They may need a miracle on Saturday when they play third-seeded Arkansas in the round of 16 at the 2021 NCAA basketball tournament. Here is Baylor University sports historian Paul Putz and Oral Roberts biographer Jonathan Root at Christianity Today: […]
College basketball
Did the late Oral Roberts prophesy a Final Four appearance for the Oral Roberts University basketball team?
Here is the Pentecostal televangelist back in February 1987 “. . .I will see you in heaven. But I believe that won’t happen, because I believe our God will do this mighty thing and at the end of March, you […]
The head basketball coach at Oral Roberts University is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary
This falls into your obscure NCAA tournament facts category. Paul Mills, the head coach of the Oral Roberts University basketball team, completed a masters degree in biblical and theological studies from Dallas Theological Seminary in the summer of 2020. (The program […]
The two largest evangelical universities in the world have made it to the NCAA basketball tournament
Some of you may remember back in April 2018 when Grand Canyon University, a for-profit Christian university in Phoenix, surpassed Liberty University as the “world’s largest Christian university.” Jerry Falwell Jr., who was then the president of Liberty, did not […]
Valparaiso University drops the Crusader mascot. My daughter approves.
When I was a Lilly Fellow in Humanities and the Arts at Valparaiso University we attended almost every Valparaiso Crusader home basketball game during the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 seasons. As a faculty member, we got free admission and the ARC […]
UVA Men’s Basketball Team Declines White House Invitation
The defending national champs will not be going to the White House. Here is a taste of Mike Barber’s reporting at the Richmond Times-Dispatch: CHARLOTTESVILLE — After winning the national championship, the Virginia basketball team won’t be following the tradition of […]
Tony Bennett, Evangelicalism, and University of Virginia Basketball
Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the University of Virginia, was no evangelical. But he was a champion of religious liberty and had a lot of support among Virginia evangelicals when he ran for president in 1800. So it is unclear […]
Song of the Day: “Hills and Valleys” (Congrats UVA)
Compliments of University of Virginia coach Tony Bennett who played this song for his team before tonight’s win: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4rRCjrAyCs&w=560&h=315] Wells is a Christian artist. Bennett is an evangelical Christian.
Out of the Zoo: “March Madness”
Annie Thorn is a first-year history major from Kalamazoo, Michigan and our intern here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. As part of her internship she will be writing a weekly column for us titled “Out of the Zoo.” It will […]
Video of the Day
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_YdxrPD04g&w=560&h=315]
Is Lipscomb the First CCCU School to Make the NCAA Basketball Tournament?
I am currently watching Lipscomb University, a Churches of Christ college out of Nashville, trying to hang with the North Carolina Tarheels in a first-round NCAA tournament game. Lipscomb is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges & University, […]
The Vada Palmer and Pete Maravich Papers
Vada Palmer was a junior at Needham B. Broughton High School in Raleigh, North Carolina. She had a classmate named Pete Maravich. Of course he would go on to a stellar basketball career at Louisiana State University and then the NBA. […]
Who Was Gonzaga?
For those of you settling in for the Gonzaga-North Carolina national championship game, allow me to provide some historical context for your viewing experience. Perhaps some of you know that Gonzaga is a Catholic (Jesuit) university in Spokane, Washington, but […]
A Tale of Two Thornwells
Today’s guest post, written on the eve of the Final Four, comes from Patrick L. Connelly. Patrick is Chair of the History & Political Science Department at Mississippi College and a University of South Carolina alum (Class of 1994). Enjoy! […]
Enjoy the Game Tonight
I hope you all saw CBS’s piece celebrating the 3oth anniversary of “One Shining Moment.” (It is not up on-line yet). Since it first premiered in the 1987 national championship game I have been staying up late to listen to […]
Image of the Day
I think the kids call this a “photobomb.” ESPN commentator Jay Bilas at the recent UCLA-Arizona game.
New York Times Article on Gonzaga Basketball
March Madness is on the horizon and that means the Gonazaga Bulldogs basketball team will once again be in the national spotlight. If you are college basketball fan, and especially a fan of the so-called “mid-major” conferences, you should definitely […]