In this essay, Petrusso explores the overriding role that the past plays in That Championship Season.

In Jason Miller's seminal 1972 play, That Championship Season, four members of a high school basketball team gather at the home of their coach for a reunion marking the twentieth anniversary of their state championship victory. (The fifth member of the team has never come to a reunion. It is revealed why he has chosen not to remember the victory over the course of the play.) This party is not merely a reunion. It is also an opportunity for Coach to use his team motivating and managing techniques on his former team.

George Sikowski, one of the teammates, is currently the town's mayor and is running for reelection. His advisor/campaign manager is another teammate, James Daley. George's first campaign was funded by a third teammate, the wealthy Phil Romano. Phil is...