting off a nationwide discussion of how playing the game impacts brain function.
For more information, visit https://www.shepherd.edu/commonreading.
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