Venture for Victory

History

It was during the summer of 1952 that the first Venture for Victory basketball team comprised of Coach Don Odle's Taylor basketball players and a player from Wheaton College in Chicago traveled to Taiwan. The team played in Taiwan during the summer of 1952 and is considered by many to be a precursor to the sports evangelism movement. In the coming years, Odle took teams throughout the Orient and also to South America.

Odle's Venture for Victory teams played on improvised street courts, bullfighting arenas and aboard ships and wherever they could draw a crowd in order to conduct evangelistic meetings during halftime and post-game presentations. "Don used to say that it was an amazing how God takes a foolish thing like basketball and uses it to touch people's hearts," Don's wife Bonnie Odle said.

Display

Although old basketballs, black and white photographs and faded jerseys are standard fixtures in most arenas throughout the United States, the Venture for Victory display tells the story of one of the pioneers of sports evangelism, Don Odle, and the young men who took those first trips to Asia to play basketball and spread the gospel.

Housed in the lobby of the Odle Arena, the Venture for Victory display was designed and built by the Andrew Dale Company of Muncie and celebrates the history of sports evangelism at Taylor University. Complete with artifacts including actual game jerseys, programs and basketballs, the display was completed in the summer of 2005 thanks to a gift of alumni from 1952 and 1953.

Highlighting the display is a video featuring Odle (who died in 2002), his wife Bonnie, and players from the early teams including Don Jacobsen, Roger Jenkinson, Don Granitz and John Nelson.

The display was dedicated during President Eugene B. Habecker's Inauguration in April of 2006.

Watch the Display Video

View the Venture for Victory display video. (27 minutes; Broadband and Windows Media Player required)