Maranatha Baptist University ends football program

First, the sad; I was thinking as I walked to work today about how football teaches some good life lessons, things corresponding to a spiritual battle. You can’t just do three yards and a cloud of dust and expect to win the Rose Bowl, as Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler demonstrated many times. There is a degree where you can make small or huge gains. Strategy and intellect matters, as does raw physical ability, and all that.

But that said, it’s a good decision simply because football’s an expensive sport with huge liabilities (knees, concussions), and you can learn a lot of the same lessons in other sports, especially team sports. I tried to run cross country & track in college (not good enough it turned out), and I just got a legal notice saying that I could participate in the NCAA’s concussion settlement—OK, never got thumped on the head while running, so I won’t, but that’s the legal place programs find themselves. Good on Maranatha to stick to their core mission.

to learn. Back in the day, MBBC played the smaller Lutheran and RCC schools. I saw them as a replay of the 30 Years War. The Baptists even won some of the times.

Very interesting, how institutions from your formative years still exert a pull on you. For many Maranatha grads, this is sad news. I couldn’t care less; not because I’m a cold-hearted snake, but because I never went to college there. I went to Seminary - virtually. The undergrad programs have no sentimental hold on me. The Seminary does.

I went into the military instead of going to college. For me, the formative institution is the US Navy. I follow All Hands on FaceBook, and my previous commands, too. I get upset at policy changes, uniform shifts, etc. In short, I act like MBU grads do when the football program gets canceled.

All of us have formative institutions which helped shape us. For some, it was their undergrad college. For me, it was the military. It sounds like MBU has been struggling with its football program for a while.

I gave 10 falls in total to the Maranatha football program, including four that helped to shape and define the person that I am today.

This news was not unexpected, but I still shed a few tears after I read it. I feel like a small part of me died yesterday.

Football did far more for me than I ever did for football and—no—I do not believe that there is any other sport that teaches the same life lessons. Thanks Coaches Price, Morrison and Malmanger, all my coaches and all my teammates for memories that will never be forgotten and lessons that I apply every single day.

We love football!

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

When I’d been in the Navy about four months, I was doing military police training down at Lackland AFB. I was having a conversation with a Marine in the PX.

I casually said to him, “You do know the Marines are just a department of the Navy, right?”

He replied, “Yeah - the men’s department.”

He walked away, and I stood there, crushed. That is still one of the funniest things that has ever happened to me.

http://www.aberdeennews.com/entertainment/videos/yard-punt-against-pc-n…

Gunnar is a member of Southeast Baptist Tabernacle, Indianapolis.

MBU’s men’s soccer team has been at the top of their competition.

Very sensible and wise move. The players are more at-risk to injury and concussions if they are playing schools that are larger and more advanced (weight training, speed and agility training, experienced players, and etc…). And if your pipeline for finding players is much much smaller (80% of Maranatha students come from Christian high schools and home schooling without football teams), that really limits the growth and development of the football program because you are starting from a whole different level.

I am with Paul that football teaches life lessons like no other sport. I have seen this through my son, who has played on competitive levels with basketball, soccer, track and field, and football. That’s not to take anything away from these other team sports.

… football teaches life lessons like no other sport.

Indeed. As an offensive tackle, you know that if you fail to do your job on a given play your quarterback or running back may need to be carted off the field. I am not sure you can learn a lesson like that, for instance, by running track.

During my playing career at MBBC (1987-90), I was blessed to be part of a team that went from the bottom to a conference co-championship in my senior year. At least as I remember it, the atmosphere at the games was comparable to a vibrant high school football game. Students took an interest and ownership in the team (we had both official and impromptu cheerleaders and a pep band), and people from the community and area churches would come out, as well.

I was a volunteer and a coach from 2000 to 2004, being blessed again to help coach a division champion in 2002, when we lost the conference championship to Northwestern College (MN) in the Metrodome. By then, there seemed to me to be a slight drop-off in attendance and interest. As coaches, we would spend many hours on the bus, into the wee hours of Sunday morning, discussing how we might suggest improvements, having just come from our experience at another school.

In recent years, it has not been the same—despite the best efforts of Coach Nate Spate and many others. Home games (even the alumni game) have been very poorly attended. Students today are much more mobile and they are plugged into technology, and—as noted above—many may not even realize the significance of “the football game.” I am sure that there are many reasons that brought it to this point, likely including some of which I am not aware.

My experience with Maranatha football was truly one of the highlights of my life. As my mother said to me after I heard the news, “You have to be thankful that you got to be part of it.” I am sorry that others will not have the same opportunity.

I gotta say I would be with the students who don’t even realize the significance of “the football game.” Football is not significant. It just is not. No sports are.

I am sure that you can learn life lessons from sports. I am also sure that sports are a poor replacement for what kids did before sports: work. I am not one to pine for the old days but I have to believe that evening chores and work on the farm taught a lot better life lessons. As civilization became more urbanized and the need for children working lessened, along came sports to fill the void. They replaced something that was significant with games that emulate significance but are not in themselves significant at all. I don’t think that was really a step in the right direction.

[GregH]

I gotta say I would be with the students who don’t even realize the significance of “the football game.” Football is not significant. It just is not. No sports are.

I am sure that you can learn life lessons from sports. I am also sure that sports are a poor replacement for what kids did before sports: work. I am not one to pine for the old days but I have to believe that evening chores and work on the farm taught a lot better life lessons. As civilization became more urbanized and the need for children working lessened, along came sports to fill the void. They replaced something that was significant with games that emulate significance but are not in themselves significant at all. I don’t think that was really a step in the right direction.

What is the big deal about MBU closing it’s football program? How many other fundamental baptist colleges have football programs? Building a solid basketball program is the way to go.