Problem with my Loop and custom PHP…

I’m using a plugin that provides easily created tabbed content. In that tabbed content, I’m accessing my own data in an external database. I noticed on one of my pages, a plugin I’m using for Recent Posts doesn’t show recent Posts. As I’ve dug around, it produced what it should when I removed the content from my database.

Trouble shooting, the issue seems to be the connection code.

if(!$con = mysql_connect("localhost","username_","password")) {
   die("Could not connect to database: ".mysql_error());
}

mysql_select_db("hhrplayers", $con);

When I remove that code, the Recent Posts widget works. Of course, my database content doesn’t show up, and I get an error where it should be. When I put that code back in, the database content shows up, but the Posts disappear.

Any thoughts?

Here is the rest of the code from that page:

$sql ="SELECT *
       FROM a_playerRank AS pr
       JOIN playerCollege AS pc ON pr.id = pc.id_player
       WHERE pr.year = '2014'
         AND pc.colleges = '". $page ."'
ORDER BY (pr.commit='1' AND (pr.college = pc.colleges)) DESC, pc.offer desc, pr.nameLast";

$results = mysql_query($sql);

$position = array (
'1' =>'PG',
'2' =>'SG',
'3' =>'SF',
'4' =>'PF',
'5' =>'C'
);

$currentCollege = false;
$currentOffer = false;

echo '<div class="recruitWrap">';

while ($line = mysql_fetch_assoc($results)) {

 	$collegeCommit = $line['college'];

	if($line['college']	!= $page) {
		$line['college'] = '';
		}	

	if($line['college'] == $page && $line['commit'] == '1') {

			if ($currentCollege !=$line['commit']) {
			$currentCollege = $line['commit'];

			echo '<div class="recruitHeader">Committed</div>';
				}
	}

		elseif
			($currentOffer !=$line['offer']) {
			$currentOffer = $line['offer'];

				if($line['offer'] == '1') {
					echo '<div class="recruitHeader">Offered</div>';
				}

				elseif ($line['offer'] != '1')  {
					echo '<div class="recruitHeader">Also recruiting</div>';
				}
			}

//if((ISSET ($line['college']) && $line['college'] == $line['colleges']) || !ISSET($line['college']))

echo '<div class="recruitRow">
<div class="recruit">' . $line['nameFirst'] . ' ' . $line['nameLast'] . '</div>';

echo '<div class="recruit recruitHeight">' . $line['feet'] . '\'' . $line['inches'] . '"</div>';
echo '<div class="recruit recruitPosition">' .  $position[$line['position']] . '</div>';

echo '<div class="recruit recruitSchool">';
if ($line['city'] !='') {
	 echo $line['city'] . ' (' . $line['school'] . ')';
	}
else {
	echo  $line['school'] . ' HS';
}
echo '</div>'; // city school

echo '<div class="clear"></div>';

echo '</div>';

if($line['commit'] == '1' && $line['college'] != $page) {
	echo '<div class="otherCollege">Committed to '. $collegeCommit .'</div>';
	}

}
echo '<div class="clear"></div>';
echo '</div>'; // recruit wrap