Episodes

Tony Hunter

He was a tight end in the National Football League, having been the twelfth overall pick in the first round of the 1983 NFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills, with whom he played for two years before going on to play two more seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, all following a collegiate career as a four-year starter for the University of Notre Dame where he led the Fighting Irish in receiving each of his last three seasons and was first-team All-American as a senior. During his time with the Bills, he made the NFL’s All-Rookie team. Plus, during his NFL career he won a division title and got within a game of the Super Bowl, and along the way he played alongside future Hall of Famers.

Notable guest quotes:

“My mom was a single mom of four who basically dedicated her life to the betterment of her children.  That’s my angel.  She passed about six years ago.”

“(Gerry Faust) was talking to me about coming to (Archbishop) Moeller (High School).  I had been in public schools my whole life up until that point, but Moeller was a private, Catholic school that was a part of the Greater Cincinnati Catholic School League.”

“I decided I wanted to give Moeller a shot, and… it turned out to be the best decision I ever made in my life… And while at Moeller I converted to Catholicism.”

“A lot of people who saw me play as a youngster… felt like I could’ve played pro baseball as well as play football.  And also basketball… I was a two-sport All-American in both football and basketball in high school.”

“Coach Faust was a devout Christian Catholic, very spiritual person… watching how he worshiped and the kind of human being that he was, he really took on a fatherly role for me in high school.”

“I used to go in for prayer by myself.  They had a little chapel in the school that was basically open all the time and I would go in there in high school.  And at Notre Dame… I was right next door to the school church, which was always unlocked for the most part.  And I would always go in and sit down there and be at prayer.”

“It’s tough, when… basically your full-time job is playing football and being a student at Notre Dame… It was very tough at times and… I think it was my spiritual foundation that really got me through that.”

“It was a blessing.  It was a great time for me and my family.  I was the twelfth pick taken in the first round (of the NFL Draft).”

(This episode contains a prayer adapted from one by an unknown Confederate Soldier, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Vince Guider

The North Lawndale Kinship Initiative Director for Old St. Patrick’s Church in downtown Chicago, directing a ministry of community development. In that role he has set up a neighborhood sports collaborative called the North Lawndale Athletic & Recreation Association. Many people know him as coordinator for youth and young adult parish ministry, which he started doing 35 years ago and to some degree still goes on now. As a student he was the football manager for the team at his Catholic high school where he was able to learn the skills and the science of coaching, which he used when his parish started and needed a coach for a CYO football team, and that led to a whole career of coaching youth athletics across a variety of sports.

Notable guest quotes:

“I’m a cradle Catholic; baptized as an infant, lived in a Catholic household, pretty much in the pews on Sunday and in the pews of the world every other day of the week.”

“I grew up on Chicago’s south side.  Two great parents, two great Catholic parents… we always lived a short few blocks from our parish and our life pretty much centered around Catholic life.”

“That experience taught me the ministry of athletics, the ministry of coaching.”

“Somewhere a seed was being planted in me saying, you know what, I’m going to be around sports the rest of my life and I’m going to do this too.  I’m going to be a coach.”

“It was about more than sports, it was about relationships.  I was molding young lives… it turned into a whole career.”

“People don’t come to Old St. Patrick’s to go to Mass.  People come to Old St. Patrick’s to be disciples and to be church outside of church.”

“We knew that we weren’t going in there to drop in and be the knights on white horses saving that neighborhood.  We knew that that neighborhood could help save us as a congregation too.”

“That’s been absolutely central to my life and that is direct contact with the young people of God and those adults who work with them.”

Related links:

North Lawndale Kinship Initiative
North Lawndale Athletic and Recreation Association

(This episode contains a prayer seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Tim Neary

The author of Crossing Parish Boundaries: Race, Sports, and Catholic Youth in Chicago, 1914-1954, a book which reveals the history of CYO. He is a professor of history at Salve Regina University, a private, Catholic, coed school founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1934 in Newport, Rhode Island, where he teaches a course on U.S. sports history. As a student-athlete himself he had played baseball, basketball, football, and tennis, including club basketball in college in Ireland.

Notable guest quotes:

“I went to CCD at St. Margaret Mary’s, my parish where I had all my sacraments and was involved in CYO… and have great memories of meeting friends, having coaches that taught us how to play the game but really taught us about life and about our faith.”

“I think about values of teamwork and cooperation and I remember, for example, on the basketball court, right before we were to play we would all put our hands together and say, ‘Lady of Victory, pray for us’.”

“The Jesuits talk about faith and reason going together… so, (at his college prep high school) I was able to feel like I had role models of how to live out my faith.”

