Supporters reminded of potential eternal benefits

Craig Ratzlaff was an ideal person to tell the story.

As a Hillsboro High School graduate and former standout football player at Tabor College, Ratzlaff embodied the unique partnership between the local public school district and the college as the two entities broke ground Saturday for the new Joel Wiens Stadium.

Now a member of the college?s board of directors and the leader of Tabor?s fundraising effort for the proposed football and track-and-field facility, Ratzlaff told the story of a teammate whose life was changed because of participating in the Bluejay football program.

?Twenty-six years ago a friend of mine came to Tabor to play football,? said Ratzlaff, who now lives in Wichita. ?He came from South Florida. He didn?t know Christ. He didn?t know anything about Kansas.

?He called me the other day and said, ?You know, I came here to participate in football, but it was Christ who changed my life.??

Ratzlaff asked the crowd during the halftime presentation to consider the eternal impact of a new athletic facility.

?As we look around at the old wooden boards of the bleachers, at the rusty iron, at the scoreboard that has never changed, and at the fallen-down press box, we can look back with some thanks at some great memories,? Ratzlaff said.

?But I invite you also to look forward, to what lives could be changed on a new field.?

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