"Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."
A Faith in Sports
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A Faith in Sports: Athletes and Their Religion on and off the Field, Steve Hubbard Doubleday & Company, 1997 ISBN 0-385-47192-0 (214 pages)
The book consists of 11 chapters and a host of - almost exclusively American - examples of people who integrate sport and faith. (In pages 15-32, for example, there are 75 short stories of faith and sport and in pages 48-82 a review of faith sports stories as reported in the press). The examples are mainly but not totally Christian.
There are many interesting anecdotes and examples but overall the book's lack of a unifying thesis leaves the reader asking, "So what?". The writer admits as much when he says "This book has traced the outcome of mixing religion and sports; it does not attempt to provide definitive answers". (Page 211)
Chapter 4 is called "True Faith" and features Mary Jo Fernandez, Tony Dungy, Loren Roberts, Michale Change and other. The following chapter "False faith" questions the sincerity of a number of athletes.
Chapter 6 "Finding Fellowship" deals with Promise Keepers, FCA, chaplains with a feature on LPGA chaplain Cris Stevens (pp122-24). Chapter 8 "Faith and adverity" documents the experiences of Paul Azinger, Dave Dravecky, Loren Roberts and Evander Holyfield.
Other useful content is the section of Islam and sport (180-83), a Morman who gave up his career for faith (194-87), the section on prayer (203-8). The contrast between the motivation of Christian David Robinson and muslim Hakeem Olajuwon (pages 172-74 is interesting.