“It’s great to have degrees and learn and go to college, but what are you gonna do with it?  Are you gonna go out into the world and try to make the world a better place, try to connect with people, try to live out the gospel?”

“I think the life lessons (sports) teaches are pretty profound.”

“I think sports is one of those places where even if neighborhoods and parishes are strictly segregated by race, sports is a place where people come together.”

“I think Jesus in the gospels wasn’t about excluding, he was about inviting people in.”

Related link:

Tim’s book “Crossing Parish Boundaries: Race, Sports, and Catholic Youth in Chicago, 1914-1954”

Mike Nealy

The CEO / Executive Director of Arizona Sports Foundation, Valley of the Sun Bowl Foundation and Fiesta Events, Inc., community-based organizations that operate the Fiesta Bowl, Guaranteed Rate Bowl, and numerous charitable and community events throughout the state. Prior to heading the Fiesta Bowl, he spent eight years with the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes and Jobing.com Arena, most recently as President and Chief Operating Officer. Before joining the Phoenix Coyotes in January 2006, he spent four seasons with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. He has also been both a football coach and a basketball referee.

Notable guest quotes:

“That was my first opportunity to be able to be part of a Catholic school system… I think on many fronts that was a positive influence that you could get with the teachings there.”

“I look back and my whole life I think I’ve been very fortunate… God… puts people in your life for reasons.”

“As a young professional out of college I lived pretty close to downtown near the basilica, St. Mary, and started attending much more regularly.  They had a youth group, young professionals’ group, that made it another reason to get involved with people that were like-minded, of Christians.”

“You can see when your life is going the wrong direction versus the better direction that you know when God has been more at the center of your life.”

“A group of us got together, collected medical supplies, and huge boxes, and flew over there… we stayed with some host families… When we landed there, the families that we stayed with picked us up… The first place — literally before we even went to where their home was — is they brought me to a church.  And how special is that?”

“I like to think that I bring my faith (into the workplace) in the way I act and how I treat people.”

“The goals that I put forward for our organization lie in: how do we treat people’s integrity, how do we support each other, are we enhancing people’s lives, dignity.  Those types of things are the core of the goals that I bring forward in my organization now.”

“I had a basketball coach that… was a leader in the FCA, the Fellowship of Christian (Athletes), and he took a direction to me and really asked me to start joining him in prayer.”

“(The Positive Coaching Alliance) is really about developing better people, through athletics, making better athletes better people… The power of using sports to develop character and having character, and a lot of that is based in, obviously, religion is a strong base for treating people well and doing the right thing.”

“Faith is a big part of keeping you humble.”

Related link:

Mike’s bio on Fiesta Bowl website

(This episode contains a prayer originally from catholic.org, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Steve Javie

He spent 25 years as a referee in the NBA, officiating over 1,400 regular season games, 240 playoff games, 23 NBA Finals games, and two All-Star Games. He has also been a rules analyst for ESPN/ABC. Earlier in his career he was a referee in the CBA, which followed time that he had spent as a minor league baseball umpire, himself having played in the Baltimore Orioles’ organization at the minor league level after pitching for Temple University. In high school he had achieved All-Catholic honors in both baseball and basketball in his Junior and Senior years. Four years ago he was inducted to the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame, and last month he was the recipient of Sports Faith International’s Father Smyth Award. In 2019 he was ordained a Deacon in the Catholic Church and just celebrated the two-year anniversary.

Notable guest quotes:

“My grandparents came over from Poland, and, very Catholic.  As a matter of fact, my dad’s brother was a Catholic priest for almost 70 years… in the Philadelphia archdiocese.  Great guy — one of my favorite uncles.”

“We went to confession every two weeks, Mass every Sunday, we sat in the first row every Sunday.”

“People, they work hard at their job.  They put 40 hours of work in, 60 hours of work in.  And they reap the rewards.  But they think that 45 minutes to an hour a week is enough to satisfy them in their faith journey and it really isn’t… It just doesn’t work that way in anything.  So, you get, obviously, out of something what you put into it.”

“No matter where we are in our journey, no matter how bad we think we might be right now, God’s forgiving mercy … is there waiting for us if we just open our hearts to His grace.”

“I still vividly remember sitting in Los Angeles having lunch one day and it was just coming up on my second knee surgery and I said, ‘Ya’ know, there’s gotta be more to life than just blowing a whistle on basketball players’… I was blessed to provide for my family… but… At the end of my life, to say that I refereed professional basketball, so what?”

“My wife and I had formed a foundation, The Javie Foundation for charity… we helped raise money for local charities… and I said… ‘I think the Lord wants me doing more than just raising money’.”

