Submitted by philip on
By Mark H. Hunter, Regional Reporter
BATON ROUGE – The 1985 murder of a Florida State University football player brought an assistant coach to salvation in then-head Coach Bobby Bowden’s office.
Pablo Lopez, a 6-foot-5, 265-pound tackle, was shot in the chest with a shotgun at a party, Bowden told more than 1,000 people gathered in the Crowne Plaza Hotel April 11 for the 49th annual Governor’s Prayer Breakfast.
A few days after the shooting, Bowden, now 83 and retired from a 50-year, Hall of Fame career, said he gathered the distraught players in the “team room,” where the chairs were arranged in rows of 11 seats according to first, second or third team offense and defense.
“I pointed down to that empty chair and said, ‘Hey men, where’s Pablo?’” Bowden said. “It gave me an opportunity to talk to my boys about eternal life.”
After the meeting, an FSU assistant coach asked Bowden what he was talking about. “With my Momma’s old Bible, I showed him how to be saved right there in my office. He is one of the best Christian men today. Y’all know him – head coach at Georgia – Mark Richt.
“I made myself available and through me God saved Mark and nobody knows how many people are saved because of him,” Bowden continued. “Make yourself available.”
The night before the prayer breakfast, Bowden spoke to more than 600 people, including a half-dozen Baton Rouge area high school football teams, at Istrouma Baptist Church. More than 20 made decisions for Christ.
“Coach [Bowden] continues to use his God-ordained platform to speak of God’s greatness and His desire to give a platform we in turn can use for Him,” said M.L. Woodruff, Istrouma’s sports ministry director, who also attended the prayer breakfast.
The breakfast seemed at times like a worship service with powerful songs sung by Ty Cook, fervent prayers offered by Sen. Sharon Weston Broome and Larry Stockstill, and Scripture readings by Rep. Regina Barrow, House Speaker Charles “Chuck” Kleckley and Rep. Francis Thompson.
Gov. Bobby Jindal told how when he was a teenager growing up in Baton Rouge, he noticed how some of his friends exuded Christian joy, “and I wanted that joy.” The governor read from Isaiah 40:28-31 – They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
“Christ doesn’t promise us because if we follow Him … that life will always turn out the way we want,” Jindal said. “That doesn’t mean our football team will win every game, or that we will never get sick or lose a business or a job.”
He related how he visited with the pastor of a church damaged by Katrina, rebuilt after three years of hard work, which then was flooded by Hurricane Ike.
“Instead of complaining, he was so joyous! He told me, ‘Governor, don’t worry about us. We’re still going to worship on Sunday. We’re just going to find somewhere else to worship.’
“We know that in the end, our God will be victorious,” Jindal said, and quoting from I Peter 1:5-9, he closed saying, “for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. May God continue to bless you and the great state of Louisiana.”