I love it when my Mom cleans out the basement of her house. There’s always a treasure trove of items from my youth that gets discovered, having been boxed up—sometimes for decades. And during my vacation visit she unearthed another one: The posters that adorned my walls in college. Amid the odd Pink Floyd and Zeppelin posters and my M.C. Esher prints were my sports tributes: Mostly Don Mattingly and other Yankee greats, but there was one stark exception. It was my Ralph Sampson “Three-time Player of the Year” poster. Unlike my Don Mattingly poster, it wasn’t a life-sized door poster because, well, Ralph was taller than my door. But it brought back a lot of memories.
For about 25 years, about all UVA basketball fans had to look forward to was the past. That’s not to disparage any of the players or coaches over the last couple of decades, and there have been flashes of hope here and there, but for the most part if Virginia fans have wanted to revel in basketball success, they’ve had to drift back in their memories to the Sampson era.
And I thought about how, over the past couple of years, the only time I’ve thought about Ralph was when he was here for ESPN’s College Gameday before the Duke game last season. Because over the last couple of years Tony Bennett’s system has put UVA back on the basketball map. He’s done it by focusing on defense and character. The five pillars of character he has built the program on are humility, passion, unity, servanthood and thankfulness. Those are basic principles, but when we focus on first principles success usually follows.
As we get ready to celebrate Cherry Avenue’s 60th Anniversary we can look back and see a lot that God has done here over the last half-century-plus. Hundreds of people led to Christ, dozens of churches planted—either directly by us or through our partnership with the VEF, millions given to missions, countless lives touched in the community through our ministries. And all of that is cause for celebration.
But another thought occurred to me as I was looking at that old poster of Ralph Sampson: In the “Glory Days” of Ralph’s years in Charlottesville, UVA never even won the ACC Tournament. But they did win an ACC Tournament in 2014. Sometimes the best days can come after what are thought of as the glory days. And due to Coach Bennett’s focus on the fundamentals of his program, UVA has been tabbed by the basketball writers to be one of the top five programs best set up to have success over the next five years. Maybe the glory days are in the here and now.
And as much as God has done here over the last six decades, if we stay focused on the gospel and our three pillars our glory days can still be ahead of us.
Sharing Hope—Every one of us committed to reaching out with the love of Christ and the message of the Gospel, not leaving it to others to do.
Building Faith—Every one of us committed to doing everything we can to grow in our faith: By being in worship, in a Bible School class or small group, and spending time in personal study.
Showing Love—Every one of us committed to BEING the church, not just GOING to church; being the physical presence of Christ in the lives of the people around us.
I enjoyed seeing my old Sampson poster, alongside my can of “Cavalier Orange” soda that had his picture on it. But I’m enjoying even more having hope that even better things are coming. It’s nice to know the glory days can be right now.