Pure Will

Trouble found Pat Neal in the seventh grade in the early 1960s, back when he and some buddies pulled some shenanigans in Ron Givens' English class.

Neal and three other boys would hijack their teacher's flowerpots and move them to the roof. They poured salt in his plants. When Givens turned to write on the blackboard, the foursome would stand up out of their chairs.

But one day Neal's history teacher, Edward Johnson, lectured the young man about excess energy and messing around. The teacher called Neal an “unguided missile.”