Several years ago I was told about a grandma who had a couple of grandsons on the team. Grandma would ask when the bus would be leaving town to go to the game. She then would arrive where the bus was loading and bring dozens of cookies to the team.

A few years ago a grandma was talking to me about the basketball games being played at the high school. I asked if she still went to the games since her grandkids had all graduated. She said her and her husband talked about not going anymore, but they liked to watch the kids so much they decided to keep attending. She then said, “We adopted your two girls and went to the games to specifically watch and cheer for them.” She also said, “When your girls graduate, we will adopt a couple more kids to go and watch.”

Since I broadcast games on the radio, people approach me in town and want to talk about the local high school teams. One day another grandma was talking to me about the local teams. I asked her if she still went to the games. She said, “Heavens no, at my age I have no business being out after dark with my bad eyesight, but I listen to the games every Tuesday and Friday night from September through state basketball.” And she also said, “Before every game, I pray for the kids in the games, the coach, the parents and fans who drive to the games.”

Recently, I read a story about when the communists in 1917 took over Russia. They killed most of the priest and nuns and blew up churches to try to convince the people to stay away. The only ones left coming to the few churches left were a few old grandmothers who continued to clean and pray. Lenin said, “That is okay, in a few years, when the grandmothers die, no one will know we had churches in Russia.”

The writer of the story went to Russia shortly before the Berlin wall was torn down, about 70 years after Lenin made his statement on grandmothers. The writer of the article said there were some old grandmothers in the sanctuaries cleaning and praying in the churches they visited. Those grandmothers most likely weren’t even born yet or were little kids when Lenin said what he said about grandmothers.

Faith was somehow being passed on and the flame of Christianity was still burning.

So do you have grandmothers watching over your football team and hanging around your churches planting flowers, cleaning, cooking and praying? If not, you need to recruit some!

Those grandmothers might be just what we need to keep the game of football alive in America. I can just hear grandma now, “Just get on out there and go out for the football team, it was good for your grandpa, your uncles and your Dad and it will be good for you too.”