Spring-Summer 2013 issue is on its way

Posted By Ron Hadfield ON June 17, 2013 | Leave a comment »

Revised Cover verticalJuly 1 may be just another day on the 2013 calendar, but at Abilene Christian University it’s a landmark moment when the Wildcats again become members of the Southland Conference and officially begin life in NCAA Division I.

That move takes place with a new athletics logo on uniforms and other apparel, so we’re helping celebrate with the debut of the football team’s new helmet design on the cover of ACU Today’s Spring-Summer 2013 issue.

The cover story of our 80-pager (with another 32 pages of online-only Bonus Coverage) takes a look at the development of “The New Cat in Town,” and provides the inside scoop on a new athletics era in “Hello Division I,” including exciting news of some of the big-name competitors appearing on Wildcat schedules beginning this fall. Texas Tech in Moody Coliseum for women’s volleyball? Check. Men’s basketball games with teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and Atlantic 10 Conference? Yep. Baseball games against teams from the Big 12, Pac 12 and SEC? Sure.

We also provide a Southland Conference primer for fans, introducing them to the 13 other universities in the conference, and for extra measure, a sneak peak at the football team’s new Adidas uniforms and a look back at some Wildcat student-athletes whose names and numbers are still prominent in Southland record books. (ACU was a founding member of the conference in 1963.)

Other stories you won’t want to miss:

  • Profiles of the latest winners of major alumni awards: Cmdr. David Bynum (’84), Dr. Marcus Nelson (’94), Shannon (McKnight ’92) Wilburn, Rob Thomas (’96), Chad Baker (’99), Hal Runkel (’00), Curt Cloninger (’76) and Leon McNeil (’93);
  • “Down to the River to Pray,” featuring historical items from two fascinating collections of church baptistry murals in the Brown Library;
  • A Q&A with Dr. Robert Randolph (’66), who coordinates the work of chaplains at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers created tragedy for a member of MIT’s police force;
  •  “Hearing the Call,” a look by Paul A. Anthony (’04) at the WorldWide Witness program that introduces students of all majors to short-term missions;
  • “Just Their Type,” profiles by Katie (Noah ’06) Gibson and Robin (Ward ’82) Saylor of talented young designers from ACU’s Department of Art and Design who are making headlines in their profession. One of them, Jeff Rogers (’02), provided the illustrations for our story. Others profiled are Ryan Feerer (’05), Rolando Gutierrez Alcantra (’08) and Brent Couchman (’05), and in our online-only Bonus Coverage, Darbie Angell (’03), Alyssa Reeves (’97) and Garett (’09) and Jessica Mayfield (’10);
  • An early look at Homecoming – featuring Les Misérables as the musical – this October;
  • “The New Monk Warriors,” a Second Glance essay by Greg Taylor (minister of the Garnett Road Church of Christ in Tulsa, Okla.) that first appeared in Christianity Today. It documents the inspiring work done by theology faculty member Randy Harris and a group of ACU students committed to service and each other; and
  • Other ACU news, including the latest from your classmates in EXperiences. One sidebar there by Dr. Cheryl Mann Bacon (’76) looks at the way our campus community responded to Rex Fleming, a local 10-year-old boy who captured the hearts of Wildcat athletics teams and fans during his valiant stuggle with brain cancer. Rex, who died in late November, is the son of Lance (’92) and Jill Fleming.

Watch this blog in the next couple weeks for backstories of some of these major articles in the new issue.

Enjoy the online version here.

Young gets Rangers’ game off to a winning start

Posted By Ron Hadfield ON June 12, 2013 | Leave a comment »

Earl at Stadium Earl Young (’62) has been on center stage many times in his life, from winning an Olympic gold medal to setting world records in track and field. A pitching mound was foreign territory Monday night at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, but the former quartermiler delivered once again.

