"It matters a great deal who is going to win, but not at all who won"
Gil Dodds, The Flying Parson
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Mel Larson, Chicago, The Evangelical Beacon, 1945. No ISBN
Gil Dodds is best known to students of sport and Christianity as the athlete who ran races and then shared his personal faith when Billy Graham preached, 1947 onwards. Unfortunately, this book was published prior to that time. Dodds was holder of World Indoor mile record 4:06.4 set in 1944. He was injured in 1948 just before the US Olympic Trials and never ran in an Olympics.
I need to start the review with some caveats. This is a biography, not an autobiography, and therefore there are always questions about the extent to which the writer fairly represents the subject. The genre of the book is very much a Christian biography not a sports biography. Dodds’ running career was more than 70 years ago and his opinions have to be interpreted in that cultural context. Like Eric Liddell, Dodds believed that as a Christian he could not run on Sunday. I know of no current Christian professional athlete who would take that view. The book equally records him declining midweek races if it clashed with a church meeting.
Again in the context of contemporary views of sport one reads that he was told that it was impossible to be a Christian and an athlete. Probably as a result, Dodds saw primarily only an extrinsic value in sport: “Running is only a hobby with me. My main job is serving the Lord Jesus Christ and it was only through prayer that a world record was set tonight” and he believed “running is the main way in which he can lead men and women to Christ”.
While signing autographs he normally added a Bible reference such as Hebrews 12:1-2 “run was perseverance the race that is set before us” or Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” or Isaiah 40:31 “those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength… They shall run and not be weary”. Even when signing entry forms for competitions, he added a Bible reference! The book reports that Dodds found 60 passages in the Bible which refer to athletics.
Philippians 4:13 did lead to confusion on one occasion when a person who received an autograph with “Phil 4:13” after the signature, assumed that he had set a PB for the mile of 4 minutes 13 seconds in Philadelphia! Dodds too, apparently, struggled with Hebrews 12:2 in the King James version “run with patience the race that has set before us” wondering how he could break the world record is he ran with patience!
On another occasion when planning to run a 1 mile race, he was then asked by the meet organizers to switch to the 2 mile race. He agreed quoting Matthew 5:41 – “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles”.
His views on the 4-minute mile – not achieved until several years after he stopped running are interesting. Based on Philippians 4:13 he said: “not of myself, but in Christ! I firmly believe that nothing is impossible with God – not even the much debated 4 minute mile. To me the only way it will ever be accomplished is not by man himself but by the will of God and through Christ, who will give the successful runner for that one-time strength and exceeding abundance and then only will it be accomplished for his glory”.
In the modern era, the 4-minute mile is common place with the world record 3:43.