Yogi

I am a pastor. This Holy Week the world has seen yet another major attack by radical jihadists. Naturally, my thoughts turn to Yogi Ferrell.

Yogi just finished a basketball career that earns him a spot on the Indiana University Mt. Rushmore 2^nd Team*. The IU program lists him at six feet tall. If Yogi is six feet tall I am Ernest Hemingway (though Yogi's biceps together might measure 72 inches.) During his time in Bloomington he got into a couple of common college scrapes. A false ID figured largely in one. Yogi hung in there as teammates quit, got arrested for drunk driving, left early for the NBA. It seems like Yogi has been at IU since I was.

Yogi holds the all-time IU records for games started and assists. Last night Yogi and his teammates lost his final college game. His coach, the estimable Tom Crean, pulled him with half a minute left. Though Yogi did NOT want to leave the court, Crean understood that the fans needed the chance to thank him for all that time and excellence. More importantly, Yogi needed to hear them do so. Even fans of the other three teams playing there joined in the unanimous standing ovation. Crean and Yogi hugged it out. A reporter on the sidelines heard Coach telling Yogi, “Thank you for all you've given us.”

An hour later in the locker room, Yogi sat in front of his locker, still wearing his jersey. “I might wear it to the hotel,” he said. “That's how much I don't want to take it off.”

The kid is 22 years old. He plays basketball. Why do I care so much? I just do. I am a native-born Hoosier. I played basketball at Bloomington North high school. With my wife Linda I played four years in the basketball pep band at IU. We had to wear red turtlenecks with goofy white vests. The last time I had to pull off that white vest I hesitated. I was in a hotel room in Philadelphia, just as Yogi was last night. I looked in the mirror. I cried. I cried like a baby.

Thank you, Yogi. Thank you Isiah, Ray, Landon, Randy, Ted and all the rest who have worn that jersey. Thank you Linda, Mary Sue, Tammy, Steve, Doug and all the rest who wore that stupid white vest. It is a great privilege in a complicated, frightening world to belong to something foolish that matters so much.

* Mt. Rushmore Teams are a recent phenomenon in which people argue endlessly over which four people belong on top. Instead of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and T. Rosie, my IU Mt. Rushmore 1^st team is Calbert Cheney, Scott May, Steve Alford and Don Schlundt. My IU Mt. Rushmore 2^nd team is Yogi, Quinn Buckner, Walt Bellamy and Mike Woodson. If you disagree, understand two things: first, my rankings are limited only to those players who completed their eligibility at IU and second, you're wrong.