The London Summer Olympics are over, and they were among my all-time favorites: two wild weeks of great victories, sad moments, bizarre scandals and hilarious social media phenomena.

There are tons of people I’ll remember from these Games - but first, I have to write about the man who’s made the Olympics be more than just great television to me over the past 12 years.

When Michael Phelps swam in his first Olympics in Sydney in 2000, I was a sophomore at Calvin. I proudly pointed out the 15-year-old to my floormates as we watched him on TV and mentioned we attended the same high school (although not at the same time). He was the youngest male swimmer to make the Olympic team in 68 years, and the announcers couldn’t believe it. They were probably even more surprised when he finished fifth in his only event.

Four years later, I was working at my first job in Oneonta when the Athens Olympics rolled around. I wrote a column for The Daily Star explaining why everyone should pay attention to this guy, and I planned my summer vacation that year around the Games so I could be home in Baltimore to watch them with my family. We were not disappointed: Six gold medals and two bronze — and a new star was on the map!

Four years later, I was finishing up grad school in Chicago, enjoying watching the excitement of the students from China who lived in my apartment building as their country hosted the Olympics for the first time. Phelps was aiming for a record-breaking eight gold medals in eight events. And, of course, he did it - and with plenty of drama. (Even people who knew nothing about swimming were amazed by the American men’s 4×100 relay team fighting back to beat France, and the one-one-hundredth of a second win over Serbia’s Milorad Cavic in the 100m butterfly.) I wrote another column for The Daily Star, marveling at how “Phelps Phrenzy” had spread worldwide. (And I even went to the “Phelpstival” parade in Towson and dressed up as him for Halloween.)

Four years later, I’m in D.C., closer to where it all began, in yet another chapter in my life, even more appreciative of the mental pressure Olympic athletes go through thanks to my “Jeopardy!” experience — and Phelps says he’s retiring. (And I mentioned him during my “Hometown Howdy” for “Jeopardy!”)

These Games weren’t quite as successful for Phelps if you go just by the number of events (seven) and medals (six, including two surprise silvers to complete his collection). But, when you add up all the medals (22!!!! And 18 gold!!!) and if you consider what he’s done for his sport, for the Olympics, for the U.S., for Baltimore and Towson, for fellow middle-class public school kids like me, then these Games, and his three previous ones, were more than successful.

I think it’s virtually impossible to compare Olympians and say Phelps is the greatest of all time — after all, he’s had many more opportunities to win medals than athletes in team sports (like, say, Lisa Leslie, who also competed in four Olympics and won gold each time with the U.S. women’s basketball team). But he’s set a benchmark that will be very, very difficult to surpass.

Four years from now, I’ll be watching the Rio Olympics from somewhere, with someone else, and it will be very strange not to see Michael swimming (yes, I do think he’s serious about retirement). We’ll all find other athletes to cheer for, but I will still miss him terribly.

And now, my other favorite moments from London: the wacky, the awesome and the unforgettable. (All athletes are American unless otherwise noted.)

• The Arctic Monkeys singing “Come Together” in the opening ceremonies.
• Matt Grevers (fellow Northwestern Wildcat!) winning gold in the men’s 100m backstroke.
• Kayla Harrison winning the U.S.’ first gold medal in judo after overcoming a horrific experience in her sport.
  
• Dutch gymnast Epke Zonderland winning gold on high bar with an astounding routine.
• Russian high jumper Ivan Ukhov losing his shirt and still winning gold.
• Sprinter  Kirani James of Grenada trading bibs with South African Oscar Pistorius, the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics, after their semifinal.
• U.S. women beating the men in the medal count and every country represented having at least one female athlete.
• Diver David Boudia winning gold in the 10m platform event, the first for the U.S. since Greg Louganis in 1988. (Boudia, a Christian, has a great testimony involving his coach, too.)
• Swimmer Anthony Ervin making a comeback 12 years after his last Olympics in Sydney, where he won gold, and finishing fifth in the 50m freestyle. (This Rolling Stone article is an interesting account of what he did during that time and his spiritual journey.)
• Sprinter Bryshon Nellum coming back from being shot three times in the legs to win silver in the 4×400-meter relay.
• U.K. tennis player Andy Murray winning gold at Wimbledon.
• Spice Girls reunion, Russell Brand singing “I Am the Walrus,” and Eric Idle during the closing ceremony.
• The little Mini Coopers that carried javelins, etc.
• Watching the royal family go crazy.
• Team GB’s uniforms. Even though the design by Stella McCartney was controversial, I liked it and appreciated that it was consistent across all sports. I hope someone can get the U.S. to do the same thing for Rio — it was a little disconcerting to have U.S. BMX racers and divers look like they were competing for totally different countries!

