Currents Magazine Winter 2015

a convincing outcome. The only one’s that
were not too surprised were the team members
themselves.”
Pepperdine stands as the only college with
a football program that advanced to a bowl
game in its first year in existence.
From then on, the team carried itself with
pride. “We used football to prove that
Christians weren’t sissies,” said John Skelly
(’56) who played on the team from 1954-
55.
But Pepperdine’s athletics budget wasn’t
limitless, and football fell to that reality.
According to Dave Grenley’s four-volume
publication, “The History of Pepperdine
Football,” in 1961, “the Pepperdine College
Board of Trustees conducted a detailed
study on the feasibility of the football
program moving forward. They found the
heavy cost of continuing to field a competitive
team was too great … The decision was
not a reflection of the football team’s performance
or popularity.”
Although, the current lack of a football
team doesn’t diminish the uplifting stories
of former players.
39 · CURRENTS
“Thank You, Sir”
From birth, 92-year-old Nelson said he
has felt God’s hand guiding his life. He
was born with pyelitis kidney disease, and
the prognosis didn’t look good. His mother
told him, “Doctors kept me alive by feeding
me a teaspoon of what she called ‘whiskey’
two times a day for two weeks.”
“I think the good Lord up there looked
down on me and said, ‘Oh, no, no, no, it’s
not his time yet. We’re going to have to
make things up for him,’” Nelson said.
He told the story of how he ended up in
the Coast Guard by chance. At the service
recruitment office, he happened to walk
down certain hallways and turn into an office
that saved him from spending service
time in more dangerous positions.
Then, while serving his three years in the
Coast Guard, he recalled several instances
in which they shot down Japanese kamikaze
planes in close proximity, or in which
he witnessed German underwater missiles
narrowly miss hitting their ship.
Each time he recalls one of those moments
in his life, he glances upwards, points to the
sky and softly says, “Thank you, sir.”
In 1946, as a war veteran, Nelson wanted
to gain the experience of playing for a
collegiate football team. He said he first
approached the football coach at Whittier.
The second he revealed he had no prior
football experience, the coach said, “We
can’t use you.” Undeterred, Nelson went to
USC, but he said the campus overwhelmed
him and caused him to feel out of place.
In his final attempt, Nelson entered the
Pepperdine administration building early
one morning. Upon arrival, Nelson could
tell the dean wasn’t impressed with his academic
background. However, for whatever
reason, the dean decided to let Nelson
prove himself.
“About a week before starting [the quarter],
he told me to enroll in a full load of classes,
and if you can prove you can do the work,
we’ll allow you to continue,” Nelson said.
“I never studied so hard in my life, but I
made it.”
That happened to be a commonality among
GPC football players: The jocks extended
their passion for sports to an appreciation
for education.