[Note: In the Arrangement section, the notation “folder 2-5" means “Box 2, Folder 5"]

The records in this collection consist of correspondence, minutes of meetings, lists of names and addresses, testimonies, newspaper clippings, audio tapes, films, photographs, and other materials. The documents in the collection describe the origins and internal development of Champions for Life (CFL); the planning and impact of its city-wide evangelistic meetings, prison ministry, television, radio and audio tape work, and fund raising efforts. There is also some information in the collection about other evangelistic ministries in the United States, the use of sports in evangelism, and the conditions in prisons around the country. The titles of the folders in almost all cases are those which were on the original folder. The archivist arranged the paper materials into three sections: General, City-Wide Crusades, and Prison Ministry. Note: The orignal name of the organization was the Bill Glass Evangelistic Association, soon changed to Bill Glass Ministries and then changed again in the early 1990s to Champions for Life. Throughout this guide, the organizaiton is usally referred to as Champions for Life or CFL.

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Series: I. General Files

Arrangement: Alphabetical

Date Range: 1957-1995

Volume: 9.45 cubic feet

Boxes: 1-12, 21-29

Geographic coverage: United States

Type of documents: Correspondence, reports, budgets, press releases, clippings, newsletters, statistics

Subjects: life and ministry of Bill Glass, the organizational development of his ministry, sports evangelism, prison ministry, radio ministry, fund raising methods

Notes: Most the material in this section is concerned with either the administration, staff, fund raising efforts, or planning process within CFL, although naturally is also much information on the city-wide meetings and especially the prison work.

Exceptional items: There is also a little material on the pre-1969 ministry of Bill Glass, such as his efforts to make an evangelistic film in 1964 (folder 4-8) and some of his first contacts with Evangelical publishers (folder 6-19). Folder 6-13 contains part of the 1957 press release which announced his being named All American and the press release he gave out when he retired from professional football and went into full time ministry. (Also of interest is film number F20 in collection 113, which contains a segment of Glass speaking about his faith at a 1965 Bill Graham evangelistic meeting.) Other information about Glass can be found in practically every folder of the collection. The clippings in folders 1-8, 5-12, 6-4, 6-13, and especially box 21 give some background on his career and the work of the organization. Folder 7-8 through 10-1 include correspondence about the numerous Christian and motivational speaking engagements he accepted around the country. The audio tapes in the collection contain samples of the talks he gave to both religious and secular groups. Several folders (1-8, 3-9, 5-7, 7-1, 10-5, 12-5) contain reference material such as notes or anecdotes or data which he apparently used on these occasions as well as during his preaching. Samples of his sermons and speeches are in folder 5-15 and are also on the audio tapes in the collection, where he preaches evangelistic sermons and also on such topics as marriage, loving oneself, and the way to grow in the Christian life. Folder 6-22 contains a list of some of his speaking engagements. Important sources of information on the development of the ministry are the files and correspondence of the board of directors (folders 1-16 through 2-7), the advisory board (folder 1-2) and the executive committee of the board of directors (folders 2-15 through 4-4). Most of these files consist of correspondence, although there are also some minutes. The minutes usually contain short reports on current activities, future plans, and staff changes. These are an excellent, indeed essential, source for the study of the methods, goals, and growth of the organization. There are also copies of budgets and expense reports. Also of interest is a copy of the articles of incorporation for BGM in folder 1-7. (These might not be a copy of the final articles, since they list the headquarters of CFL as being in Alabama rather than Texas.)

Documents about the activities of staff members can be found in folders 1-9, 3-14, and 10-6 to 11-3. Folder 11-1 and some others contain charts and statistical summaries of the way crusade directors were spending their time and these give a good idea of the kind of activities involved in planning evangelistic meetings. Files 10-6 and 10-7, among others, contain dozens of letters from William Carlson, Clyde Dupin and other crusade directors on the work being done on specific crusades, as well as information on other projects they were working on for CFL. (Of related interested are the sampling of letters in folder 1-15 from people who wrote to Glass to tell him how much they had been helped by the work of CFL.) Information in Dupin’s independent ministry is in folder 25-11.

