Nov. 16, 2009 | By Paul F. South
Dr. Charles Ray remembers the moment like it was yesterday. Back when pickup football was still allowed in the quadrangle near Leavell Chapel, a gaggle of kids was deep into a game of two-hand touch.
On one play, a pass sailed overhead, and rolled and bounced to the far end of the quad, some 60 yards away. A New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary student, Garry Harper, was walking nearby.
"He picked up the ball, and threw it about 60 yards on a line," Ray said. "Those kids' eyes were as big as saucers."
Little did they know, but for that moment, they had witnessed a flashback to Harper's pre-seminary life. A three-year starter at quarterback for the University of South Carolina, Harper led an efficient offense and helped running back George Rogers to the Heisman Trophy in 1982.
But football, like life, is a mist. The glory fades and withers like homecoming mums and gridiron grass. Harper understood that, as did his fellow NOBTS alumnus Dr. John Gibson and current student Terence Wells. They traded their temporal trophies of golden autumn afternoons, running straight to the goal for a higher calling.
These are their stories.
"Jesus designed us for victory"
Until his freshman year at Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School, football was Garry Harper's life. Then, the 14-year-old's life began a downward spiral. He was failing classes, his parents were splitting up, and he was sixth on the football depth chart.
"I was raised in a Christian home," Harper said. "But I was desperate for answers. I discovered that Jesus was the only one true answer."
In 1978, he recommitted his life to Christ. For Harper, his journey of faith has been a "continual growing process," with his wife and several coaches who lived out Christ's example daily leading him along the way.
Playing for coach Joe Brodsky (who later coached Emmitt Smith at Dallas), Harper would start as a high school sophomore, and by his senior year, he earned second-team all-state honors behind Cris Collinsworth, who went on to star at Florida and for the Cincinnati Bengals. Harper earned a football scholarship to South Carolina, where as a freshman he was a backup to Ronnie Bass, best known as "Sunshine" on the team that was the inspiration for the Denzel Washington film, "Remember the Titans."
But for Harper, his walk with Christ, not his run to football glory, is the story.
"My wife has been Jesus to me as she has shown me grace, mercy and love over our more than 27 years of marriage. Before marriage, though, I was influenced by Christian coaches who lived the life of a Christ follower."
Former South Carolina assistant Richard Bell was the most influential of his coaches, Harper said.
After college, Harper spent a decade with IBM before surrendering to ministry. He was no longer a football hero, just another student juggling marriage, fatherhood, classes and work.
"I loved New Orleans seminary," Harper said. I believe the Lord prepared me for ministry in a significant way."
After graduation from NOBTS, Harper spent 10 years in ministry before returning to the business world.
"The Lord gave my wife and a peace about returning to the business world and to pursue life as a bi-vocational minister," Harper said. He now serves as a chaplain for the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office, the nationally-ranked Byrnes High School football team, and he serves on the county school board.
The Harpers have also built a legacy of faith. His oldest son Shane is preparing for life as a missionary, son Daniel is a student at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, where he also is part of the Boston Red Sox grounds crew. Daniel spent three years as youth and worship leader at Newspring Church in Anderson, S.C.Daughter Kara is a senior at Clemson and has worked as a dolphin trainer.
What lessons did football teach that prepared him or seminary and ministry?
"Winning is important," Harper said. "Jesus designed us for victory and desires for us to have a legacy that points people to Him."
And if he could coach a seminary student, what counsel would he offer, based on his seasons at NOBTS?
"Stay focused," he said. ‘Don't lose your passion. Spend quality time with your family and not just on school. If you're single, immerse yourself about learning more about the life of Jesus and what His mission was, and live it out for yourselves daily."
He added, "Be a winner! You were born to live and leave a legacy. What will it be?"
"You give good devotionals."
As a football player at Mississippi College in Clinton, John Gibson readily acknowledges that he was no superstar. More often that not, he was on the scout team, helping starters prepare for Saturday's opponent. That preparation meant servanthood, painful servanthood; getting blocked and tackled, ending every day battered, bruised and sore.
A Macon, Ga., native and the son of a pastor (NOBTS alumnus and former Wake Forest All-American John Gibson, Sr.), Gibson earned his way on to the Choctaw team, and a scholarship.
"Coach John Williams told me that if I would come and make the team, he'd give me a scholarship. I made the team, and thoroughly enjoyed my experience. It was providential that the Lord opened the door to Mississippi College"
Mississippi College was part of the NCAA Division II power conference, the Gulf South Conference. For Gibson, there was little to distinguish Division II from the bright lights of the SEC, Big 12 or other BCS conference.
"To me there wasn't any difference," he said. "You still get hit."
Along with his father, both of Gibson's grandfathers were Baptist pastors. Gibson was part of a cadre of players strong in the faith. He became one of the team chaplains, leading devotionals and daily prayers at practice.
And, when Williams required players to lift weights on Sundays, Gibson and some Christian teammates took a stand for the faith.
"I told him I would lift weights six days a week as long as I didn't have to do it on Sunday, because it was interfering with Sunday worship," Gibson said. "He relented, and was gracious about it."
Gibson praised his Mississippi College experience, and his time as a student-athlete.
"Mississippi College was a wonderful experience. I loved the smallness...You could find the party animal atmosphere if you wanted to, but having a good Christ-based education was still part of the equation," Gibson said. "I enjoyed being a student-athlete because it gave me an opportunity to witness to people who didn't know the Lord. It gave me a platform to witness to students if I wanted to. Evangelism was not hard."
Athletics opened doors to ministry, Gibson said.
"A lot of churches would call and say, ‘Would you give your testimony?'", he said. "Even churches 80, 90 miles away from Clinton would call."
The call to ministry was ever present in Gibson's life, even before college football.
