Letters

I much enjoyed your article, "The Art of Football," in the fall edition of Baylor Magazine, about our new coach, Art Briles. 

I have been a Baylor fan since I first set foot on campus as a law student in 1973, and was intrigued to learn of his becoming our head coach. I was excited to attend the Dallas-area Baylor Football Banquet in July to hear from Coach Briles.
I was impressed.

Before he was introduced, however, the moderator introduced a young man named Wes Yeary, the new "Sports Chaplain" at Baylor. As Mr. Yeary reached the podium and began leading the Baylor faithful in a prayer, suddenly all in attendance appeared entirely transfixed (as was I) by this young man's message and his mesmerizing and unfaltering talent at delivering it.

The words he had chosen were ordinary and day-to-day. But his unbridled enthusiasm, his infectious optimism, his upbeat cadence and delivery combined with an obvious love of Baylor University and of football in a way that immediately touched (perhaps a more precise word would be "grabbed") the hearts and minds of all in the audience and steadfastly held us both captive and enthralled until his final "Amen."

One of the first things Coach Briles later told us was how he discovered (to his surprise) in his early days at Baylor that we had no full-time sports chaplain in the athletic department, and how he had "requested" Wes Yeary for the position as one of his first efforts at reshaping his staff. I immediately understood this new coach had a grasp not only of the challenging task he and his football team face in turning the program around but of the unique opportunity available at Baylor to make use of the important spiritual intangibles brought to the table by Chaplain Yeary in achieving those lofty ambitions.

I left the gathering both encouraged and confident that Baylor had not only selected the right man for its new football coach, but that one of his earliest additions to his staff had made it absolutely certain that all Baylor fans can be sure of one thing: While Baylor's football opponents may still (for a while) hold out hope to outplay us (on the scoreboard, at least), they shall have little future hope of being able to "out-pray us" with the likes of Chaplain Yeary on our team.

Sic 'em Bears!
Carl David Adams, JD '75
Dallas, Texas