"Football is not a matter of life and death, it is more important than that."
God's word to the pro
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God's word to the pro by L Fisher Sports World Chaplaincy, Boca Raton, 1969
The book tells the story of Doc Eshleman who was a pioneer in sports chaplaincy. In the mid 1960s, Eshleman had a vision to reach pro [American] football players with the gospel. (Page 44ff)
His mission statement was "My mission to the pro is to help him establish a personal and meaningful relationship between himself and God, and then urge him to share his faith with others, particularly youngsters who often worship the ground he walks on". (Page 54)
He continued: "Since morale is a most important ingredient of a winning team, spiritual counsel can be of untold value. A man cannot be at his best on the field, if he goes out worrying about an unfaithful wife, a rebellious child or if he holds a grudge against one of his team mates..[need for] chaplains to deal with the spiritual and psychological problems". (Page 62)
He travelled 100,000 miles in his first year (Page 53) to fulfil that mission. There is a report of one of his first chaplain service in 1967 (Page 48) One coach was particularly positive about chapel services: "I feel the chapel services instigated by 'Chappie' do more to produce togetherness and mutual respect than anything I have found in 21 years of coaching". George Allen coach of LA Rams 1960s (Page 54)
Two sections of the book give useful insights into the life of the pioneer chaplain -Pages 57-59 are extracts from his diary on visits to teams and Pages 91-95 deal with the life of a football chaplain between Sundays.