My dear youth in Christ,

I greet you all in the mighty name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. May the Lord bring abundant joy in your hearts and bless you in everything you do.

I hope you all like  football. Even though Cricket is the most favored  sport in our country, football still remains popular in our schools and colleges.  Any game or sport gives us the spirit of true sportsmanship. Participation and doing your best is more important than winning the game. Because every team or participant in a sport or game can not be a winner. When someone wins, the other automatically becomes the runner up (looser). But the joy of playing the game, team spirit and brotherhood along with developing a healthy body and free mind are the real benefits in being a sportsman.

I want to tell you a brief story of a real sportsman, a foot ball player, who was a world class player but a single mistake he made in a match, made him a laughing stock in history. But by his sustained effort and by his spirit of true sportsmanship, he regained and passed out as a legend of the game. This is his story:

Roy Riegels was a student of Agriculture in the graduate programme in the University of California in the United States of America, during year 1929. He was the captain of University foot ball team, known as the “Golden bears”. It was called the “wonder team” and at that time had the history of not loosing a single match which they played between the years 1920 to 1925.

On the new year day of year 1929, this team was pitted against the “Yellow Jackets”, the team from Georgia Tech. Our hero Roy Riegels was the captain, playing the “centre”.   It was a tough game that day and both the teams were fighting their best, and a big suspense for the audience as to who will eventually win !!

Roy, while playing the second quarter, while navigating, lost his cool and  suddenly turned around and ran about 69 yards (about 200 feet) in the wrong direction  to the shock and amazement of everyone, thousands of people watching !. The play was being live radio broadcasted and the commentator started shouting on the microphone: “ What am I seeing ? Am I crazy ? which he repeated for three times ! Finally Roy was stopped by his team mate who ran after him. Georgia Tech earned the safety score ( called penalty score ?) .

During the half time interval, Roy was very upset at his mistake and was adamant that he would not play again in the game. Roy said : “ I have ruined myself, the team and the University” .All the team mates tried to convince him to play the second half but in vain. Finally the team coach  “Nibs Price” said : “ Roy, get up and go back out. The game is only half over “ .

This had a magic effect and gave hope to Roy who played the second half in a stupendous manner and gave a good fight. But that day it was different and they lost by 8 -7 just by one score to Georgia Tech ( which was because of the safety score for foul play by Roy).

People started calling him “wrong way Roy” and the name sustained. Several movies and even a comic play took this incident in their story. But Roy sustained. He finished off his studies and later on achieved several laurels including having his own firm helping the farmers and earning accreditation from the Government. Roy was so upset about this incident that for the rest of his life if he heard the phrase “wrong way” any where,any time,his head turned to see whether any one is making fun of him! But Roy took this in the true sportsmanship spirit. He rather became  a model for “resurgence” and became a “success story” to be taught in business schools and motivational lectures.

In year 1991 Roy was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame. Year 2003 saw a panel from “College Football Hall of Fame” chose Roy’s wrong way run as one of the six memorable moments of the century in the history of football.

In later years, Roy Riegels remarked that this blunder made him a better person in life and that he gained a true understanding of life. He said he learnt to laugh at himself when someone called him “wrong way Roy” , difficult , but made you tough enough to face difficult situations in life.

My dears, as the foot ball coach reversed the situation by counseling Roy to play the second half, our dear Lord Jesus steps in our every failure that we make and enable us to move on in life. So never get upset with your failures or setbacks, however big or small or even if it is known to the whole world as in the case of our Roy Riegels, never give up. Because we have our heavenly Father above, always willing to allow us to play the second half, encouraging us and strengthening us and protecting us.

“For I the Lord, your God will hold your right hand, saying to you , “Fear not, I will help you. Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel, I will help you, says the Lord. And your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”

                                                    (Isaiah 41:13-14)

Prayer:

Our heavenly Father,

We thank you for all your blessings. We seek your wisdom and grace to move on from our failures and mistakes in our life. We thank you for doing this in our lives.

We pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

God’s Love Missions Family.