LOU HOLTZ from Chattanooga News-Free Press Oct 27, 82 by Roy Exum

Two weeks before the 1977 Orange Bowl when Arkansas was to challenge Oklahoma, Lou Holtz was informed that three of his players, including two of his best running backs had seriously violated team rules. Holtz decided all three had to be suspended. Than an injury sidelined a 4th player.

Across the country, the talk was how the Arkansas Razorbacks no longer stood a chance against the Sooners. When the airplane carrying Holtz's team landed in Miami, Arkansas was a 21 point underdog.

The last days of practice were awful. Holtz called a team meeting. "Men, we've had seven of the worst days of practice that have ever been," he began with his slight lisp. "All anybody has talked about is that we've lost four of our players."

The coach told the solemn team he knew all the reasons why they couldn't win. Now he wanted to hear why they could.

"In my family," Holtz continued, "when someone has done well, we try to make that person feel special. We let him decide what we eat for dinner and what we talk about. But the best part comes when everybody tells that person something that is sincere and genuine. You say how much that person means to you, how much he has done to help you with your algebra, what a pretty dress she is wearing. You must be sincere."

Holtz paused. Now, he said quietly, each member of the Arkansas team would do the same.

An offensive lineman got up 1st and congratulated the Arkansas defense, which had been nationally ranked all year long. Another player said how much it meant to the team that the field goal kicker, Steve Little, was the best in America. And then, a small running back named Roland Sales stepped forward. "You know, I haven't practiced well because I haven't felt well," he said. "But I want each of you to know what a tremendous thrill it will be for me to play this game. I've never started in a game at running back, and playing with people as fine as you means more to me than anything else in my life."

At that precise moment, mighty Oklahoma - the No. 2 ranked team in the nation didn't stand a chance.

In the Orange Bowl two evenings later, Arkansas kicked off and Oklahoma fumbled their first possession. Ron Calcagni, the Arkansas QB, called a keeper on the first play and ran for eight yards. On the 2nd down the call went to Sales, and he ran for the touchdown. Later in the first quarter, behind spine-tingling blocking, Sales made a 38 yard run. The rest of the game was almost anticlimactic. Arkansas beat Oklahoma, 31 to 6, as 60 million people looked on, unbelieving. The Sooners could gain a total of only 230 yards rushing. Roland set an Orange bowl record with 205 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns.

Holtz had made a team into a family, and had beaten the odds.

FRIENDSHIP OVER RACISM by Willie Morris as quoted in R. Digest 4/82 p. 172

In his 1st seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play Major league baseball, faced venom nearly everywhere he traveled - fastballs at his head, spikings on the bases, brutal epithets from the opposing dugouts and from the crowds. During one game in Boston, the taunts and racial slurs seemed to reach a peak. In the midst of this, another Dodger, a Southern white name Pee Wee Reese called timeout. He walked from his position as shortstop toward Robinson at second base, put his arm around Robinson's shoulder, and stood there for what seemed like a long time. The gesture spoke more eloquently than the words: this man is my friend.

WINNING by Bear Bryant

If anything goes bad, I did it.

If anything goes semi-good, then we did it.

If anything goes real good, then you did it.

That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you.

THE CHURCH AS A TEAM "The Sword and Staff" 1992 Vol. 30, #1 p. 8

The story is told of a horse pull in Canada. One horse pulled 9000 pounds and another 8000. Together you'd expect them to pull 17,000 lbs. Not so! When teamed together, they pulled 30,000 lbs.. The principle is called synergism. By definition the simultaneous action of separate agents working together has a greater total effect than the sum of their individual efforts. More can be done in a team effort than can be accomplished solo. In order for the principle of synergism to work like it should there has to be team work.

The year was 1980, Bill Brodherst who hadn't ran in any race since his high school days decided to begin training for a marathon known as the Pepsi Challenge 10k in Omaha Nebraska. Sending in his application, he wasn't sure they would accept him as a participant, but soon the approval came back and he was a designated part of the running pack. His major reason for wanting to be in this race was that Bill Rodgers, a nationally known runner was also competing in the challenge and Brodherst wanted to be able to tell others that he had run in a race beside the great Bill Rodgers.

