100 Facts About Me

Currently Twitter is running a special thread of tweets with the title “100 Facts About Me.”  I thought I would list my 100 facts here on the blog.  Those of you who have known me for awhile may learn a thing or two about me.  Those who are new to this site will probably learn quite a few things.  So here we go.

1. I am a product of a mixed marriage.  My father is from Oklahoma and my mother is from Arkansas.
2. I spent 3 weeks studying in Israel in 1981.
3. I have 4 children.
4. I met with Bill Clinton when he was the governor of Arkansas.
5. I am the oldest grandchild on my mother’s side of the family and the next to youngest on my father’s.
6. I have 3 grandchildren.
7. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Oklahoma Baptist University.
8. I love going to the beach.
9. I taught a course of Systematic Theology in Russia.
10. My favorite sports team is the Oklahoma Sooners football team.
11. I have the baseball that my son, Cameron, hit for his only home run as a collegiate athlete.
12. The last concert I attended was to see Toby Keith.
13. I was a sergeant in the U.S. Army.
14. I taught a course for the European Baptist Convention meeting in Interlaken, Switzerland.
15. My favorite historical figure is Ulrich Zwingli.
16. I have type 2 diabetes.
17. I attended the NCAA National Championship football game between Oklahoma and Florida.
18. I have picked cotton.
19. I was the first quarterback for the Aviano American High School football team.
20. I made 1 All-American team as a quarterback at Sapulpa High School in Oklahoma.
21. I took piano lessons while in elementary school.
22. My favorite game as a youngster was Strat-O-Matic baseball.
23. I graduated with a Master of Divinity from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary in Memphis.
24. I have taken courses in 5 foreign languages.
25. I had season tickets to the Arkansas Razorbacks football games in Little Rock, Arkansas.
26. My college buddy was Todd Littleton.
27. I scored 50 points in a faculty-varsity basketball game at Red Rock High School in Oklahoma.
28. I was Soldier of the Year when stationed in Germany.
29. I have attended a few Kentucky Derby races at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.
30. I have had 1 surgery in life for a broken thumb injured in football practice.
31. I am an honorary Kentucky Colonel.
32. I have married twice – once at the age of 16 and the other at 44.
33. I was present in the delivery room for the birth of my two daughters.
34. I have been in the stands to watch 7 Heisman Trophy winners.
35. I have a store on ebay.
36. I attended the watch party for Mike Huckabee’s first political election for Lt. Governor in Arkansas.
37. I was named one of the Outstanding Young Americans.
38. I was a high school baseball umpire for a few seasons.
39. My favorite NFL team is the Dallas Cowboys.
40. I did PhD studies in Church History at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
41. My first car was a Chevrolet Vega.
42. My first job was bagging groceries at the commissary at Aviano Air Force Base in Italy.
43. I have attended a Barrett-Jackson car show.
44. I spent a week and a half on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
45. I have a cat named Figaro.
46. My first words to my wife, Suzie: “Excuse me.  Would you like to dance?”
47. Suzie and I were wed in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
48. I threw the first touchdown pass in the Sapulpa High School stadium.
49. I threw a no-hitter in Little League baseball.
50. I am a member of the Zeta Chi chapter of the Mortar Board National Honor Society.
51. I attended the first PGA tournament held at Valhalla in Louisville.
52. I have a bookstore on Amazon.
53. I have worked at 8 different hotels.
54. I have preached in a church and at the central park in Guatamala City.
55. I have preached to prisoners and officials in a Russian gulag.
56. I am a member of First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach.
57. My first pastorate was for First Baptist Church in Red Rock, Oklahoma.
58. I am the honorary member of two Native American tribes.
59. I have visited the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany.
60. I was in attendance for the first ever gathering of Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem.
61. I sat next to Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton in a theater watching the movie “Avalon.”
62. I have attended two different Billy Graham crusades.
63. I spent a day on my own behind the Iron Curtain.
64. I have flown in a crop duster airplane.
65. I have been to Disney World more than a dozen times.
66. I have attended Biketoberfest in Daytona.
67. I was the team chaplain for the University of Arkansas – Little Rock basketball team.
68. I once performed CPR on an Israeli soldier.
69. My biggest newspaper headline: “Gantz TD Jaunt Lifts Chiefs.”
70. The first NFL game I attended had Dan Marino and Joe Montana playing quarterback.
71. I have been close enough to watch both tornadoes and hurricanes.
72. I have chopped ice with an ax on a frozen pond to allow cows to drink.
73. My favorite musical is Les Miserables with Fiddler on the Roof and Oliver close behind.
74. I have lived in 20 cities and towns.
75. Snorkeling is one of my favorite past time events.
76. I think I have read Psalm 51 more times than any chapter in the Bible.
77. I have over 1,000 followers on Twitter.
78. I have 34 first cousins.
79. I preached the funeral of my grandmother.
80. I planted a church in Louisville, Kentucky.
81. I have watched the take off of a space shuttle.
82. I have watched the sun rise on the beach.
83. I once played in a benefit football game against a team of convicts from the state prison.
84. Once I rescued a person from a burning vehicle.
85. I have O Positive blood.
86. I am 6 feet and two inches tall.
87. I have had 3 broken bones, all as a result of sports.
88. I really love my wife.
89. I once had a library of over 3,000 books.
90. My favorite food is Tex-Mex.
91. I have been to Red Square in Moscow, Russia.
92. I have eaten a hot sauce so hot it made me cry and took my breath away.
93. I have had breakfast at a table next to the author James Patterson.
94. I spent an evening with the guy who played Greg Brady on The Brady Bunch.
95. I saw Colonel Sanders at a gas station in Ft. Worth, Texas.
96. I have sold furniture for two different retail companies.
97. I won 3rd prize in a 3rd grade art contest.
98. I have headed up several bike-a-thons to raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
99. I scored three touchdowns in one high school football game in Tulsa.
100. I baptized all 4 of my children.