A Really Bright Starr! One small decision can change the course of your life. It happened in the life of Bart Starr. In his sophomore year at Lanier High School, he went out for football, but didn’t last but a couple of days. He quit the team. His father gave him a choice. He could either go back and play football or he could be in charge of the Starr’s yard and garden. Bart liked football better than keeping a garden, so two weeks into his sophomore year he made the decision that changed his life. He went back to football. He got some playing time at Lanier because the starting quarterback br ..read more

Lost and Found About two years ago, a couple from Southfield, Michigan rescued a dog and named him Barley. While traveling in a Michigan state park, Barley ran away. They circulated material and went on social media to try and find their missing dog. For many months, Barley’s owners would drive ten hours round trip each weekend looking for Barley. When they were unsuccessful, they decided to give up. But one young couple, the Suggitts, continued to try to find Barley. They got a call one day that Barley was in the Upper Peninsula wilderness about 50 miles from where he had run away. Twice ever ..read more

The Real Olympian Winners The highest visibility sporting event this year was the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Many Christians participated and won medals. It’s easy to remember the negative things you saw and heard, but let me help us focus on the positive witness of some Christians. My good friend, Wayne Atcheson, helped start the Fellowship of Christian Athletes huddle at the University of Alabama, the longest running huddle group in America. He served as Sports Information Director at Alabama and later went to Charlotte at Billy Graham’s request to oversee the Billy Graham Library. He shar ..read more

Olympic Lessons Here are five lessons we can learn from the 2024 Olympics: The most important lesson is not the final score of any event in the Olympics, but the final score of our lives as we strive to win at the most important game in town – life. You can win five times as many Olympic medals as Simone Biles, and still be miserable. The best way to win in life is not to try to get more medals but to lose our self in serving Christ. Read Matthew 16:24-26. That is the big lesson! You can be a real winner! The post Olympic Lessons appeared first on John Ed Mathison | Leadership Ministries ..read more

Eric Liddell’s Bold Stand One of the most awesome movies I ever saw was Chariots of Fire. It was both convicting and inspiring. It represented an athlete who was willing to give up an almost guaranteed gold medal in the Olympics to stand up for his Christian convictions. Eric Liddell was born in China where his parents were serving as missionaries. In that day, children were often enrolled in boarding schools outside of China. Eric was sent to a boarding school in London. It wasn’t long before it was obvious that he had athletic skills in running and rugby. One hundred years ago, 1924, he was ..read more

Opening and Closing Olympic Ceremonies The opening ceremonies for the 2024 Olympics in Paris have become the most controversial in the history of the Olympics. Much of the pageantry was, in my opinion, despicable and out of touch with respect for basic religious beliefs. I realize both sides have explanations for what happened. I am including parts of a blog about the opening and closing ceremonies that I wrote following the 2020 Olympics which I want to remember as the purpose of the opening and closing ceremonies. The purpose of the opening ceremony is to allow the athletes of each nation to ..read more

What Time Is It? Our granddaughter, Healey Mathison, spent two months in the summer of 2024 doing an internship for marketing for some sports groups in England. She also had a great interest in observing the work of the church there. It was a great experience. I always had to think about the time whenever I would call her. There are different time zones in different parts of the world. The first time I called her was late in the afternoon. I needed to ask her an important question. The trouble was that it was 3:00 am in England and she was sound asleep. I had to apologize and think better abou ..read more

STRIIIIKE!!! Cooper Murray is an 11-year-old Downs Syndrome boy. He was born in China and was found abandoned on a street corner when he was six months old. He lived the first four years of his life in an orphanage. 2006 changed his life when he was adopted by an American family. It opened the door for a new future for him and he is walking through it. Cooper Murray loves baseball. He set a goal to throw out the first pitch at every major league baseball stadium in America. Already, six different teams have invited him to do that. The Chicago Cubs gave him the first chance and then the Boston ..read more

A Source of Empowerment! Willie Mays was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in a time when segregation was practiced throughout the United States. He was a great athlete, but his skin was the wrong color. For that reason, he didn’t get as many opportunities early in his career. Rickwood Field was home to the Birmingham Black Barons. It is the oldest professional baseball stadium in America! It came to life on Tuesday night, June 19, 2024, when it hosted the first National League baseball game played in Alabama. The purpose was to highlight the accomplishments of the Negro league players. Major leagu ..read more

Records—Baseball and Life What do the records show? It really depends on how the records were compiled. In the 1930s and ‘40s, baseball was racially segregated. You had the Negro League statistics, as well as the Major League Baseball records, which only contained white players. It raises the question of who had the most hits, the most home runs, the most strike outs, etc. In the last three years a 17-member panel has been vetting thousands of Negro League box scores to compile the new data for the official record books. Some of the great players like Satchel Paige, Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bel ..read more