On Thursday I saw the news on my Twitter timeline that McClanen had died.<\/p>\n
A historian is supposed to keep a critical distance from his or her subjects of study, and I like to think that I follow that standard. Yet when I saw the news, I couldn\u2019t help feeling a sense of loss for a man I never met, a man I know only through dusty letters written long ago.<\/p>\n
When I first began my research on the early history of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, I had no affinity for McClanen\u201d\u201dI barely knew who he was. At first he seemed too earnest, too persistent. In his letters he badgered, he pestered, he shared too much information too soon. Yet the more that I encountered McClanen in the archives, the more I grew intrigued by his combination of intensity, sincerity, and humility. There is a trace of irony in the latter, for McClanen\u2019s fame today (such as it is) rests on the fact that he founded an organization explicitly built around the idea of celebrity, salesmanship, and publicity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf athletes can endorse shaving cream, razor blades, and cigarettes,\u201d\u009d he said. \u201cSurely they can endorse the Lord.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n