[1]HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE, Ark. (BP)–Most people would probably think Tom Landry never had an indecisive moment in his life. But the legendary former head football coach of the Dallas Cowboys admitted while sharing his testimony recently that there was a time when “I was restless … empty and just wanted to get into something else.”
Landry, who coached the Cowboys from 1960 until 1990, made his remarks during a worship service organized by Balboa Baptist Church in Hot Springs Village, Ark. The service was held at the Village’s 654-seat Woodlands auditorium because planners anticipated a larger crowd than the 380-seat Balboa sanctuary.
And they were right. Members and visitors filled the auditorium seating, while the 100-voice choir remained on the platform. According to pastor Kenny Moore, the high attendance fit well into the church’s outreach plan.
“I hope it will expose some people to the gospel who ordinarily would not come to visit our church, but would come to a function to hear a person like Tom Landry,” Moore explained. “He is associated with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and is a fine Christian, an impeccable man and a mentor to many people.”
Ben Fletcher, minister of education and administration for Balboa Church, said Landry, a former FCA board chairman, was in the Village to speak at an FCA banquet later that evening.
Fletcher described Landry as “a model of character for Christians — character, integrity and personal faith. He is a brilliant coach, but he’s also an outstanding gentleman. We have two main purposes tonight. We wanted the people to recognize the real Tom Landry and see the real Lord Jesus he speaks for.”
“Everybody asks me if I miss coaching,” Landry told the crowd. “I tell them I really don’t miss coaching. I really miss the camaraderie that comes with coaches and players. I don’t miss the preparation.”
Sharing his personal testimony and philosophy of life, Landry admitted although he was raised in a Christian home and in church, he never made a personal commitment to Christ while growing up.
Following college graduation, he coached football for the New York Giants. “We had some great teams. Vince Lombardi handled the offense and I handled the defense. We didn’t make any money. There wasn’t any television. We all had to go home and make enough money so we could come back and spend the next year up there.”
In 1959, tired of being on the road and of coaching, “I told my wife, ‘I should get out. I’ve got an engineering degree from the University of Texas and an industrial engineering degree from the University of Houston’,” he recalled. “I told a friend of mine who was a Christian that I wanted to get out of football. I told him I was restless, I was empty and just wanted to get into something else.
“But he knew exactly what my problem was,” Landry added. “He said, ‘Tom, how about coming to a Bible study that meets on Wednesday morning around the table?’
“I joined that group. I didn’t want to. I knew the Easter story,” he joked. “But he was a good friend.”
Landry said he then began exploring the Bible through the group. “Being a football coach, we want to have all the facts, so I started reading. I saw in John 3:16 where God loved me. It is a fact that I was a sinner. I didn’t know what a sinner was, but Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The next thing I found out was that I could be dead in sin. Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death … .
“I found what I was looking for in I Corinthians 15:3-4,” he said. “Christ died, Christ was buried and Christ rose again. When that happened, I went to my knees and accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I had been a churchgoer all my life. I thought when you sit in the pew there, you are a Christian. You are not a Christian until you get into the right frame of mind. You must accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Until that happens, we have no Christian life.”
But, as a new Christian, Landry soon found social pressures around him unfriendly to the cause of Christ. He also had the added pressure of a new job — as the first head coach of the Cowboys.
“I don’t think I could have picked a more difficult time to become a Christian,” he said. “It was one year before I took over the Dallas Cowboys as the head coach. Our country was entering one of the most difficult decades of history, the decade of the 1960s.
“Our country was moving toward secular humanism,” he commented. “The ‘God is dead’ theory was being expounded by many so-called Christians. Seminaries were questioning whether the Ten Commandments were still valued. The pulpits of our churches were filled with the social gospel and there was a social upheaval taking place. The only positive thing was the passing of civil rights legislation, which was long overdue.
“Our young people were changing,” Landry added. “They were the first group of youngsters who were not a part of the Great Depression or World War II. They wanted to be treated as individuals and have more freedom. Unfortunately for them, freedom became the vices to do whatever they wanted to do. This thinking spawned the hippie generation which generated, unfortunately for all, the drug culture that has taken on an epidemic proportion.
“Life can be difficult when there are no limits,” he shared. “Most successful football players not only accept the rules and limitations, but I believe need them. In fact, I believe players are free to perform their best only when they know what the expectations are and where their limits are.”
He said he views that philosophy “as a biblical principle that applies to life. You can’t enjoy true freedom without limits. Without rules that define a football game, you can’t play the game, let alone enjoy it. The same thing is true in life. To live a life at its fullness and truly enjoy it, we need to understand and abide by the rules that God spells out in the Bible. God isn’t spoiling our fun. He knows that life without limitations results in anarchy and misery. It’s only when we have absolute limits that we can truly be free.”
Character, especially among pro athletes, is a major concern for Landry. During an interview prior to the Balboa service, he emphasized good character “is for their own benefit. If they have good character, they will do a better job. They have a responsibility to be role models to kids.
“It’s sad when you see an athlete when success shuts them off,” he said. “That’s not right. We’re trying to change that. One of the saddest points of my career at the time was Duane Thomas, who was one of the great players that came in the late ’60s about the time the drug scene hit and he wasn’t able to throw it off. It cost him his whole career.
“The same thing was true with Thomas Henderson. Those were two guys who could have taken us over Pittsburgh, I believe. Those are the sad times.
“You can also see what has happened in Arkansas recently,” Landry noted, referring to the recent slayings of four students and a teacher at a Jonesboro middle school by two other students. “That’s something we hope, through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, to do — turn kids around before they reach that stage.”