40 for 34 #20 - June 4

Faith-Based Bias

Len Bias showed a commitment to his spiritual faith while in college

Lefty Driesell, a devout Christian, was impressed that Len Bias became a born-again Christian at Maryland and resumed attending church services. The coach remembers the time he saw Bias sitting alone in Cole Field House reading a Bible. Sue Tyler, a former coach and associate athletic director at Maryland, recalled seeing Bias reading a Bible while leaning against a wall in Cole Field House.

Bias may have been influenced by his mother, Lonise. After Len's death, she made numerous references to her Christian faith as helping her deal with the tragedy. Her strong sense of faith also helped one of Len's teammates, John Johnson.

After Len's death, Johnson chose to stay at Maryland out of loyalty to his fellow classmates on the team. Johnson credited the support of his mother and the mother of teammate Derrick Lewis; they were both strong Christians, he says. He also credits the comforting words of Lonise Bias.

“She had so much to say,” he says, recalling the time a few months after Len’s death that he ran into her at a shopping mall near campus. “ ‘Lenny loved you’ and ‘You keep doing what you’re doing because God wants you to be at Maryland.’ She had so much conviction in her spirit. I was shaking. She said ‘Lenny used to talk about you all the time.’ She gave me the will to fight. Up to that point, I was wandering a bit.”

Excerpted from the book,

Born Ready: the Mixed Legacy of Len Bias

Buy autographed copies

as a Father's Day Gift

The audio for this post was narrated by the author,

Dave Ungrady.

And listen to more about Len's early life in Episode 2 of the narrative podcast series, Len Bias: A Mixed Legacy