Thomas’ Faith Looks Stronger Than His Arm

Gerald Thomas may be the best Division I Prospect no one will ever get to see play college football.

Unequivocally the finest athlete ever to play at Faith Baptist High School and considered among the best football players in the Valley this year, Thomas is leaning heavily toward passing up offers from big-time colleges to attend a university that doesn’t even have a football program.

The attraction at tiny Tennessee Temple University in Chattanooga is an open book, Thomas says. Those pages just happen to include religion and basketball. And more than sports, religion is Thomas’ lifeline.

“(Tennessee Temple basketball) is competitive, it’s what I want,” says Thomas, who adds a final college decision won’t be made for a few months. “says Thomas, who adds a final college decision won’t be made for a few months. “You see so much politics at the bigger schools. (At Tennessee Temple), I can work for a position. It won’t put me, say, in the minority. I can believe what I want to believe and be accepted.”

Tennessee Temple University, a fundamentalist Baptist school with an enrollment of 4,000, can’t wait to get Thomas in the fold.

“(Gerald’s) an excellent player, the kind of kid we have to recruit,” insists TTU basketball coach Ron Bishop, in his 10th year with the team.

“We recruit kids who don’t go to movies, who don’t drink and who go to church. We recruit kids like Gerald Thomas, kids who are strong spiritually, and we win with these kinds of kids,” adds Bishop, 39.

Winning basketball at Tennessee Temple has become as much a tradition as the school’s strict religious canons.

Bishop’s Crusaders have averaged 26 wins a year for the past 10 seasons and captured four of the past six National Christian College Athletic Assn. championships. Biola University won the NCCAA title in 1984.

Tennessee Temple was 33-2 last season, losing only to Biola and the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, a Division I school. A recent Crusader alumnus is current Faith Baptist basketball Coach Mark Trammell, who played from 1978-82.

By all accounts, Thomas is a rare find in today’s society, not so much for the way he plays football or basketball, but more for the inner qualities that make him an idol to both young and old.

Faith Baptist head football Coach Harry Morgan is one of Thomas’ biggest admirers.

“Gerald will walk through the halls of our school and little kids will walk up to him and he’ll talk to them or pat them on the head,” said Morgan. “And they’ll just smile. They think he is a black Superman. He draws young men to him, not just blacks but whites, too. Words cannot describe what kind of man he can become”.

Morgan, however, has no trouble describing what Thomas meant to the 1984 Faith Baptist football team which finished 11-0 and won its first CIF Southern Division Eight-Man (Large Division) championship.

“He pulled people together and let them know they could win,” says Morgan, whose team finished 30-1 in Thomas’ three years as starting quarterback for his eight-man squad. “Before Gerald came, I had some good teams but never any of top-notch caliber. But with Gerald there, the kids stayed, they didn’t leave for other schools.

“I wasn’t me (who won the championship). I’m an ogre,” adds Morgan, who earns a living as a computer salesman and has coached at Faith Baptist for seven years. “I’m the meanest man in the world. He’s been the key to turning (the program) around. I knew I could do it if I had the material. But he’s the one that made it all work, he’s the magnet that pulled our program together.”

Thomas not only has college football scouts excited over his 6-5, 220-pound frame but also a rocket arm which accounted for 645 yards and eight touchdowns. He completed 44 of 82 passes this past season and rushed for 222 yards in 41 carries.

“He can throw the ball 80 yards,” says Morgan with obvious admiration and a slight touch of exaggeration.

Playing eight-man football, however, is not always the easiest avenue to a college football factory.

“(A player) has to dominate everybody on that level,” said Dick Lascola, who runs the Scouting Evaluation Assn. (SEA) in Long Beach. “It’s cut-and-dried. It can be both a hindrance and a plus.”

Lascola, who said Thomas was mentioned in a preseason SEA report solely because of his size, notes playing for a small school helps an athlete with good skills look “a helluva lot better” because he’s not facing the type of talent prominent at bigger high schools.

The negative aspects of playing small-school football, adds Lascola, is not always receiving the individual attention and press coverage often afforded players of bigger programs. Thomas does not appear to have been hurt by his association with eight-man football. New Mexico State and Washington State are hot on his heels while every PAC-10 team except Stanford has expressed interest in his services.

Morgan, 48, who lays claim to once switching former Stanford University quarterback Guy Benjamin from fullback to quarterback in midget football, insists the decision to attend Tennessee Temple could cost Thomas millions.

“He can play in the pros,” maintains Morgan, who played minor-league baseball 30 years ago in the old Western League. “He could be making $5 million as a pro quarterback. There are a lot of 6-5 guys who can dunk. As a black quarterback with his athletic ability and leadership qualities, he’s worth a lot of money.”

The 17-year-old Thomas, though, is not one to blow his own horn. In fact, he’d prefer not to make any noise at all. He says the reward is in helping others reach their potential--both athletically and spiritually.”

“I like motivating other people,” said Thomas. “I like to bring people together because that’s the only way you win. You win championships as a squad. I like to see people peak. If I can’t play, I like to be the best cheerleader.”

Thomas credits his mother, Darlene Foreman, for his outlook on life.

“She brought me up to respect older people,” says the Canoga Park resident, who has been raised solely by his mother since his parents were divorced 11 years ago. “She’s amazing. She has three jobs and while we ate leftovers sometimes, if I needed basketball shoes my mom would deliver.

“That’s really what motivates me,” said Thomas, who shares his house with friend and Faith Baptist teammate Kevin Burton. “When I’m playing, I ask God to let me do something for her to make her happy.”

His repayment comes on two fronts--on the athletic field and behind the pulpit.

In addition to his football exploits, Thomas also is a fine basketball player. Last year, he averaged 15 points and 13.6 rebounds per game for 7-2 Faith Baptist and this season has upped his point production to 20 per game in playing the post position. His career totals include over 1,000 rebounds and 1,400 points. He recently was named most valuable player of the Oak Park Tournament.

“He’s an excellent player,” said Bishop, who says Thomas would probably be tried at small forward. “And he’s the kind of person we’re looking for. He’s got his whole life together.”

But Thomas says his real accomplishment in his life comes every Sunday morning when he preaches to fifth- and sixth-grade children at Faith Baptist’s Youth Church.

“I’ve always been put in a certain role,” admits Thomas. “Ever since I was young. I’ve been taller than other kids my age and it’s put me in the situation of leading people. With the kids, I just try to tell them what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for me. I tell them if they’re going to do something to make it count and make sure the Lord’s part of it.”

“Gerald takes the Bible to be God’s word,” explains Tom Stout, associate pastor at Faith Baptist and the football team’s line coach. “He’s tries to live by it the best he can. He treats other people the way he liked to be treated.”

Tennessee-Temple’s lure is its solid Christian foundation, according to Thomas.

“It’s a good Bible college,” said Thomas, who would like to work with children after college. “The source of wanting to go there is the Lord--the Bible tells me that I should continue in my spiritual training.”

And if basketball is part of that, Tennessee Temple is not about to complain.

“Our recruits have to be quality people,” notes Bishop, “and Gerald sets the mold.”