Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker, brother writes “The ABC’s of Scripture for Athletes”
Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker, brother writes “The ABC’s of Scripture for Athletes”
This new Faith-based comic book is based on how the Hooker family learning Scripture and their alphabet.
Even way before Hooker became a front runner for the Heisman, thought it would be nice to write a children’s book.
The Baptist Press writes, That sentence can give you whiplash, much like the Tennessee quarterback’s bombs have given opposing defensive backs this season for the undefeated Volunteers.
The sport of Football was always a part of the Hooker family, including Alan Hooker, the father, who was an All-American in the 1980’s. Who also holds school records. Alan was part of North Carolina.
Hendon started at Virginia Tech, then transferred to Tennessee in 2021, where he is a Senior. Hendon’s brother, Alston is a freshman at North Carolina, where his father attended.
“This sport brings tremendous challenges,” Alan Hooker told HBCU Gameday, “and both Hendon and Alston have had challenges. There are highs and lows, and the lows are sometimes lower than the level of the highs – especially emotionally.
“When they were young, they would come to my wife and me and we did not have enough wisdom to give them words from us, so we sought the Bible. We would tell them to ‘read this, read this.’ And they started collecting those things, studying them, meditating on them.
“And so a year ago, they said, ‘Let’s do a Scripture book, and we can put them in alphabetical order based on our favorites and some of the things we’ve dealt with.’”
The result was “The ABC’s of Scripture for Athletes,” written in a comic book format and available at hookedonsports.org.
“It’s a huge deal to me and my brother. We’re very firm in our faith,” Hendon said Septber. 28 on The Paul Finebaum Show. “… Growing up, we had these flash cards with the alphabet on it and the Bible verse to match the alphabet letter.”
Similar flashcards based on the ones Alan Hooker and his college-sweetheart-now-wife-of-31 years, Wendy, used for their sons as well as their daughter, Nile, are also available on the website.
In the Finebaum interview, Hendon went on to talk about his little cousin, Landon, who idolizes him and Alston.
“All he wants to do is play ball, so we wanted to encourage him to read a little bit more. We put some nice graphics in there to be a little appealing to the child’s eye but it’s also a book that can be read by any age group when you’re looking to build your faith and get into a little Scripture as well,” Hendon said.
As his platform has grown, so have the opportunities to stand out. This weekend it gets as big as it has in his young life when Tennessee faces third-ranked Georgia in Athens, where Tennessee is undefeated.
ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit was asked the difference between the two teams on a panel this week. His answer related to football, but even more for kids like Landon.
“Hendon Hooker,” Herbstreit said, then sat quietly with nothing more to add.
Learn more or order yours: www.hookedonsports.org
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