My recent trip to Grove City, Pennsylvania was punctuated everywhere with a sense of appreciation for history. The college itself was founded in 1876. Brick, stone and mortar are the consistent building materials including the newer buildings that have been designed to blend with the old and present a seamless whole bordered everywhere by tall, broad hardwood trees – themselves sentinels of hundreds of years.

I stayed in the Cunningham house, one of the first homes to be built in Grove City in the mid-eighteen hundreds and recently lovingly restored.

Harbison Chapel, the architectural icon of campus, was erected in 1930, a high-ceilinged affair with a huge stained glass window on one end and two stands of organ pipes on the other. Intricate carvings on the ceiling beams 60 feet high at its peak have been recently rediscovered and enhanced with lighting. One step inside this building and you know nothing would be built like this today.

But the most amusing piece of history came from my driver to the airport who was a Grove City native and retired from 25 years with the police force. He told me about a football game in 1949 (he was there) between Grove City College and its cross-town rival, Slippery Rock University. It was the last year these two teams would play each other due to changing conferences so there was a lot riding on this final meeting. Who would have the last say?

Grove City was undefeated that year and heavily favored to win, but Slippery Rock managed an upset, and their delirious student body rushed the field and started tearing down the goal posts.

Dr. Weir Carlyle Ketler, President of Grove City College from 1916-1956, also ran out onto the field to try and stop this mayhem and got taken out by a punch to the face. Way to go, Pres, I thought. Way to take one for the team!

No heavy spiritual thought today, but I will say, this story inspires me to think about taking one for those I love like my family should it become necessary.