"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play…it is war minus the shooting."
Love Game
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Fritz Glaus with Mike Yorkey, Levita Media, 2012. ISBN: 978-1479124947
Fritz Glaus travelled with men’s tennis tour for twelve years, on the road ten months a year watching an estimated 21,000 tennis matches in that time.
The job involved “conducting twice-weekly Bible studies, meeting one-on-one with players, forming friendships in the locker rooms with some of the most famous tennis players in the world and organizing housing for players with Christian families”. The book tells his story.
As the world sports ministry network has been very poor at documenting its history, this book makes an invaluable contribution to our knowledge. At a time when sports chaplaincy is well established, it is interesting to read an account of pioneer ministry.
It is a book of two halves – an account of what Fritz did followed by chapters on some of the elite players he worked with. While I found the account of the formation and development of tennis ministry very useful. I was less convinced about the value of a series of anecdotes about famous tennis players.
Fritz’s account of his interactions with Andre Agassi are interesting, painting quite a different picture of Agassi from that revealed in Agassi’s own autobiography. The famous story of Nduka Odizor lending an opponent his shows is documented in the book.
I also found the following quote from a former elite player, Ros Fairbanks, very honest and helpful: “When I was on the tour, I was so highly competitive that it was hard for me to be a Christian. I once asked Stan Smith how he reconciled being a believer and competing so hard, and he said you should go out there and play for the glory of God. That was a difficult concept for me to grasp because I was so hung up on winning. In fact, I still struggle with being competitive and being a Christian”. Many Christian players will resonate with that.