A crowd of about 300 wide-eyed students, parents and others from around the community all watch anxiously as coach Bob Backus sits on a plastic cafeteria chair. He runs his fingers through his hair, knowing this is the last time he will be able to do this for a while.
At the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Annual Kick-Off party Sept. 16, the crowd of 300 people sat and watched as senior Addy O’Neal shaved off Coach Bob Backus’ hair, revealing the gruesomely painful scar that marks the right side of his head.
“I probably shouldn’t have [shaved my head], but it was a really good crowd and a lot of the kids really wanted to see it done,” Backus said. “ When people actually see the scar, it makes my story more meaningful. I felt it would make my story more effective.”
That night, Backus shared his story that still haunts him to this day. Five years ago, Backus was walking through the gym on his way to football practice when he was hit on the head by a basketball. He went to a clinic four weeks later, where doctors told him he would need an MRI. He was diagnosed with subdural hematoma, the number one leading cause of death among brain injuries.
“I really wasn’t too worried about it,” Backus said. “I didn’t understand.”
Four days later, doctors wheeled him into surgery.
“I wasn’t sure I was ready,” Backus said. “It [made me] think, why am I doing what I’m doing? Why am I living the way that I live? Why am I doing the things that I do sometimes? And sometimes I still have to ask myself those questions, but here’s what I figured out- through all of that stuff, God’s always there.”
Backus said he got the best advice he had ever gotten from the athletic director he was working for at the time of his incident.
“He looked right at me and said, ‘Well, I guess it’s time you stop talking about your faith and you start living it,’ ” Backus said.
Since then, that’s what has happened. As the FCA sponsor, Backus said he is able to tell his story, shed light on who he really is, and share his beliefs in the hope that it will strike a nerve with young people to hopefully help improve their own relationship with Christ, athlete or not.
“FCA is for everyone, we all need Jesus and we all need to be working hard at improving our relationship with Christ daily,” Backus said. “I would truly hate for someone that wants to be involved to stay away from it because they aren’t an athlete. You don’t have to be an athlete to be a great Christian, and we can all learn a lot from great Christians.”
