Shorty Plot Summary and Details

On the eve of his fifty-sixth birthday, a lifelong football fan suffering from Down Syndrome roots for his favorite team to make their first playoff championship match in twenty-six years. The average life expectancy of a person suffering from Down Syndrome is 55, but Walter "Shorty" Simms is far from average. An essential part of the Hampden-Sydney College community for twenty-eight years, Simms as managed to become a community icon while inspiring the students of the prestigious all-male university to pursue their dreams at any cost. Now, in the same semester that Shorty is about to be introduced into the Hampden-Sydney College Athletic Hall of Fame, the Hampton-Sydney Tigers are poised to make the playoffs for the first time in over a quarter of a century. On the day of the big game against the formidable Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets, 107 years of rivalry burn up the gridiron as Shorty celebrates his birthday while praying for the only present he really wants - a Tigers victory and a shot at the championship title.