Speaking of Rio, I sure hope to see new Houston Rocket Jeremy Lin on Team USA. Here’s to 2016!

Photo of Olympic rings in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral by Rev Stan from London, UK [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This picture is of my nightstand, days after the end of yet another fantastic Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin. (This post’s subject line is from a T-shirt I saw while I was there.)

It was wonderful to catch up with old professors and friends, get more congratulations about “Jeopardy!” (two people I didn’t know came up to me and said they watched me), see all the changes to Calvin’s campus, go to my college church and try some newer restaurants in Grand Rapids (I highly recommend the Electric Cheetah). DD also came (his first festival), and we got to spend a lot of time together.

These were just a few of the highlights:

• Hearing Jonathan Safran Foer discuss the differences between literature and art, and what he tries to accomplish with his writing.
• Meeting one of my all-time favorite religion journalists, David Van Biema, and hearing him discuss his career at Time magazine and his upcoming book on the Psalms, which, in his words, are “the real hyphen in ‘Judeo-Christian.’”
• Listening to Nikki Stafford discuss spiritual themes in “Lost” and other TV shows, and her experience writing a blog about TV where people actually respect each other. Like me, she’s also a fan of “Community” and “The Big Bang Theory.”
• Being introduced to young adult novelist Kathryn Erskine and Sudanese novelist Leila Aboulela. Erskine gave a terrific talk on how to develop characters and mentioned that she sometimes “interviews” her characters, much as a journalist might. Aboulela described growing up as a Muslim reading Western, Christian books and how they impacted her. She said her novel “The Translator” is kind of a Muslim version of Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre,” which I find very intriguing, so I can’t wait to read it.
• Hearing Marilynne Robinson go on a well-argued rant against the culture of fear that pervades America — and the church in particular.
• Laughing at Shane Claiborne’s stories of growing up in the Bible Belt and being challenged by his call to social change. It was neat to learn that he was a fan of Kurt Vonnegut when he was in high school.
• Hearing several authors of memoirs. Kate Braestrup praised her copy editor, which made me happy. I just finished “Here If You Need Me” and enjoyed her insights and descriptions of life in rural Maine. Amy Julia Becker gave a terrific talk on the meaning of perfection and her daughter Penny, who has Down syndrome, and River Jordan (who also writes novels) explained how she went public with her faith by writing “Praying for Strangers” (a moving account of a year in which she did just that).

If you’re still looking for a good book after reading all this, I recommend “The Wednesday Wars” by Gary Schmidt. It’s written for older children, but it’s a story for anyone who cares about truth.

Here’s a roundup of media mentions about my appearances:

• Medill School at Northwestern University press release
• Calvin College press release
• Article in The Daily Northwestern
• Article in the Calvin College Chimes (my old stomping grounds)

Thanks to everyone who interviewed me or said nice things about me.
I’ve also signed up to compete in the “Jeopardy!” Bee at the National History Bee and Bowl in Arlington next month. Can’t wait! (And Jeanie will be there, too!)

Have a blessed Easter and happy Passover!

I cracked open my Bible to Ecclesiastes 12 and read some very fitting words:

Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

King Solomon (or whoever) was right, in the grand scheme of things — but he’d probably make an awful game show contestant! (Not that he would need the money, of course.)

