Sunday, March 1, 1998

Former sports marketing executive now focuses on sports ministry

By Ken Garfield / Knight Ridder Newspapers

There wasn't a last straw that pushed John Humphrey from sports marketing to sports ministry. In a world of games awash in greed, strikes, violence and drugs, it's hard to pick out just one.

But if Humphrey needed a sign that he did the right thing in devoting his life to glorifying Christlike principles through sports, he knew just where to look.

"The popularity of a Dennis Rodman defies my understanding," said Humphrey, 38. "But if you look around at the rest of the culture, it mirrors our society."

Humphrey sometimes chokes on his Wheaties while reading the sports page, just like you and me. He lives with his wife and two young daughters outside Dallas, so he gets to read every morning about the police-blotter life and times of the NFL's Cowboys.

If he came back to North Carolina -- he graduated from Wake Forest in 1981 -- he could read about Tar Heel basketball star Shammond Williams walking off the court during a key ACC game in a dispute with his coach. Or criminal investigations against the Hornets' George Shinn and Anthony Mason. Or the rising number of N.C. high school athletes and coaches ejected last year for the lack of sportsmanship -- 119 coaches and 117 boys' basketball players.

Humphrey believes the games he grew up loving outside Philadelphia -- games he helped promote as a sports marketing executive -- have been stained by qualities that mark much of society. A me-first attitude. The glorification of anti-heroes (that explains Rodman). The greed that drives holdouts, strikes and, eventually, ridiculous ticket prices for sports fans.

And we haven't even gotten to sports talk radio, an asylum for obsessed sports fans with loud opinions. "Don't get me started," Humphrey said. "It's not sports talk. It's men's garbage talk. ... There has to be a better way."

For Humphrey, the better way is VisionQuest -- a company he helped start in Dallas in 1996 to promote the brighter side of sports. "We're not out to change the athlete," he said. "We're here to impact the culture."

He used to develop sports shows for cable TV. Now Humphrey gets NBA stars David Robinson, former Hornet Hersey Hawkins and others to share their Christian testimony on videos titled "Gimme the Rock." The rock being Jesus.

He recruited NFL star Emmitt Smith and others to talk about overcoming obstacles for a series entitled "Spirit of the Game."

VisionQuest is reviving the wonderful old Chip Hilton sports books for kids, in which Chip always hit the homer in the last inning to win the big game.

From stars talking about sportsmanship to a dusty old series of kids' books that teaches how life can have a happy ending, VisionQuest's work is built on a simple creed. "Everything we do," Humphrey said, "will have a common theme -- a virtuous product."

Some people have a religious experience and go to church more often. Humphrey used his born-again experience not just for himself, but for a world in need of better values.

The turning point came in 1983, when he attended Reynolda Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem. He didn't feel thunder and lightning as much as a veil lifted from his eyes. A realization that everything must be done for Christ.

"Where do you want me in your kingdom?" Humphrey asked God.

God's answer came back clear as day. He wanted Humphrey in the arena, helping to clean it up.

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(Ken Garfield is the religion editor at The Charlotte Observer. Write to him at: The Charlotte Observer, 600 S. Tryon St., Charlotte, NC 28232.)

(c) 1998, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).

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