The reason that Brodherst had not run in races since his high school days was that he had been cruelly struck down in the prime of his life with an aneurysm that caused doctors to question if he would ever walk, let alone run. But with determination that only a few may ever understand, Mr. Brodherst continually took on the impossible and met the challenge. Eventually he did learn to walk... but always with a need to drag on foot behind him as he progressed. His running was not much different. One foot ahead, drag the other up... one foot ahead, drag the other up.

At the beginning of the race Brodherst joined the other runners and as the gun went off, the hundreds of competitors trotted off and Bill slowly followed. For a while he could still see them in the distance, and then the crowds cheered him on for a while. Eventually, he heard the sounds of their feet... coming back towards him and towards the finish line. Then the crowds gradually disappeared, and Bill Brodherst ran on alone towards the halfway point. When he reached he found that everyone had left, assuming their were no other runners. But Brodherst doggedly half ran, half dragged himself to the marker and placed his hands on it so that there would be no question that he had reached that destination.

Turning and making his way back toward the final marker he found that he was the forgotten man: the police stayed with him for a while but then they had to leave to return to their duties. Children came out to taunt and imitate him as he painfully made his way on. The markers that had laid out the course had been taken down. But Brodherst trudged on to the goal. Finally, it was in sight... although the crowds had disappeared and all that was left was the line that had painted on the street. Bill Brodherst struggled on with no one to watch his victory over his personal obstacles and he crossed the line several hours after he had begun the race.« Then out of the alley came a sound of applause and cheering and out came several of the race's participants... led by Bill Rodgers - who had won the event. Rushing forward, they took Brodherst up on their shoulders and carried him for a distance and then set him down. Then Bill Rodgers took the medal that he had won from around his own neck and placed on over the head of Bill Brodherst saying "you're the real winner of this race."

ARE YOU A DISCOURAGER? Pulpit Helps 10/90 p. 20

A soldier was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged from the army of a foreign country. This followed a brief engagement of that army in war. The man was not discharged for treason, desertion or sleeping at his post of duty. He was accused of being a "discourager" of the men.

He did nothing more than go among his fellow soldiers with discouraging words and criticism of the military effort. He broke the spirit and tore down the morale of many who would listen to him. His presence was more of a hindrance than a help to accomplish the task at hand.

It is alarming how often this same situation prevails in the Lord's army the church. People do not violently fight against the Lord's program of work. They just mingle with other members and continually complain about the work of the church, criticizing the leaders, and voicing skepticism concerning plans and goals. In a very real sense these are "discouragers of men".

Jesus, the captain of our salvation says: "He that is not with me is against me."

THIS DOLL LISTENS R.Digest 5/93 p.116

While in a toy store, my husband and I overheard a mother and her small daughter discussing the dolls. "What does it do?" the child would ask about each one. The mother would answer, "It talks," or "It wets," or "It cries."

The dolls were rather expensive, so the mother tried to direct her little girl's interest toward an ordinary on that was more reasonably priced. "Does it do anything?" the child asked.

"Yes," the mother replied. "It listens."

With that, the little girl reached eagerly for the doll.

SHARING THE NEWS Uncle John's 4th Bathroom Reader p. 16

Early Newspapers were often passed from person to person. Some papers contained one or more blank pages, which a subscriber could fill in with his own news before sending the newspaper on to friends.

A LETTER OF GRATITUDE by Martin Buxbaum quoted in R. Digest 4/82 p.190

Dr. William L. Stidger sat down and wrote a letter of thanks to a school teacher for having given him so much encouragement when he had been in her class 30 years before. The following week he received an answer, written in a very shaky hand. The letter read:

"My dear Willie: I want you to know what your note meant to me. I am an old lady in my eighties, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely and seeming like the last leaf on the tree. You will be interested to know, Willie, that I taught school for over 50 years and in all that time, yours is the first letter of appreciation I have ever received. It came on a cold blue morning and cheered my lonely old heart as nothing has cheered me in many years."