Fans at GameAbilene Christian University asked the longtime Dallas businessman to represent the Wildcats in throwing the ceremonial first pitch before the MLB game between Texas and Cleveland. Loud cheers resonated in right field from sections 247-251, where more than 770 friends and fans of ACU gathered for the annual summertime get-together sponsored by the Alumni Association.

Earl Young portraitYoung won a gold medal in Rome with his country’s 1600-meter relay team during the 1960 Olympic Games, and also finished sixth in the 400 meters. At age 19, he was the youngest member of the U.S. track and field team and one of the brightest stars in the sport.

Wearing an ACU baseball jersey Monday night, the 72-year-old former Olympic star brought his gold medal to show to Wildcat fans of all ages. He called his baseball experience “fantastic” on a night when the Rangers won, 6-3, and he shook hands before the game with the team’s CEO, Nolan Ryan, who knows a thing or two about pitching.

“This ranks way up there at the top,” said Young, who appeared on the June 19, 1961, cover of Sports Illustrated magazine as a sophomore wearing his ACU track and field uniform.

Abilene Christian had a similar opportunity at a Rangers’ game June 12, 2012, when ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert (’91) threw the ceremonial first pitch. He was joined on the field that night by country music star Aaron Watson (’00), who sang the national anthem.

See the Alumni Relations Flickr page for more images from the Rangers’ game. Thanks to Kim Leeson and Rachael Hubbard for their photography.

Earline Perry advanced her husband’s vision

Posted By Ron Hadfield ON June 10, 2013 | 1 Comment »

ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert presents Earline Perry with the 2013 Dale and Rita Brown Outlive Your Life Award.

ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert presents Earline Perry with the 2013 Dale and Rita Brown Outlive Your Life Award.

Earline (Davidson ’48) Perry may have lost her husband, Lowell (’47), 36 years ago in a tragic accident, but not his love for World Christian Broadcasting and spreading the gospel to people around the world.

Perry, a professor of journalism and mass communication and founder of on-campus radio station KACU, died March 25, 1977, when a plane in which he and two others were traveling crashed over the Caribbean island of Martinique while they were researching possible locations for a shortwave radio tower.

His widow encouraged WCB to persevere through some tough times, and today it reaches billions of people through 20 hours of broadcasting each day in Chinese, Russian and English.

Earline’s quiet philanthropy and faithful influence as a WCB board member helped Abilene Christian University decide to honor her with the Dale and Rita Brown Outlive Your Life Award at Commencement on May 11, 2013.

The Outlive Your Life award is named for its first recipients – Dale and Rita Brown – and takes it name from the 2010 book by Max Lucado (’77). The award recognizes all types of servant-leadership exhibited by friends or alumni of the university.

Earline is the mother of three ACU grads: David (’73), Susan (’77) and Greg Perry (’84). Three of her four grandchildren also graduated from Abilene Christian.

In our Fall-Winter issue this December, look for a profile of her work and WCB’s influence on global missions.

Service flag remembered World War II vets

Posted By Ron Hadfield ON May 27, 2013 | Leave a comment »

War FlagOne inspiring story to remember on this Memorial Day comes from No Ordinary University: The Story of a City Set on a Hill, the 1998 Abilene Christian University history book by Dr. John C. Stevens (’38).

During World War II, the ACU campus remembered its students, faculty and alumni serving in the military with a 6 foot by 8 foot 6 inch service flag that was displayed in Sewell Auditorium, where the campus community met for daily Chapel, and the College Church of Christ met for services. The Cadettes women’s social club, sponsored by Alma Morlan (wife of Dr. G.C. Morlan), affixed blue stars it assigned to each individual. When word of the death of a person in service came to the registrar’s office, the Cadettes replaced his or her blue star with a gold one.

Today, the service flag is displayed in the Jennings House, which serves as the ACU Museum on the corner of Campus Court and East North 16th street.