In the staff files and in the executive committee and board of directors files are several references to the work of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which the directors and staff took as a model in the organization's early years. See, for example, the letter dated 7/8/71 in folder 2-2 and the BGEA newsletter used as a sample in folder 6-13. Another Christian organization on which there is information is the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (folder 4-6). Many of the athletes for whom there are press releases or other information in folders 20-5 to 20-32 were members of the Fellowship. A few files have reports and other background information on the work of other Christian groups, such as the Institute of Basic Youth Conflicts (folder 5-6), the National Association of Evangelicals (folder 5-17), National Religious Broadcasters (folder 5-18) and Navajo Missions (6-1).

In the early 70s, UP Inc. was created to distribute Glass' audio tapes and books. Folder 11-13 contains information on the work of this organization, as do folders 3-1, 3-2 and

5-10. Another form of outreach CFL was very interested in was television. At various times in its history the organization did television specials about their work and for a while Glass hosted an interview program called Sportsight, on which he talked to other Christian athletes. Besides the reports in the board of directors and executive committee files, information on this aspect of CFL's work can be found in folders 11-5 through 11-9 and 20-33. Some of the people who appeared on Sportsight have individual folders between 20-5 and 20-32. Folders 6-15 and 6-16 contain some information about CFL investigation into the possibilities of a radio ministry. The organization in 1972 considered buying a radio station in Kansas that had been offered to it and information about this is in folder 6-17, as well as the files of the executive committee and the board of directors. In the mid 70s, Glass experimented with multi-media presentations of his evangelistic message to live audiences and some of the sermons he used are in folders 5-14 and 5-15. Folders 4-7 and 4-9 contain information on CFL's film, Get in the Game. Folders 5-2 and 6-3 contain information on the development of the organization's newsletter. Some samples of the earliest CFL newsletter, The Crusader, are in folder 6-13. Others can be found in folder 21-19.

Many of the files in this section deal with CFL's fund raising efforts through direct mail, personal contacts and foundation proposals. Among the files with relevant information, including letters, lists of contributors, and plans for fund raising campaigns, are 3-7, 3-8, 4-10 through 4-12, 4-17 through 5-1, 6-7, 6-14, 11-10, 11-12, 11-14, 11-15, 12-1, 15-3, and 15-4. Several foundation proposals, including one to World Vision, can be found in folders 25-7 through 25-10.

In the majority of the folders in this collection the researchers can find examples of the use of sports as metaphor for life and the use of the contacts Glass made because of his career in football for evangelistic purposes. A few of the folders that are particularly rich in sports evangelism material or at least sports-related materials are 1-13, 4-6, 5-15, 6-10, 7-9, 10-4, 10-5, and 20-5 through 20-33. The audio tapes in this collection of Glass's sermons and speeches are filled with sports anecdotes and examples. Of particular interest is tape T2, where he describes the Christian life in sports terms and tape T3 in which he talks to university athletes about how to psych themselves up for a game and relates this to they way they should live their lives.

Boxes 22-29 contain a variety of files from mid 1980s to the early 1990s, including Bill Glass’s general correspondence, budgets and annual reports, statistics, and planning materials. It is not a complete or consistent set of materials for each year, but rather what appears to be a sampling of materials sent to the Archives. Besides letters to donors, there are also correspondence between staff members about future plans and fund raising. Folders 29-2 and 3 contains testimonials from people who participated in the prison ministry as volunteers. Some reports from other prison ministries can be found in folder 22-9 and folder 22-10 contains samples of fund raising appeals from a variety of Christian ministries.

The actual newsletters of the organization were, The Crusader, Goalposts, and Prison Gang. These can be found in folders 21-19, 21-20 and 21-21. The Crusader was actually the newsletter distributed at the services of specific crusades, so the contents tend to be relatively similar from crusade to crusade. Prison Gang went out to people who supported the prison ministry financially and/or by personal participation.