I ALWAYS ROOT FOR YOU DAD SE Leadership Conference 3/94

Zig Ziggler loves golf and once took his son with him out to the golf course. His son was still relatively new to the game, so Zig was very impressed by his son's performance on one of the par 4 holes. At the tee, the boy lifted the ball straight and true down the fairway. A second shot got him onto the green within 14 feet of the cup. Wanting his son to succeed, he went to great trouble in sighting the shot for him and gauging the lie of putt and then told his son just how he ought to play it. His son stepped up to the ball and putted the ball perfectly into the cup just as his father had taught him. His first birdie.

Then it was Zig's turn. He also had made the green in 2 shots but his putt was far easier. For a moment he considered flubbing the shot so that he would not overshadow his son's achievement, but then he decided against it because it would go against everything he had taught his son about doing his best. He sank the putt easily and also birdied the hole.

As they were walking away to the next tee, Zig casually asked his son "Well, son, were you rooting for me on that last shot." "Dad," the boy replied, "I always root for you."

POPULAR LOSERS r.digest March 1972

Mayor Joe Young of Tilbury, Ont., explained why the town arena was always full, even though the Tilbury Bluebirds of the Great Lakes Junior

Hockey League had lost 43 consecutive games: "Nobody wants to miss it in case we ever win one."

FATHER'S GREAT EXPECTATIONS r.digest January 1994

The word "expect" always crept into Dad's stories. What you expect, he'd tell us, had everything to do with what you receive.

"Seems like some of our neighbors expect to be sharecropping forever," Dad pointed out. "But it doesn't have to be that way, now does it? Look at the boy Joseph there in the Bible." Then he wove the wondrous story about a young man thrown into a dark slimy pit. "Joseph didn't stay in that hole," Dad said. "Joseph expected to be a leader, not a forgotten young man at the bottom of a pit. And do you know what happened to him? One day..."

A number of years ago, in a mental institution just outside Boston, Mass., a young girl known as "Little Annie" was locked in the dungeon. This institution was one of the more enlightened ones for the treatment of the mentally disturbed. However, the doctors felt that a dungeon was the only place for those who were "hopelessly" insane. In Little Annie's case, they saw no hope for her, so she was confined to a living death in that small cage which received little light and even less hope.

About that time, an elderly nurse in the institution was nearing retirement. She felt there was hope for all of God's creatures, so she started taking her lunch into the dungeon and eating outside Little Annie's cage. She felt perhaps she could communicate some love and hope to the little girl.

In many ways, Little Annie was like an animal. On occasions, she would violently attack the person who came into her cage. At other times, she would completely ignore them. When the elderly nurse started visiting her, Little Annie gave no indication that she was even aware of her presence. One day, the elderly nurse brought some brownies to the dungeon and left them outside the cage. Little Annie gave no hint she knew they were there, but when the nurse returned the next day, the brownies were gone. From that time on, the nurse would bring brownies when she made her Thursday visit. Soon, the doctors in the institution noticed a change was taking place. After a period of time, they decided to move Little Annie upstairs. Finally, the day came when this "hopeless case" was told she could return home. But Little Annie did not wish to leave. The place had meant so much to her she felt she could make a contribution if she stayed and worked with the other patients. The elderly nurse had seen and brought out so much in her life that Little Annie felt she could see and help develop something in others.

Many years later, Queen Victoria of England, while pinning England's highest award on a foreigner, asked Helen Keller, "How do you account for your remarkable accomplishments in life? How do you explain the fact that even though you were both blind and deaf, you were able to accomplish so much?" Without a moment's hesitation, Helen Keller said that had it not been for Anne Sullivan (Little Annie), the name of Helen Keller would have remained unknown.

It's not too well known, but Helen Keller was a normal, healthy baby before some mysterious disease left her almost helpless and hopeless. Anne Sullivan saw Helen Keller as one of God's very special people -- treated her as she saw her -- loved her -- disciplined her -- played, prayed, pushed and worked with her until the flickering candle that was her life became a beacon that helped light the pathways and lighten the burdens of people all over the world. Yes, Helen Keller influenced millions after her own life was touched by "Little Annie!"

THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION Guideposts 1/96 p. 8

During my 2nd month of nursing school our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank.

Before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. "Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you can do is smile and say hello."

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.