By July 1944, Abilene Christian’s seventh president Dr. Don H. Morris (’24) said that “approximately eight hundred ACC boys, four of them faculty members on leave, are in the service. Twelve of them have given their lives in service to the nation; others are missing.” Stevens, ACU’s eighth president, wrote in his book that 1,088 stars eventually were affixed, and 40 of them were gold.

Stevens said each gold star was worthy of an essay, but this one stood out to him:

“Paul Sherrod Jr., of Lubbock, was killed in Leyte [in the Philippines] in December 1944. He had been a student from 1939-1942. On his body was found a clipping from an ACC Bulletin printed in 1943 and reprinted in the Optimist of Nov. 26, 1943. The article was a message the college hoped students would learn. The fact that Paul carried the clipping with him into battle shows how deeply students can be influenced by their years on the campus. Author of the article was Max Leach, and it was titled ‘The Promise of Abilene Christian College to Its Students of the Past, of the Present and of the Future.’ ”

The message read:

“Since the past is gone, and the future is yet to be, this promise is to you, students of the present.

Believing first that the Christian life is the only life to be lived, I will do all that is in my power to help you to live as a Christian.

Believing that the greatest characters that have ever lived are the humble, the serving, the unselfish, I will do my best to inspire you and to education or mold your life around these qualities. …

… Believing that not riches, nor power, nor world glory nor fame, nor pride of life constitutes success or contribute to the happy life, I will not try to make of you a stuffy intellectual or a learned snob, but will give you an education that is useful in the living of a life among men, and towards spending eternity on the banks of the River of Life.

Believing that you are an individual, having your own hopes and fears, abilities and limitations, talents and defects, I will treat you as such – loving you, cherishing you. You will not be just a number or a name in my roll book.

Believing that your soul is precious in the sight of God, I will aid your development as a Christian and cause you to be well-pleasing to him.”

Leach was a professor in the Department of Psychology, Sociology and Social Work. From 1942-48 he was executive secretary of the Alumni Association, and publicity director. Morlan came to Abilene Christian in 1915 to begin the Department of Home Economics.

KOCO-TV anchor Edwards covering tornado

Posted By Ron Hadfield ON May 21, 2013 | Leave a comment »

WENDELL-EDWARDS-jpgAbilene Christian University journalism graduate Wendell Edwards (’92) is helping Oklahoma City’s KOCO-TV5 provide live coverage of the aftermath of yesterday’s deadly tornado in nearby Moore, Okla.

Edwards, a 2005 recipient of the Gutenberg Award for distinguished career achievement from ACU’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, anchors Eyewitness News 5 in The Morning.

Prior to joining KOCO-TV in 2009, he served as a general assignment reporter at KHOU-TV in Houston, Texas. He also reported and anchored for WOOD-TV News 8 in Grand Rapids, Mich., and WIS News-10 in Columbia, S.C.

A seven-time all-America hurdler for the Wildcats who twice was named academic all-America, he participated in the 1992 Olympic Trials in track and field.

Watch KOCO-TV’s live coverage here.

Video golf feature pairs Carpenter, Schubert

Posted By Ron Hadfield ON May 17, 2013 | Leave a comment »

In this month’s Wildcat Video Minute, Grant Boone (’91) and Emmy Award-winning CBS Sports producer Lance Barrow (’77) – as well as ACU’s Alex Carpenter, one of the best collegiate golfers in the nation – recently teamed up for a little fun with ACU president Dr. Phil Schubert (’91). Boone is an ACU alumni relations officer and the play-by-play voice of Wildcat sports radio broadcasts.

Winner of the 2010 Southern Amateur and what is believed to be a collegiate record 20 tournaments during his four-year career, as well as the Phil Mickelson Award and the Jack Nicklaus Award, Carpenter will be playing this summer in the international Palmer Cup for the second time. That Ryder Cup-style tournament – June 7-9 at Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Del. – pits the best collegians from the U.S. against those from Europe. A May 2013 graduate, Carpenter is the only U.S. representative from a non-Division I program.

