Ohio State University Football Coach Jim Tressel will block out his winning formula for football and life during his keynote speech at the Franciscan University of Steubenville Century Club Awards Dinner, Saturday, April 17
Tressel’s talk, “Faith and Football,” will expound on the role faith plays in his personal life and in building a successful athletic program.
In his ninth year as OSU head coach, Tressel has amassed a 94-21 record, including nine bowl appearances, six Big Ten Conference Championships, and one national championship. Those achievements build on a remarkable 135-7-2 record during 15 seasons as head coach at Youngstown State University, including four NCAA Division I-AA Football Championships and 10 playoff appearances.
Tressel is known to begin each practice with quiet time, during which the players are encouraged to write down one thing they are grateful for, “so that we can begin the day with that attitude as opposed to whatever tough things are going on in our lives,” he said.
At a recent Fellowship of Christian Athletes talk to fellow coaches he said, “I constantly seek to know what God’s will is for my life and follow that, and not write my own script. I am here to serve others, and not simply myself.”
A turning point in Tressel’s faith journey came at a high-school sports summer camp in 1969, when retired New York Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson stated, “If the game of life ended tonight, would you be a winner?”
“I wasn’t sure I could answer yes,” Tressel is quoted as saying in a 2006 Columbus Dispatch story, prompting him that evening “to begin to ask Jesus” to direct his life.
Jim and his wife, Ellen, are actively involved with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Athletes in Action, medical, and educational organizations.
During the Century Club Dinner, four men will receive the President’s Award: Abe Bryan, Big Red Football Coach, 1964-72; Ted Kwasniak, Class of 1964, two-time Ohio High School State Championship Basketball Coach; Niall O’Mahony, co-founder of Franciscan’s rugby program; and Earl Cramblett, retired businessman and community leader. Each man will receive his award from Father Terence Henry, TOR, University president.
The Century Club Dinner will serve as a major fundraiser for Franciscan University’s athletics program, which in 2007 began its first-ever participation in NCAA D-III athletics. By fall 2010 Franciscan University will field 13 NCAA teams in men’s and women’s soccer, basketball, track and field, cross country, and tennis, as well as women’s softball and volleyball and men’s baseball, in addition to varsity rugby.
Donations to the athletics program will be administered through the Franciscan University Capital Campaign.
