Two Great Christian Athletes
When I finished seminary at Candler School of Theology in 1963, my roommate, Chuck Hunter, and I decided to go to an ivy league school for another graduate degree. We went to Princeton Seminary.
At that time, Bill Bradley was a great basketball player at Princeton University. After Princeton, he went on to play for the New York Knicks and won two world championships and was an all-pro basketball player. He then was elected Senator for New Jersey in 1979 and served until 1997.
Bill Bradley and I became casual friends at Princeton because he was considering playing basketball for the Venture for Victory basketball team on which I had played two years before. It is now known as Athletes in Action. The team plays international teams and colleges and gives a Christian witness.
Meet Don Moomaw. He was the first two-time All-American football player at UCLA. He was 6’4”, weighed 200 pounds. He was a great athlete. He was an even greater Christian witness.
Following his great college and professional career as a football player, he became a Presbyterian minister. He received his training at Princeton Seminary and went back to California to become senior pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood and the Bel Air Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles. President Ronald Reagan was a member of his congregation.
Moomaw was deeply committed to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He served as the national president of the FCA. He wrote a great article about Bill Bradley. Here is a portion of that article:
“A Russian track star gave me a doll,” said tall, rugged Princeton basketball star Bill Bradley, “so I gave him a Russian New Testament.” Why would this star-forward of the U.S.A. Olympic basketball team present the New Testament as a gift? His answer: “It’s the most important thing in the world to me.”
As Bradley tells his story, it all began when his mother read in a Sunday supplement about the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. She encouraged him to attend the movement’s annual summer conference. His counselor there was Fran Tarkenton, quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings and a dedicated Christian.
“I had an intellectual belief,” Bradley continued, “but it had never filtered down to take possession of my heart and my emotions. I don’t mind telling you that when God in Christ came into my heart, I got emotional. I knew it was real.”
The Bible helped Bradley through spiritual frustration during freshman days at Princeton, where he got into a small Bible study of concerned students and really began to grow.
What has been Bill Bradley’s greatest thrill in the Olympics? Not the opening ceremonies, when 5,000 athletes from all nations saw the Olympic torch lighted; not when Bradley won his first game against Australia. “No, the greatest thrill of the Olympics for me has been meeting Christians from other nations,” says the two-time All-American basketball player. “For example, I met the coach of the Nigerian track team. He is an outstanding believer, won to Christ by a faithful mother and father who had become Christians through some courageous missionaries. This is a great family we are in.”
Two great Christian athletes—Bill Bradley and Don Moomaw. I have been inspired by both of them.
What inspires you?