Carpenter is a three-time all-America selection who appeared in the April 22 edition of Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd”.

A conversation with Shannon Wilburn

Posted By Robin Saylor ON May 13, 2013 | Leave a comment »

In 1997, Shannon (McKnight ’92) Wilburn had a simple idea: Make extra cash by selling “gently used” children’s clothes from the living room of her home. Her side business has since grown into Just Between Friends, a national children’s and maternity consignment franchise she co-founded that made Inc. magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies, Entrepreneur magazine’s Top 500 Franchises and Kiplinger magazine’s “One of Eight Franchises Worth Buying.” In 2012, Just Between Friends was one of only 75 companies nationwide to receive the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Blue Ribbon Award. Hear Wilburn, who visited Abilene Christian University’s campus last month, as she discusses her adventure in business. Also, read her tips for entrepreneurs.

A conversation with author Hal Runkel

Posted By Robin Saylor ON May 3, 2013 | Leave a comment »

Hal Runkel (’94 M.M.F.T.), best-selling author of ScreamFree Parenting, ScreamFree Marriage and The Self-Centered Marriage, spoke on the Abilene Christian University campus this semester as part of the university’s Sacred Relationships series.

Runkel, a graduate of ACU’s Master of Marriage and Family Therapy program and a 2012 recipient of ACU’s Distinguished Alumni Citation, is an expert on helping families face conflict and create great relationships. The licensed therapist, relationship coach, international speaker and organizational consultant is founder and president of The ScreamFree Institute, an international training organization dedicated to calming the world, one relationship at a time. He presents the ScreamFree relationship programs to audiences around the world through live training events, teleconferences, webinars and publications. In addition, he actively trains and supervises hundreds of other family professionals working to further the ScreamFree movement.

He and his message have been featured on more than 1,000 media outlets, including NBC’s Today show, and in Redbook and Good Housekeeping. Take a few minutes to listen as Runkel discusses emotional reactivity, vulnerability and how his time at ACU created a solid foundation for his life.

Phillips Education Building dedicated

Posted By Paul Anthony ON May 2, 2013 | 2 Comments »

The east entrance to Phillips Education Building

The east entrance to Phillips Education Building

What’s in a name?

For Danny Phillips (’81), it’s the love for Christian education modeled by his parents, Paul (’58) and Linda Phillips, whom the newly named Phillips Education Building now honors.

“My mom and dad, they devoted their lives to education,” Phillips told about 100 friends, relatives, and ACU faculty and students at the April 17 dedication ceremony for the facility. “It makes perfect sense to honor mom and dad in this way.”

The emotional ceremony formalized a name change that has been in the works since late last year, when Danny and his wife, Carole (Hunter ’81), established the Phillips Family Endowed Scholarship for students in the Department of Teacher Education.

Because newly established endowments require about a year of investment before they produce scholarship funds, the couple made an additional gift to provide an immediate scholarship for an ACU education student. Whitney White, senior elementary education major from Trophy Club, Texas, received the award.

White, who is among the first students to go through a combined five-year teacher education program to receive both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, has been instrumental in reviving Kappa Delta Pi, the on-campus chapter of the national education honor society, and is its president.

“We’re proud of what you’ve accomplished so far,” Phillips told her. “You’re so young, and you’ve done so much. We hope this award will  help you reach all of your hopes and your dreams.”

Paul Phillips met Linda Brewer on the University of North Texas campus before he transferred to ACU, where he received bachelor’s (1958) and master’s (1963) degrees while also preaching for Churches of Christ across Texas. In 1964, he began a 24-year career at The University of Texas at Arlington, ultimately serving as chair of the UTA religion department.

As members of the North Davis Church of Christ in Arlington, the Paul and Linda served as director and secretary, respectively, of the UTA Church of Christ Student Center. They mentored and ministered to students, developing lifelong friendships that remain today. Paul died in 2011, but his widow attended last week’s dedication ceremony and received a prolonged standing ovation.

“We lost my dad,” Danny Phillips said, pausing as he choked back tears. “He would be so humbled to see what we’re doing today.”

Phillips noted that his sister and his wife both received education degrees from ACU, and that his daughter, Emily, is a senior elementary education major.

“This is a special place to us,” he said. “It has been a blessing to us for generations.”

The east entrance to Phillips Education Building

The west entrance to Phillips Education Building

The education facility began life as Catchings Cafeteria from its construction in 1955 until 1968, when it became the Burford Music Center. When the Williams Performing Arts Center opened in 2004, an extensive renovation made way for the College of Education and Human Services – which comprises the School of Social Work and the departments of teacher education, communication sciences and disorders, kinesiology and nutrition, and graduate studies in education – but the Education Building remained without a formal name for eight years.

The decision to name the facility for Paul and Linda came not just from the recent endowment gift but from “a lifetime of giving,” said Phil Boone (’83), vice president for advancement. Danny and Carole Phillips were lead donors for construction of the Hunter Welcome Center and the Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center, and they are members of the President’s Venture Council, a small group of leading ACU donors. Carole is a member of the ACU Board of Trustees, a position in which Danny also has served.

“I’ve known Danny for a long time, and in recent years we’ve become close friends,” Boone said, stopping as he also struggled to hold back his tears. “The emotion comes from getting to know his heart. He’s got heart and compassion that not many people get to know.”

_________, Carole Phillips, Linda Phillips and Danny Phillips

Whitney White, Carole Phillips, Linda Phillips and Danny Phillips

Danny Phillips and his mother, Linda

Danny Phillips and his mother, Linda

2013 Summit program booklet available online

Posted By Ron Hadfield ON May 1, 2013 | Leave a comment »

Abilene Christian University’s 107th annual Summit may still be several months away (Sept. 15-18), but you can explore the program booklet for it today.

margins-spotlight“Margins: Following Jesus at the Edge in Luke’s Gospel” is the theme, as the popular event formerly known as Bible Lectureship takes a look at how to minister to people from all walks of life, even when we may disagree on the best ways to bridge difficult issues with them and with each other.

“The gospels share stories of what happens when our different beliefs and practices face the Son of God” says Dr. Brady Bryce (’95), ACU’s assistant professor of ministry, director of contextual education and director of ministry events. “The 2013 Summit theme is one that challenges all of us to pay attention to the outsider. It calls us to the edge of discipleship where Jesus leads in service.”

Theme Speakers this year are Jonathan Storment, preaching minister of Abilene’s Highland Church of Christ; Aaron Metcalf (’02), preaching minister of Westside Church of Christ in Hillsboro, Ore.; Eric Wilson, executive minister, Sycamore View Church of Christ in Memphis, Tenn.; Sean Palmer, senior minister, Vine Church, Temple, Texas; Gordon Dabbs, preaching minister at Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Dallas; Larry James, president and CEO of CitySquare in Dallas, Texas; and John Mark Hicks, professor of theology and history at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.

Featured Guests are Luke Timothy Johnson, the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology; Peter Williams, warden of Tyndale House and honorary senior lecturer in biblical studies at the University of Aberdeen; and Scot McKnight, popular speaker, professor and blogger. McKnight’s award-winning books include The Jesus Creed and The Blue Parakeet.

Summit events include late-night concerts, and coffee houses with Dr. Richard Beck (’89), ACU associate professor and chair of psychology; Dr. Steven Moore, assistant professor of language and literature; and Jerry Hendrix, owner of Monks Coffee in Abilene. Sub-tracks feature classes in church planting, children’s ministry, youth ministry, women in ministry, preaching ministry, deaf ministry and leading in worship. More than 120 speakers from around the world – including archeologist Gabriel Barkay from Jerusalem, Israel – are among the program participants.