I hadn’t planned any big tourist activities for my time in L.A., so the day before, I had asked if it was OK if I came back to the studio to watch more games. It was, so I did - going through the audience gate this time and getting treated a little bit like a rock star. It was fun.

I wanted to see how Dennis did, plus Jeanie and Mithun, who were left over from the Tuesday group. I also got to see some other great contestants and hung out with them later, and you should definitely watch them this week.

If you’re an aspiring “Jeopardy!” contestant, here’s my advice:

1. Play the game in the way that works best for you. If you like to ring in with your index finger, like me, then do it — if not, don’t. If you like to hunt for Daily Doubles, knock yourself out. If you find the buzzer works better when you have your arms crossed, go for it.
2. Don’t be afraid to go for the tie.
3. Go with the flow. There will be things that go wrong or surprise you, but you just can’t let that stop you.
4. Learn how to wager properly (there are tons of other websites that can help you with that) — but again, do what works best for you.
5. Bring extra clothes and plenty of money.
6. If you like to bake, try 2011 champion Julie Ross Godar’s “Jeopardy!” pie — I made it the other day and it’s delicious!
7. Have realistic expectations, and be aware of the downsides of being on a game show.
8. Don’t drink too much caffeine in the green room.
9. Study dead celebrities! Besides J.D. Salinger, I almost got a question right about songwriter Jerry Leiber — although I misspoke and said “Stieber.” You can find lists in the year-end issues of magazines like Time and Entertainment Weekly, as well as almanacs.

Besides the books I already mentioned, another one that helped me was “Once Again to Zelda: The Stories Behind Literature’s Most Intriguing Dedications.” It’s a good overview of famous authors, their best-known works and important details about their lives. (Thanks to my sister, who gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago.)

And in addition to Sporcle, I also benefited from the Mental Floss Geography Challenge and Sheppard Software’s Geography Games.

Good luck, and I’ll be watching for you!

So, my “Jeopardy!” winning streak has come to an end in rather ignominious fashion (more on that later).

In the game that aired Friday, my challengers were Dennis, a welder from Kansas who brought his whole family to watch him and see Los Angeles, and Eileen, a Broncos fan and student from Colorado. (Sorry about Tim Tebow, Eileen - hope Peyton Manning still has another Super Bowl in him!)

The categories were much better this time. I liked “It Didn’t Sell at McDonald’s,” so I started with that. (I hope my mom the former dietitian was amused.)

Fun fact: Consumer Reports used to have a children’s magazine called Zillions, and back when I was in fifth grade, I was on the Zillions “Z-Team,” a bunch of kids who got to review products for the magazine. One of my assignments was to try new lower-fat hamburgers, including - you guessed it - the McLean Deluxe! Ever the tree-hugger, I was pleased that it was wrapped in paper rather than packaged in foam, but I didn’t really like the way it tasted. (These days, I almost never eat red meat, and when I do eat fast food, it’s a grilled chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-A.) Anyway, the moral of the story is that you just never know what detail from your life might help you on “Jeopardy!”

That also proved to be true in the “Authors With Mass. Appeal” category. I almost ran that one, getting Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne  and Henry David Thoreau - all of whom I studied during that “New England Saints” class I wrote about the other day! We went to Dickinson’s home in Amherst, Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables in Salem and the site of Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond. For a few seconds at least, it paid to be an English major. (And maybe seeing Gary Schmidt’s book at the airport bookstore pushed those authors up in my memory.)

Finally, toward the end of that category, I landed on a Daily Double. I bet $4,000 to put me closer to Dennis and braced myself for another early-ish American writer.

“Blah blah blah ‘rags-to-riches’ blah blah blah blah.”

OK … this was not going to be Ralph Waldo Emerson, or Louisa May Alcott, or John Greenleaf Whittier, or anyone else with three names.

I had heard of the “Horatio Alger myth,” but I thought that referred to a character in the books, not the author. Still, I had nothing else, so I guessed it - and got it right! (Unfortunately, when I Googled Mr. Alger when I got home, I found out he was likely a pedophile. Thanks, “Jeopardy!”)

