December 2, 2025
A Biblical Connection
Shortly before he passed away in 2016, legendary Carson-Newman head football coach Ken Sparks confided in his friend, former quarterback and assistant coach David Needs, a hope he would like fulfilled. A goal that Needs then the head track coach at Carson-Newman took on as a personal challenge.
By Adam Greene, for Carson-Newman Athletics
Shortly before he passed away in 2016, legendary Carson-Newman head football coach Ken Sparks confided in his friend, former quarterback and assistant coach David Needs, a hope he would like fulfilled. A goal that Needs then the head track coach at Carson-Newman took on as a personal challenge.
Needs, who is now the Director of the Eagle Club, was looking for a way to purchase Holy Bibles for his track squad, something that Sparks had made sure was done for the football team for years. There were donors who got Bibles to individual teams on campus, but there was no program that put a Bible into every student athlete's hands. That bothered Sparks.
"He (Sparks) and I had a conversation towards the end of his life," Needs recounted. "He said, 'David, you've been part of this mission. Now, I'd love for you to see you carry on in the mission, because you know what we've tried to do over the years. … David, I would love a day when in Carson-Newman Athletics we can give them to every sport, every team, everything. And so, in a way, do I feel like I'm helping that vision of Coach Sparks come to reality? Yeah. Not just because it's Coach Sparks, but because it's the right thing to do."
Since 2024, every C-N athlete has received a Fellowship of Christian Athletes Holy Bible once they're on campus. For some, it's the first time they've held a Bible in their hands. But it's been that way from the start.
"Just to hear those stories, like (former C-N head coach and Hall of Fame linebacker) Mike Clowney used to tell the story, and he came from a good background, and he said when he got here, that's the first Bible he ever had," Lakeway Area FCA Director Marty Blakely said. "We've done it with football for years, and I always had this vision of wanting to be able to do it for all of our athletes, and so some donors have enabled us to do that, which has been awesome."
The FCA Bible is a unique resource and gives the student-athlete a path to enter the Word of God, and for some, it could be the first time they've had that opportunity.
"One of the great things about that Bible is there's 365 devotions in the back of it," Blakely said. "…It's a great way to get started."
In the digital age, a physical book might be a rarity for a lot of young people used to reading on their phones, tablets and computers. Those apps and resources Blakely and Needs both gladly have at the ready, a digital Bible in their pockets at all times, but there's something special about having access to the physical book. Needs' own FCA Bible from his time as an assistant football coach at Carson-Newman remains precious to him to this day.
"I have one (a Bible) on my tablet," Needs said. "I have the same app on my phone. But I think that the great thing that we have sometimes is to see it on the shelf or on our desk, it's a reminder to look at it. Coach Sparks gave us the FCA Coach's Bible many, many years ago. And I still have it open on my desk in my office. There's different verses and different things that I'll leave it open from the last time I read it. It's just that reminder. You know, just like how people would wear a cross or some people would wear school colors just as a reminder of who they are. I think that Bible serves just that too. It is a physical reminder of the Word of God."
It's one thing to have a goal of getting a Bible in every C-N student-athlete's hands. It's another to make it a reality, but Needs and Blakely had no trouble finding willing donors and partners to make it happen. Drew Eudy, former C-N kicker and current pastor at Mossy Creek Fellowship, wasted no time in joining the team.
"That's where our heart was," Eudy said. "We just wanted to partner with Marty and Lakeway FCA by supplying those Bibles and buying those Bibles. We wanted every new athlete, so freshman or transfer, to have a Bible in their hand here. Whether that's for their New Testament, Old Testament class, whether that's just for their spiritual development for FCA. They just really felt a calling and we helped back them do all of that. …One thing we didn't realize is not a lot of athletes had Bibles. Whether they were using their phone or just didn't have them, not a lot of people had them. And we wanted to change that."
It turns out funding the program was no problem as Needs spread the word of what the Eagle Club and Lakeway FCA were trying to do, the checks rolled in.
"There's been so many people that have heard that we are doing that and have jumped on board with us to be part of the mission and say, 'Hey, here's a check for $100,'" Needs said. "Here's a check for $200. Put it towards the Bibles. We love it. And, you know, a lot of them being alums who are just thrilled that that's part of who we are."
Needs has a unique perspective as Eagle Club director. At Carson-Newman he's been a student, an athlete, a coach and a leader. He's watched his own son Tyler go through the same journey as a member of the football team, a C-N student, and student coach. It brings back memories of his own time in the dorms as a young man, so far from home and the importance of what having access to a Bible meant to him back then.
"There's so much connective tissue through this," Needs said. "I grew up with Christian parents that were our youth group leader. My dad was my high school football coach. And so, faith has always been important to me. So, when I came to Carson-Newman, I was 600 miles away from home, and I didn't know a soul because I didn't know anybody on the team, and even the coach that recruited me had left before I got here.
"…At the end of my freshman year, I had a role with the team and Coach Sparks and I talked several times, but we ended that interview and I had shared with him that I had my Bible and I had read the entire New Testament through the spring semester. And he said, 'Well, what verses stood out to you?' And there was that conversation. And so, to me, part of the connection of who I am and what I am at Carson-Newman directly swings back to those times where a Bible was placed in my hand. And so, it's a reminder of me as a student, but it's also a reminder of me as a coach, and it's a reminder of me as somebody who's continuing to grow."
That growth can happen at Carson-Newman and, sometimes, it happens after. A walk in faith, reading The Word, is a choice and it's up to each student athlete to make that choice. All the Eagle Club and FCA can do is give them the tool to make that an informed choice, a Holy Bible.
"We have kids that come and they're only here for a semester, but they, they got that Bible," Blakely said. "And I'll be honest, some of them, we would find in their lockers when they leave. We had an athlete this year, I put a Bible in his hand and the next day he hit the portal. He was only at Carson-Newman for three days. I hope that has an effect on him long-term, but I don't know. But we're going to keep doing it and it's kind of like the parable of the seeds. Some of it falls on rocky soil. Some of it falls on weedy soil. Some of it falls on the hard path, but a lot of it's going to fall on this fertile soil and then it's going to produce."
For more information about Carson-Newman's Eagle Club and how you can make a donation, visit https://www.cneagles.com/information/eagle_club.