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Series: II. City Wide Crusades

Arrangement: Alphabetical by folder title

Date Range: 1967-1981, 1991

Volume: .7 cubic feet

Boxes: 12-13, 39

Geographic coverage: United States

Type of documents: Reports, statistics, correspondence, lists

Subjects: Evangelism in prison, volunteer ministry, prison life, the organization of CFH events

Notes: The materials folders in boxes 12 and 13 describe in detail how CFL's evangelistic campaigns in towns and cities throughout the United States and in a few foreign countries were planned, carried out and followed up on.

Exceptional items: As mentioned elsewhere, folders 10-6 and 10-7 contain numerous detailed reports from crusade directors on the arrangements for particular crusades and the problems and opportunities that presented themselves in each case. The basic method of organizing the churches involved in these meetings is outlined briefly in a memo in folder 12-6. There is similar information in folder 6-13. Folder 13-5 has checklists and forms with much more detailed information on the jobs that need to be done during a crusade. Tapes T11, T12, and T13 contain presentations made by staff workers, probably in 1982 or 1983, to the supporters of a crusade or awakening on the arrangements for finance, counseling and follow-up. Folders 12-7 through 13-4 contain, year by year, the statistics, correspondence, and other information related to individual meetings, though the amount of documentation varies widely from meeting to meeting and for some there are no documents. The researcher will note that folders 13-7 and 13-8 contain materials from meetings held before CFL had been formally incorporated. Lists of dates and locations for some of CFL's crusades can be found in folder 13-9. Other reports from crusade directors are in folders 11-1 and 11-2. Stories about a few crusades are in folders 6-3, 6-4 and 6-13.

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Series: III. Prison Ministry Files

Arrangement: Boxes 13-20 and 38 are mainly alphabetical by folder title, boxes 30 to 37 are arranged chronologically by year and then geographically by state.

Date Range: 1972 to 1993

Volume: 7.95 cubic feet

Boxes: 13-20, 30-39 (4 cubic feet for 30-39)

Geographic coverage: United States

Type of documents: correspondence, lists, counselor application forms, correspondence, programs

Subjects: Prison ministry, history of Billy Glass ministries, organization of evangelistic meetings, organization of US prisons, prison reform

Notes: The documents in boxes 13 through 20, 30-38 present a fairly complete picture of CFL's work with prisoners. The Archives received in the 1995 accession voluminous materials documenting prison visits for the years 1980 through 1991. Because almost all of this material dealt only with arrangements and had relatively little research value, only a small sampling was kept (boxes 30 through 39).

Exceptional items: The prison work grew out of a meeting that CFL held in a Marion, OH, facility in 1972. Folders 2-3, 3-15 and 11-7 contain information about this meeting. Tape T6 has Glass's brief description of how the prison ministry began and its purpose. Folders 13-15 though 14-4, 15-7 through 15-9, and 16-2 contain correspondence, minutes, reports and memos from the staff in charge of planning and following up on the various prison visits. These materials show how the staff worked with prison officials (especially chaplains), prisoners, donors, athletes, local churches, volunteers and others on the arrangements for each prison crusade and their involvement in follow-up after the weekend. Folder 38-25 contains mainly years of letters from wardens and other prison officials, describing their satisfaction with the evangelistic meetings held within their facilities. These were probably gathered together to show to other prison officials or for publicity purposes. Sometimes there are documents, such as the letter from the governor of New Mexico in folder 19-6, which show the interest of elected officials in the program. Often the reports from various staff members also contain information on the conditions in various state and federal prisons. The folders for John Rainwater (13-15, 14-1, 14-2) and John T. Williams (14-3 and 14-4) are particularly fat and filled with detailed information about individual meetings and their efforts to build ongoing support for the prison ministry in general. These files also include letters from supporters, prisoners and family members of prisoners on the ministry and the spiritual experience and needs of the prisoners. Many letters are from counselors describing their own experiences during prison visits. Folder 14-1 also contain correspondence about the functioning of the Bill Glass Foundation under whose aegis the prison ministry functioned. Folder 20-35 contains drafts of the manuals and guidelines used to train counselors. Another manual used for planning a crusade can be found in folder 29-5. Also of interest in this regard are the questionnaires in folder 15-10 which were filled out by the volunteers about when and how they could serve. Folder 15-6 contains the checklist which the planners used to make sure that all the necessary preparatory steps had been taken before the visit to the prison. Other files contain information on the fund raising efforts that helped support the ministry by direct mail appeals, the creation of a support group, and banquets (folders 15-3, 16-1, 16-5, 16-7, 20-34). As mentioned above, reports on the prison ministry and details on its work are also all throughout the files of the board of director and executive committee.