I had never heard of the writer in the last “Mass. Appeal” clue, but Dennis got it. He seemed to be having a great time, lightening the mood by saying, “Somebody’s gotta say it” before starting the “Let’s Talk About ‘Sex’” category.

But, he guessed incorrectly toward the end of Double Jeopardy, giving him exactly twice as much money as I had.

This is where everything fell apart.

I should have bet everything to tie Dennis, but I didn’t. My brain was fried at that point, and I think I may have forgotten that if we tied, we’d both get to keep the money. I basically just got stupid and panicked and didn’t bet enough.

The Final Jeopardy category was “Toys and Games.” I guessed Monopoly, mainly because I’m notorious in my family for ducking out early when we played it on Christmas Eve after church because I hated how long it takes. But the correct answer was Scrabble, and Dennis and Eileen both got it.

Dennis did the right thing and bet $0. “I gave you a chance!” he told me at the end of the game.

Yes, he did - and I blew it.

But, I’m far from the first person to make an awful FJ wager - and I know I won’t be the last.

“At least I can buy the Weird Al song now,” I said to the crew member who took off my microphone. He laughed.

It was the last game of the day. I signed the paperwork to claim my winnings and headed back to record my “Winner’s Circle” interview with Kelly from the Clue Crew. Then I got a cab back to the Doubletree. (Note to future contestants: You have to pay for that yourself, so bring plenty of cash.)

I told the cab driver I had been on “Jeopardy!”

“Did they tell you I get 30 percent of your winnings?” he asked. I laughed.

That night at the hotel, I was so hopped up on adrenaline that it took me awhile to relax.

I called my parents to give them the news. My mom was proud; my dad told me not to tell too many people because “they’re trying to run a business.”

I also called DD and told him I was done, but didn’t say I had won.

“At least Alex didn’t call you a saucy wench!” he said. I laughed. Always look on the bright side!

(Video via YouTube)

Back in the green room, I prepared for the next game, against Nick and Nancy. Nick designs ad inserts for newspapers - I wanted to ask him about that but didn’t get the chance.

He turned out to be a beast on the buzzer in the first round. Maggie must have noticed I looked frustrated because she gave me a pep talk at the commercial break.

Double Jeopardy was pretty much a disaster. Sometimes “Jeopardy!” games just don’t go well, and this was one of those times. It was contagious - each triple stumper, particularly in the “Historians” category, seemed to build on top of the last one, like a snowball that rolls down a hill and gets larger and larger. I almost rang in on “Schlesinger” but hesitated because I wasn’t confident I could say it properly (I had already struggled to say “defibrillator”) and because I wasn’t sure if it was the Schlesingers or the Sulzbergers (who, it turns out, run The New York Times).

Final Jeopardy was almost a relief. State Nicknames - a good, reliable category. Somehow I was in the lead, and I decided to bet huge to try to beat Nick, who was in second place. (I was feeling a little reckless.)

We all got the final right: Missouri, the “Show Me” State (where I did my “copy editor boot camp” training for my Dow Jones News Fund internship, way back in 2003). But, since I made the biggest wager, I won again and broke the streak of one-day champions (something Alex mentioned at the start of the game).

Whew!

During the  post-game chat, Alex noticed Nick’s shoes, which had a fun design on them. Alex and I then somehow started talking about Christian Louboutins (the famous ridiculously expensive shoes with the red soles), and that amused me since I was wearing shoes from Payless to go with my dress, which Maggie complimented me on.

I should mention that even though I lived in New York state during the taping, I went with “originally from Baltimore” for my opening because I wasn’t sure if I would still be in New York when the shows aired - and as it turned out, I’m not. (Plus, I’m very proud of where I’m from.)

This week, it’s been fantastic to hear from so many people I had lost touch with: high school classmates, college friends, people from all the churches I’ve gone to.

And, believe it or not, I even got recognized today by a tour guide at Mount Vernon (George Washington’s home in Virginia), which DD and I were visiting.

Let’s hope tonight’s game goes better.

I am now the reigning “Jeopardy!” champion! Feels pretty good, I must say.