“I still remember looking up… in the stands and I remember saying to myself, ‘I wonder what the Lord has planned for me now’.”

“I was discerning and praying about the Lord and asking Him to speak to me in a way that He can tell me what He wants from me ’cause I wanted to give back to the Lord something because He had blessed me so much in my life.”

“The Lord blessed me with a family and friends and my profession and the talents He gave me, and I just said, ‘I have to serve Him somehow’.”

“It’s been the most incredible journey of my life, my spiritual journey.”

“I just want to explain to men and to people that God can do anything, He really can.  If He can mold me and make me into what He wants me to be, which is to profess my faith and to preach the truth on Sundays and so on and proclaim the gospel, He can do it for anybody.”

“I know a lot of people don’t hear about referees, all they do is yell at them… But there’s quite a few referees that are into their faith… So, there’s a lot of guys that I’ve come across in my profession that are just great, great men; family men, great men in their community… and a lot of times we sit and we talk about the faith and talk about the Bible.”

Johnny Sauter

A professional stock car racing driver who competes full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 13 Toyota Tundra for ThorSport Racing. He began his racing career in 1996 and by 2001 was the American Speed Association Champion and Rookie of the Year. In 2009 he was NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year. He also builds and races his own late model cars. And, he and his father and two brothers became only the second family in NASCAR history to have four members compete in a national series race.

Notable guest quotes:

“Cortney and myself, we were married in 2007… We have four children… The three oldest ones are in Catholic school… We wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“I was a cradle Catholic, grew up in a really good Catholic family and did my time in Catholic schools, from kindergarten to twelfth grade.”

“You hear all the jokes about — when you tell somebody how many brothers and sisters you had, they say — oh, you must be Catholic… But I wouldn’t have traded it for anything… (I’m) very, very blessed to have had that.”

“I’ve known Father Grubba for a long time, and it turns out that the parish we belong to, Monsignor was actually a student of Father Grubba’s back, way back in the day… But, he’s a big race fan, Father Grubba, and I had him serve at my wedding… And… I actually raced in… Father Grubba Night a few years back and actually won that race.”

“We tried to say family rosaries and I saw a really good example of the value and the importance of prayer.”

“Things happen in your career, sometimes things work out, sometimes they don’t.  And there’s really only one place to turn and that’s to prayer.  I’m trying to carry that tradition on with my kids today, saying a family rosary.”

“I pray before every race.  I pray every day, but, primarily just for safety and to bring me home in one piece.”

“I just give credit where credit’s due.  At the end of the day, I’m smart enough to know that I’m not doing this on my own.  Not only are there a lot of good people helping me along the way but obviously I know you’ve gotta be in the right trajectory faith-wise to make smart decisions.”

“No matter what you think you’re doing in life… that’s always in the back of your mind, is, trying to get to heaven and doing the right thing.”

“I think people, they know there’s a God and they know they should serve Him, and I think it’s good.  I think the sport has embraced that.”

“I’ve had race fans, for sure, come up to me and say, ‘Man, I love what you say after the race, thanking the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Mother,’ and I’ve heard that several times throughout my career.  So, to me, that means that at least you’re reaching somebody and maybe putting that thought in their mind.”

Related link:

Johnny’s official website

(This episode contains a prayer by Fort Worth Christian Football League parent Linda Fleshman, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)

Richie Adubato

He spent six decades in basketball, coaching high school, college, NBA, WNBA, and internationally.  In the NBA he was the head coach of the Detroit Pistons, Dallas Mavericks, and Orlando Magic, and was an assistant coach with those three franchises as well as the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers.  He also served as a consultant with the Boston Celtics.  He is enshrined in the hall of fame at William Paterson University for TWO sports.  Late last year he put out a book called, “Havin’ a Ball: My Improbable Basketball Journey.”

Notable guest quotes:

“Very Catholic (household), I mean, there was no question about it… It was our whole neighborhood.”

“I knew all the guys who were Catholic, because on every trip that we went.  If it was a weekend, we found a church nearby.  There was no question about that.”

“The Catholic guys, we did everything together.  Every time we landed in another town, if it was the weekend… we either made 6:30 Mass… We were true Catholics all the way.”

“I’m a Virgin Mary person.  I just went over yesterday and put the flowers down.  And I make sure I get the flowers where she is every other Sunday.”

“I really feel it’s been great, great for my success.  The Virgin Mary has always come through for me.  Those candles have been great.  And the flowers even better.”

Related link:

Richie’s book

[This episode contains a prayer by Oldenburg Academy of the Immaculate Conception (Oldenburg, IN) Athletic Director Tim Boyle, as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport]