Winter 1989
Reformed Quarterly Volume 8, Issue 4
Everyone always expected RTS senior Mike Forester to play professional football. Let's face it, when your father is a veteran linebacker for the Green Bay Packers, your uncle plays for the Cleveland Browns, and your grandfather is a Dallas high school football coach who has a stadium named after him, do people really give you a choice? Friends might have given Mike a hard time, but he never felt an ounce of pressure from his father, Bill Forester -- eleven years with the Green Bay Packers, four years All-Pro and a member of two NFL championship teams. In fact, Mike's childhood would be a dream come true for almost any young boy in the United States. During the off-season his family enjoyed the advantages of life in the bustling metropolis of Dallas, Mike's birthplace. And during football season, they could appreciate the cozier confines of Green Bay, Wisconsin (pop. 68,000). " I grew up around football and from a young age was very influenced by the game," Mike remembers fondly. "I loved it because I was very athletic. I could name every Packer, where they were from, what college they attended. They were like family." Football was indeed in his blood, and by junior high school he had trouble concentrating on his studies. However, after being sentenced to a session of summer school, Mike shaped up and learned to study. By the time high school rolled around, he had learned to keep a healthy balance between school and sports. A gifted and dedicated athlete, Mike played most sports in high school -- basketball was one of his favorites. He was captain of his football team, voted an All-District player, and awarded the All-Sports trophy as best all-round athlete. A leader both on and off the field, Mike was chosen vice-president of his senior class and was very active in his church youth group. To no one's surprise, in 1973 he received a full four-year scholarship to the University of Mississippi, lettering each year as a defensive lineman. In addition to football, Mike became a key student leader in campus Christian organizations, first with Navigators, then the last year and a half with Campus Crusade. Yet, despite his leadership ability and his Christian background, Mike's college years were a struggle spiritually. "Being away from home and a secure environment really took its toll," Mike recalls. "I was leading two separate lives -- one with my friends in Christian organizations and another with my football buddies who introduced me for the first time to drinking and partying. It was a very hypocritical lifestyle." However, leading a double life required an incredible amount of energy. In addition, Mike could not get away from the guilt of his dishonest existence. The crowning blow came during his sophomore year. Mike was the only sophomore lineman on the team, and his line coach developed a severe and unreasonable grudge against him, subjecting him to almost constant verbal abuse; to this day Mike has no idea why he was treated in such a manner. But God was working in Mike's life even through this unsettling situation. "By the end of my sophomore football season, I had had enough," says Mike. "While at a Campus Crusade conference in Dallas, I was driving along one day, thinking about my life, and I saw clearly that I was not where I wanted to be. I pulled off the road and said, 'God, I really want to straighten out my life, and I need your help to do it.' That day, I recommitted my life to Christ and decided to change my life-style; the parties and drinking stopped. But I really had to separate myself to live the kind of life I wanted to lead." His drinking pals did not understand Mike's change of heart and became antagonistic, even though Mike witnessed to them. Consequently, life grew very lonely for Mike away from the field. Yet, he had two Christian friends, one of them his roommate, who had seen Mike live a hypocritical life and loved him through it all. Although working on a degree in banking and finance, Mike had always felt he would play professional football. His father's ties with the Packers would give him the needed opportunity if he wanted to try out. But again God intervened to turn Mike's life in a different direction. Mike suddenly realized that playing professional football was grueling work -- was he ready for that kind of commitment? In addition, his last season at the University of Mississippi was disappointing. Although the team was ranked in the top twenty and had one of the best defenses in the Southeastern Conference at the first of the season, the last three games of the year were totally disastrous. Mike was emotionally spent, and the thought of playing pro ball was more than he could handle. During this time he had become more and more involved with Campus Crusade and, after getting his degree in 1978, decided to go on staff with the ministry. A year later he married his wife Jan, also a Crusade staffer, and they went to the University of Alabama in 1979. They didn't know it then, but they were about to help build the second largest Crusade ministry in the country and one of the most significant Crusade ministries ever to occur in the South.
Everyone always expected RTS senior Mike Forester to play professional football. Let's face it, when your father is a veteran linebacker for the Green Bay Packers, your uncle plays for the Cleveland Browns, and your grandfather is a Dallas high school football coach who has a stadium named after him, do people really give you a choice? Friends might have given Mike a hard time, but he never felt an ounce of pressure from his father, Bill Forester -- eleven years with the Green Bay Packers, four years All-Pro and a member of two NFL championship teams. In fact, Mike's childhood would be a dream come true for almost any young boy in the United States. During the off-season his family enjoyed the advantages of life in the bustling metropolis of Dallas, Mike's birthplace. And during football season, they could appreciate the cozier confines of Green Bay, Wisconsin (pop. 68,000). " I grew up around football and from a young age was very influenced by the game," Mike remembers fondly. "I loved it because I was very athletic. I could name every Packer, where they were from, what college they attended. They were like family." Football was indeed in his blood, and by junior high school he had trouble concentrating on his studies. However, after being sentenced to a session of summer school, Mike shaped up and learned to study. By the time high school rolled around, he had learned to keep a healthy balance between school and sports. A gifted and dedicated athlete, Mike played most sports in high school -- basketball was one of his favorites. He was captain of his football team, voted an All-District player, and awarded the All-Sports trophy as best all-round athlete. A leader both on and off the field, Mike was chosen vice-president of his senior class and was very active in his church youth group. To no one's surprise, in 1973 he received a full four-year scholarship to the University of Mississippi, lettering each year as a defensive lineman. In addition to football, Mike became a key student leader in campus Christian organizations, first with Navigators, then the last year and a half with Campus Crusade. Yet, despite his leadership ability and his Christian background, Mike's college years were a struggle spiritually. "Being away from home and a secure environment really took its toll," Mike recalls. "I was leading two separate lives -- one with my friends in Christian organizations and another with my football buddies who introduced me for the first time to drinking and partying. It was a very hypocritical lifestyle." However, leading a double life required an incredible amount of energy. In addition, Mike could not get away from the guilt of his dishonest existence. The crowning blow came during his sophomore year. Mike was the only sophomore lineman on the team, and his line coach developed a severe and unreasonable grudge against him, subjecting him to almost constant verbal abuse; to this day Mike has no idea why he was treated in such a manner. But God was working in Mike's life even through this unsettling situation. "By the end of my sophomore football season, I had had enough," says Mike. "While at a Campus Crusade conference in Dallas, I was driving along one day, thinking about my life, and I saw clearly that I was not where I wanted to be. I pulled off the road and said, 'God, I really want to straighten out my life, and I need your help to do it.' That day, I recommitted my life to Christ and decided to change my life-style; the parties and drinking stopped. But I really had to separate myself to live the kind of life I wanted to lead." His drinking pals did not understand Mike's change of heart and became antagonistic, even though Mike witnessed to them. Consequently, life grew very lonely for Mike away from the field. Yet, he had two Christian friends, one of them his roommate, who had seen Mike live a hypocritical life and loved him through it all. Although working on a degree in banking and finance, Mike had always felt he would play professional football. His father's ties with the Packers would give him the needed opportunity if he wanted to try out. But again God intervened to turn Mike's life in a different direction. Mike suddenly realized that playing professional football was grueling work -- was he ready for that kind of commitment? In addition, his last season at the University of Mississippi was disappointing. Although the team was ranked in the top twenty and had one of the best defenses in the Southeastern Conference at the first of the season, the last three games of the year were totally disastrous. Mike was emotionally spent, and the thought of playing pro ball was more than he could handle. During this time he had become more and more involved with Campus Crusade and, after getting his degree in 1978, decided to go on staff with the ministry. A year later he married his wife Jan, also a Crusade staffer, and they went to the University of Alabama in 1979. They didn't know it then, but they were about to help build the second largest Crusade ministry in the country and one of the most significant Crusade ministries ever to occur in the South.