The Prison Gang, the group made up of people who gave financial support to the program or participated as volunteer counselors, or both, was essential to the prison work and there are several folders with information about it besides those already mentioned. Folders 16-5 through 16-8 contain correspondence with members of the group, lists of members, their newsletter and similar documents. Once again, these files often contain letters form members in which they give their testimony or describe their experiences as prison counselors. One subgroup of the Prison Gang was made up of the people who wrote letters to prisoners who had asked for correspondence. The documents about this program, including applications from prisoners, lists of participants and copies of letters are in folders 14-5 through 15-2. Tape T4 has some comments by Glass about the program, which was called Friend of a Prisoner.

Information on visits to particular prisons are in (among others) folders 15-11, 16-3, 16-10 through 20-2, and boxes 30 through 37. There are records of visits to prisons in, among other states, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington. Among the prisons on which there are files are Soledad (folder 30-10), San Quentin (36-12), and Joliet (36-6). Folders for a particular prison visit might include lists of counselors and athletes who attended, lists of prisoners who accepted Christ or rededicated their life to Him or received assurance of salvation, cards filled out by counselors, registration forms, letters from prisoners about the weekend, schedules, correspondence about the prison officials about the visit, information on travel and housing arrangements for the volunteers, and similar information. For many of the professional athletes who came to weekends there are folders with press release-type information (folders 20-6 through 20-32). Other folders in this group contain information about people who appeared on Glass's television program Sportsight. Some of the folders (such as folder 31-3) that have applications from the volunteer counselors have written on the back their brief testimony about their experience of the Christian life or how they gave their life to Christ.

Statistics gathered by the staff on the attendance, results and finances of the prison visits can be found in folders 30-15 32-5, 33-5, 36-4, 36-11, 37-4, 37-9, 37-11, 37-12.

Folders 38-1 through 38-24 contains some basic reference materials from the 1980s on American prisons, arranged by state. The materials varies from folder to folder, but there might be a map of the correctional facilities in a particular state, or reports or data on the state’s department of corrections or forms used by prisons, or reports on prison reform efforts in various states (such as Kansas in folder 38-11) or other material that might be useful to staff planning a prison evangelistic meeting, such as information on hotels and motels in the area.

Although there are some references to Prison Fellowship and Charles Colson in a few letters and reports, and folder 16-4 contains some of PF's brochures and newsletters, there is not very much information in this collection about that organization.

One interesting file is 16-9, which contains newsletters put out by the prisoners themselves at a few institutions. Some similar material can be found in folders 17-6 and 18-4. Like the letters from prisoners which can be found in numerous folders in this section, these newsletters contain much information about the prison system in America.

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Series: IV. Audio-visual materials

Arrangement: Chronologically

Date Range: 1958-1994

Volume: 1.81 cubic feet

Geographic coverage: United States

Type of documents: Documentaries; television advertisements; phonograph records; recordings of sermons, speeches, evangelistic services, banquets, business meetings

Subjects: Bill Glass and his ministry, sports evangelism, Christian doctrine on sin and salvation

Notes: This section consists of audio recordings, films and videos recordings produced by Champions for Life staff in the course of their work. Some are intended as promotional material for the ministry or for a specific event. Others are recordings of services, rallies, banquets or planning meetings.

Tape 70 from the Audio Tape listing is missing.