College Christian memories

For my sophomore year at Ohio State I lived in an all-female dorm on the north side of campus.

One evening after coming back from dinner at the cafeteria, a girl came knocking on doors all down our hallway looking for someone to play basketball in an outdoor court that was just outside our dorm building.

I played briefly on the girl's basketball team in junior high (and I was tall at 5' 10") so I did pretty good with her group of athletic-type females and a couple of days later this same girl, Karen, came to our dorm again, this time looking specifically for me to come out and play in a pickup game.

Karen was a year older than me and studying biology. I ended up inviting her to be my partner for a much-touted triathlon being put on in Loudonville by Dick Schafrath. It consisted of bicycling, canoeing and running.

Schafrath, who later became an Ohio State Senator, owned a canoe livery in Loudonville (still recognized as "The Canoe Capital of Ohio") and I was actually a classmate and friend of his son, Ty.

Schafrath was a real legend in Ohio football history. He was captain for the Ohio State Buckeyes under Woody Hayes and won a national championship in 1957. He later blocked for Jim Brown on the Cleveland Browns 1964 NFL Championship team.

In the course of training for this triathlon, Karen and I became inextricably connected. We would get up real early and run the track inside Ohio stadium. This was a huge treat because they actually left the famous horseshoe stadium open to students for such uses! We would also run the streets in and out of campus.

Then we'd schedule bicycling excursions together at local parks. As the triathlon got closer, we were adding to our training sessions, both for distance and speed.

The whole time we both knew we were Christians and this was a real anomaly for me. I actually think she was the first Christian I got to know after starting college and, believe me, there weren't many to follow--as in maybe three or four other females!

One day Karen asked me if I would go with her to a special meeting being held on campus by Campus Crusade for Christ.

I'd never heard of the group but readily accepted her offer. The thing is--and this was a huge takeaway for me--I was totally turned off by the event!!

I remember not liking that there was this band with drums and electric guitars. I thought the lyrics to the "hymns" were really amateurish--literally stuff like, "Oh Jesus, we love you, Oh Jesus, we adore you."

I remember standing for the longest, longest time along with everyone else in attendance. Even more memorable, though, was how I refused to participate at all while the large crowd, Karen included, lifted their arms in the air and waved them back and forth along with their hands. I thought, "Yuk!"

(to be continued . . .)