Ed Hastings
Episode 189
12 SEP 2022
He played college basketball at Villanova, including playing with the Wildcats for the national championship and being chosen by the Boston Celtics in the NBA Draft. He would go on to become an assistant coach for men’s basketball at Villanova and nowadays is a professor in the Theology Religious Studies department there. At one point he was director of the Center for Sport, Spirituality, and Character Development at Neumann College, where he also served as the chaplain for the men’s basketball team. He also spent 15-plus years as a priest.
Notable guest quotes:
“I’m the oldest… I had one brother and four sisters… In our family, which was very much, honestly, an Irish Catholic family, I had two uncles that were priests. And actually, one of them played basketball at Notre Dame… and Catholicism was a big part of my growing up, very much so.”
“I played baseball… all the way through high school and football I played actually all the way through high school. So, I did play other sports. It wasn’t until Villanova that I just focused in upon basketball.”
“I coached for one year at Villanova, then I went in the seminary.”
“I had a lot of good friends that were priests… and I think I always had a sense that there’s something deeper about life… And I also had a sense that my relationship with God was very important to me.”
“A big part of spirituality is looking back, reflecting back on experiences.”
(getting injured) “I gained things that I would never have been able to be a part of, relationships, maybe awareness about what life is really about. So, it really did force me… to say, well, maybe basketball isn’t the most important thing.”
“Before every game I would do a prayer for the team and sometimes I would take them into experiences of serving in the local community and do some reflection around that.”
“I know for sure that I’ve learned more from losing in my life than I have from winning.”
“If we could stay with those painful moments… they can be revelatory of how God works in our lives.”
“We can’t control things and things don’t always work out the way we want them. And I think that is, honestly, the message of the Cross.”