"I cut my fingers off when I was 15 years old, trying to repair a lawn mower while it was running. They reattached the fingers, but I began to feel the Lord talking to me then about ministry. When I was 17, I made it public."
But as Gibson began academic preparation for ministry, football stardom was not to be found.
"Coach Williams came to me one time and said ‘Gibson, the only reason I keep you on this team is because you give good devotionals,'" Gibson said. "I need a sundial to time you in the 40.'"
For most of his career, Gibson said, he was "the beat-up dummy," in games only when the Choctaws were far ahead or way behind. He did earn a varsity letter.
"But Coach Williams made me feel like I was wanted and necessary to the team," Gibson remembered. "He felt like the several of us on the team really were salt and light."
Looking back on it, I was more than happy to be on the all-scout squad at Mississippi College for five years. I felt like it was a distinguished position to be in because we helped prepare the first team for the opposition," Gibson said. "I began to understand the servant aspect, that not all of us are going to be marquee people. Some of us are going to be behind the scenes. That's fine with me, because I know what I did, and I know the impact."
Today, as a member of the faculty at Leavell College, Gibson teaches students about servanthood.
"I was always taught that football developed my character," Gibson said. "So many illustrations tie in. The church is a team effort. All of the spiritual gifts have to come together, all of the fruits of the spirit. If the church doesn't mesh together like a football team, then it's not going to work. You have a lot of individuals trying to be all chiefs and no Indians."
The football experience gave me insights into leadership and how to play on a team and how to be willing to let the other guy shine as he goes into the end zone, and I'm just on the sideline getting to cheer him."
The rigors of college football prepared Gibson for seminary.
"Mentally there was a lot of toughness that developed," he said. "Sometimes you get in the classroom and assignments pile up and you think, ‘I can't do this,'" then you remember the weight room and your coach telling you this is a mind over matter thing. In the church when we ask people to fast, our mind has to tell us that the spirit is in charge."
Other former college football players were part of Gibson's seminary experience, including Foster Christy and Chette Williams from Auburn, and South Carolina's Harper. A Mississippi College teammate, Buddy Walters, was Beth Moore's pastor."
Now, Gibson prepares students at NOBTS's Leavell College for the challenges of ministry.
"I feel privileged," Gibson said.
Breaking the Ice
Terry Wells is used to breaking the ice.
At East Central High School in Hurley, Miss., Terry Wells was one of the first African American players. It was the same story at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he was one of the first group of African American scholarship athletes to suit up for the Golden Eagles.
But Confederate flags waving in the crowd and "Dixie" blaring from the band didn't bother the gifted running back. Something deeper did.
"The fact that I was an American and some of my rights were being denied, that bothered me," Wells said. "But my parents had always taught me that I had someone, and because of my background in the church, I knew that God loved us."
"There were times that I wondered why we went through what we did," he said. "But God wanted us to grow and mature spiritually."
Wells would later spend time in the NFL, playing at Green Bay and for the Houston Oilers. As throughout his life, God was there. And like Harper, Christian coaches played a huge role, L.R. Nelson and Derek Shirley at East Central.
"They were Christian men and they were tough coaches," he said. "There was no room for murmuring and bickering. I just truly believed that they cared about me personally. They saw talent in me that I didn't see in myself. They respected me."
God used those men to inspire Terry Wells' dream, to follow his childhood hero, Gale Sayers, into the NFL.
A torn hamstring ended his NFL career. It was, in Wells' word, "shattering."
Wells worked in the Litton Shipyards for eight months, then Mississippi Power for three decades. Then God called.
It was just a process of God bringing me through, and giving me a revelation of who He is," Wells said. "He has all power."
For athletes at high levels - physically powerful people -giving way to an omnipotent God is no small challenge, especially when his playing days ended, Wells said.
"I struggled. When I first came out of the game, it was at least five years before I could watch a football game. I was that torn. It was like having the thing you loved the most taken from you. It caused some problems in my life, because I had trouble coming to grips with the fact that I wouldn't put on a uniform again."
I didn't realize that putting the talents and abilities God had given me ahead of Him were a problem. He was gracious enough to allow me to live out my dream, and then say to me ‘It's time to come home. It's time to hang the cleats up, and come home."
But it was not until he hit a low in his life, that he realized that God wanted him to share Christ with others.
"If He had to tear something away from me to get me to where He wanted me, then so be it," Wells said.
Now, Wells is at peace. He serves as associate minister at Morning Star Baptist Church in Gulfport, Miss., and is in the master of divinity program at NOBTS. The triumphs, toils and snares of football have honed his heart for pastoral ministry.
"I always encourage others to have a personal relationship with the Lord," Wells said. "But to do that, you have to realize that God loves us unconditionally. We don't deserve the grace, the mercy, the love he shows us, that grace is the unmerited favor of God.
He added, "He demonstrates He loves us by giving us second and third chances. He did it for me. Because of that, I've been able to share Christ with so many, and help them get their lives on track."
The pop of the pad and the roar of the crowd are faded memories for Terry Wells, just as for Garry Harper and John Gibson. But like them, Wells takes heart from a key verse in the Bible's best-loved chapter, Psalm 23.
"The Lord is my shepherd," Wells said. "All of us have been stuck in the mud at one time or another, but God is the great shepherd who pulls us out of the mud. I thank God for pulling me out of the mud, and putting me on a good, straight road."
He added, the "The joy I've experienced with Him is far greater than I experienced in the NFL. You need to let go of some things if you are going to gain some things. You can be the best of the best, if you have Christ as your focus."
Wells' story can be summed up in three sentences.
"I love the Lord. He's real, man. I just want to go out of this life and enter into the next, knowing that I gave my best to Him."
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