Read a Longhorn Kids Excerpt

Solomon was wise until he grew old and didn’t follow God with all his heart anymore.

UT head football coach Darrell Royal made a smart move his first year in Austin. It had to do with smarts first and football second.

The legendary coach took over as the head Longhorn in 1957. He found that fifteen of his players had grades so bad they couldn’t play football. He had enough players to win; he just couldn’t get them on the field.

So Coach Royal made a smart move that is routine today for college football programs. He hired a “brain coach,” the first academic counselor in college football history.

The hiring signaled that the day of the dumb jock — if it ever existed — was over at Texas. Before long, the grades of the Longhorn football players were higher than the rest of the students.

The next fall, only three of Royal’s players couldn’t play because of their grades. “It was the best move I ever made,” the head coach said. It was certainly a smart move.

Remember that time you left your homework lying on your desk at home? That cold morning you went to school without a jacket? The time your library book was overdue?

Just because we make good grades in school doesn’t mean we don’t do some dumb things now and then. Plenty of smart people sometimes say and do things that aren’t too smart. Like Solomon when he got old.

Some people even say that if you’re really smart you can’t believe in God. How dumb is that? Who do they think made us smart in the first place?

You got your brains and your smarts from God. Forgetting that isn’t smart at all.

Talk about why it’s smart to love God and follow Jesus.