I’ve never considered myself a very competitive person, but “Jeopardy!” definitely brought out a streak in me. I remember standing there between Melanie and Greg before the game started, thinking both, “I like these people - what if they lose?” and “I WANT TO WIN!!!”

Watching last night’s game, I was surprised at how fast I was at the beginning. (To the person on Television Without Pity’s “Jeopardy!” board who noticed I was ringing in with my index finger, you have great powers of observation! When I was practicing for the show, I tried clicking with both my thumb and index finger and discovered the finger was faster.)

But,  Greg caught up very well and beat me to the buzzer a lot in the “God Did It!” category. (Thanks to a lifetime of church, Sunday school and Bible study, plus four years at a Christian college, I knew anything Bible- or religion-related would be a wheelhouse, but I guess Free Will Baptists like Greg are just a little bit quicker than (recovering) evangelical “Presby-Anglicans” like me.) I was glad to get the Moses clue, as well as Noah on the rebound.

The “Home Ice” category was one of those ones where I thought I knew more than I actually did. I told Alex at the end that since my boyfriend DD is from Detroit, I was glad I got the Red Wings clue correct. And DD high-fived me when we saw it at the viewing party.

Greg was also able to find the Daily Doubles, something I should have tried harder to do. My style is more to try to run a whole category, rather than bounce around the board. Anyway, we wound up being tied going into the final, with Melanie trailing behind.

The “Jeopardy!” staff really drill it into your head not to bet to tie in FJ, the reasoning being that you wouldn’t want to play again against someone who’s already had the chance to get comfortable on the buzzer. Me, I just knew that if I bet everything, I’d freak out and wouldn’t be able to think of an answer! So I bet very conservatively, knowing that I’d at least beat Melanie if she doubled her score.

In the end, I was the only one who got FJ right - “death in 2010″ and “not wanting to be famous” were all I needed.

Melanie was very gracious and congratulated me right away. And I told Greg that I did Vacation Bible School at my church, too (as he mentioned in his interview story).

If you want to read the college newspaper articles I mentioned during my interview, this is the first one (with an awesomely bad photo), and this is my senior farewell.

On to tonight!

(Photo courtesy of my friend and former Calvin RA, Jessica Bratt!)

So, I just watched the second “Jeopardy!” episode I got to see in person. It’s nice not having to be quiet like in the studio, that’s for sure!

One of tonight’s contestants, Vince Gatton, wrote a wonderful guest post on The Jeopardy! Blog, which you should read if you want to know more about what the contestant experience is like. (And I’ll be cross-posting on that blog later this week.)

Now, let’s continue my trip down memory lane.

My “Jeopardy!” packet told me to report on a Tuesday and Wednesday, so I flew from Newark to Los Angeles that Monday. The flight was thankfully uneventful, although when I found out about Alec Baldwin’s outburst a day later on his plane at LAX, I have to admit I was a bit jealous of those folks!

At an airport bookstore, I saw a book by one of my Calvin professors, Gary Schmidt, who led a January class in New England that I took my senior year. He writes phenomenal children’s/young adult books, and this one, “Okay For Now,” has been getting great reviews. I’ll have to get a copy of it when I go to the Festival of Faith and Writing next month.

Upon arriving in LA, I caught a shuttle to the Doubletree. The driver asked me and the other passenger, a man, what brought us to the area. The man said he was attending a meeting; I said I was there for “Jeopardy!” The driver said he had suspected that. Not sure what gave it away (maybe my Ravens sweatshirt?). The man wished me good luck.

At the hotel, I got one of the famous cookies and looked around for other contestants, but didn’t see any. I got settled and ordered dinner from room service. It arrived as I was watching that night’s episode. The man who delivered it got a question right; I smiled. (Maybe he’ll be on the show someday.)

As I packed up my things for the next morning, I realized I had left a skirt I wanted to wear back across the country in New York. D’oh! They had told us to bring enough clothes for three games, but I had packed an extra blouse just in case my other clothes got dirty, so I matched that with the pants I had brought.

I slept remarkably well that night — the time zone change didn’t seem to bother me. Tuesday morning, I got up on time, got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast, still looking for other players.
The desk clerk had thrown in free breakfast when I called to reserve my room, and I was glad. Once I was sufficiently fed and caffeinated, I headed back upstairs to get my things.

Back down in the lobby, I found a seat and chatted with a woman who was there for another meeting. Then I started to notice other people clutching “Jeopardy!” envelopes and garment bags. I talked a little bit with Nancy from Seattle, who was very friendly, until the driver called us to get on the shuttle to the studio.

“Anyone going to LAX?” he asked once we were on board. We laughed, but apart from that, the ride to the studio was quiet.

At the studio, we were greeted by the contestant coordinators, taken through security and met a few contestants who arrived on their own. Then we entered the green room, filled with photos of past champions and tournaments and replicas of big winners’ checks. We sat around a table, went over our interview questions with Robert, listened to Maggie pontificate and got to know each other a little better. Hannah, the returning champion, was there. We also had our makeup done and got fitted for microphones. (I almost felt like I was back in graduate school, doing broadcast lessons.)

I’ve heard people say that being on a game show is kind of like jury duty, in that you’re cut off from the outside world for a day or two and have to sit around a lot. I’ve never been on a jury, but I suspect that’s accurate - although jury duty can’t be nearly as much fun as rooting for people you’ve come to like in the few minutes you’ve known them.

Unlike some of the other contestants, I didn’t have anyone as a guest in the audience - but I think I actually preferred it that way, with less pressure.

Eventually, it was time to play the mock game on stage. Glenn filled in for Alex Trebek, and I had a great run in a category on “Popular Music.” (If only the real game was that easy!)

Once we were done practicing, it was time for the real thing. During taping, those of us not on stage sat in our own area, listening to Johnny Gilbert give the audience instructions and playing along. In between games, we were herded back to the green room.

After the first two games, it was my turn. More on that on Thursday.

(Photo courtesy Jeopardy Productions, Inc.)

Tonight, I watched the first episode that I got to see when I was in California for the taping. I was nervous just to watch it, but just like when I was on the show, once it began, I enjoyed it.

Before I start blogging in a few days about my actual game, I thought I’d write a little bit about the experience leading up to it, beginning with getting “The Call.”

It happened on a Monday afternoon. I was at home before work and actually missed it - I saw an unfamiliar area code on my cellphone, dialed my voicemail and heard Glenn, one of the contestant coordinators.

I called him back right away. He said they wanted to go over the information I had turned it at my audition (address, workplace, etc.). Once that was done, he told me I was invited to be on the show!

I mentioned that I had written an article for the Times Herald-Record about the “Jeopardy!”-playing computer Watson, thinking that might somehow disqualify me.

“I’m going to unplug that computer!” he said, jokingly. I laughed.

After going over a few more details (I would get at least $1,000 for coming in third, and I could expect a packet in the mail in a few weeks), we hung up.

I called my mom. She was very happy.

I texted my boyfriend. He wrote back, “WHOA!” before calling me. (There may have been more exclamation points.)

Once I got the aforementioned packet, I filled out all the legal information and faxed it back. I wrote that I knew two people (classmates from grad school) who worked for TV stations that showed “Jeopardy!” but did not know any former contestants.

Now it was time to start studying. I began keeping score using the Coryat method to see what areas I needed to brush up on. Turns out geography was one of my weak points.

I also began practicing like I was on the show, standing up during games and ringing in with a pen. I tried to time it just right so I wouldn’t buzz in before Alex finished reading the question.

And, I had to learn not to answer when I didn’t have any clue, like I was used to doing. (When you see me on TV, you can judge how well I managed to do at that!)

Over the next few weeks, I quickly realized there was no way I could ever learn everything I needed to know. I even wondered, at one point, if  at age 30, I was too young for this. (I’m now 31.)

But, then I heard somewhere that Brad Rutter, who took on Watson along with Ken Jennings, was only 24 when he started his rise to “Jeopardy!” superstardom, and I felt better.

So,  I kept on plugging along, reading former champ Bob Harris’ “Prisoner of Trebekistan” and relishing his insider advice along with the hilarious recollections of past “Jeopardy!” champions who I remembered watching growing up. (Some of them are in the “Jeopardy!” Hall of Fame at the studio in Culver City, if you ever get a chance to visit.)

And, my boyfriend quizzed me on Trivial Pursuit cards while I made flash cards from “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Shakespeare” and the World Almanac and played tons of Sporcle quizzes.

I told some church and Bible study friends, and they prayed I would have fun, above all else. The rest of my family had my back, too.

I booked my flight to L.A. and my room at the Doubletree Hotel (which has a special rate and shuttle for “Jeopardy!” contestants). And I planned what I would wear (never an easy task!).

I had California songs going through my head: Miley Cyrus, Phantom Planet, even Tupac.

No matter what happened, I was going to enjoy this and try to glorify God the best I could.

It’s hard to believe that just recently, when I mentioned my favorite NBA player to my boss at my old job, he had no idea who I was talking about.

But this month, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly heard about Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks point guard whose underdog story (unrecruited in high school before playing at Harvard, undrafted in the NBA and getting cut by two teams before injuries to other players gave him a chance to wow the crowds at Madison Square Garden, an Asian-American in a league that’s seen almost none) has captivated people worldwide and sparked all manner of bad puns (including my subject line - the headline writer in me just couldn’t resist!).

I usually don’t care for pro basketball much, but I made an exception for Lin when I read this profile in Sports Illustrated two years ago. I admired his intelligence and his faith, and started following his career path.

Now, I’m happy I can watch him on TV - like this afternoon, when he scored 28 points and had 14 assists to help beat the defending champion Mavericks. (And, I hope fans and journalists will lay off the appalling racist remarks.)

Lin has also become a hero to many people who see themselves in him - Christians like me, for starters, but especially Asian-American believers, like Michael Luo of The New York Times. Like Lin, he went to Harvard and was involved with Christian student groups.

Luo writes:

An Asian-American Christian? What’s that?

Many in this country have probably never even heard of this subcategory on the religious spectrum. But if you are a relatively recent graduate of the Ivy League or another top-tier college, you will probably recognize the species.

Harvard’s Asian American Christian Fellowship, which started in the 1990s, is one of the most active student groups on campus. … Like Lin, many Asian-American Christians have deep personal faith, but they are also, notably, almost never culture warriors. That is simply not what is emphasized in their churches and college Christian fellowships, including the one that played such a formative role in Lin’s life at Harvard.

That Harvard group is part of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, which I was also involved with during my college and graduate school days. At Northwestern, Luo’s description is certainly accurate — during my brief time in Graduate Christian Fellowship, I met quite a few awesome Asian-Americans, plus international students from Taiwan (like Lin’s parents) and other countries. Amid all the high-pressure stress of journalism school, I appreciated getting to know students in other disciplines, as well as professors and ministry staff members, who would pray with and for me and help me keep it all in perspective. (Plus, we ate a lot of good food!)

At Calvin, the focus was understandably different — it was a small group, and some may have thought a Christian college didn’t even need it. But again, I enjoyed studying the Bible my freshman and sophomore years with people outside my English major/campus newspaper bubble and occasionally doing things with groups from other colleges.

As some universities think about placing limits on Intervarsity and other Christian student organizations — or getting rid of them altogether — I hope they’ll reconsider and start appreciating what these groups and their members contribute to campus life.

And who knows? The next Jeremy Lin could be sitting in one of their meetings.

I’ll let him have the last word (from the San Jose Mercury News):

“There is so much temptation to hold on to my career even more now. To try to micromanage and dictate every little aspect. But that’s not how I want to do things anymore. I’m thinking about how can I trust God more. How can I surrender more? How can I bring him more glory? It’s a fight. But it’s one I’m going to keep fighting.”

(Photo of Jeremy Lin courtesy Wikimedia Commons)