As Liberty celebrates its first ever bowl win, the University inches closer to the original vision laid out by Dr. Jerry Falwell, Sr. in the 1970s.
At Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida on Saturday evening, current Liberty President Jerry Falwell, Jr. celebrated with the team on the field following Liberty’s 23-16 win over Georgia Southern in the 2019 FBC Mortgage Cure Bowl. As he did, his emotions were running high.
During the celebration, he recalled the times when he was just a boy riding on his dad’s shoulders watching from the sidelines at City Stadium, watching Liberty football in its first few seasons. Could he have ever imagined seeing Liberty at this level in his lifetime? His visionary father most certainly could.
Liberty University co-founder, Dr. Elmer Towns, was also in attendance to witness history while wearing one of two Liberty University founder’s rings.
The vision has always been to use music and athletics to grow Liberty into a world class institution and the support for the athletic program has been there since the beginning, pioneered by Falwell Sr. and now Jr. and Dr. Elmer Towns.
Getting to the top level of collegiate football was a necessity. President Falwell and his dad tried without success for decades to reach that level. Most notably, being turned down by the Sun Belt multiple times within the past decade. Fittingly, Georgia Southern is rumored to be one of the few Sun Belt members that voted against Liberty’s inclusion into the conference and FBS.
That never deterred President Falwell. He lobbied the NCAA for a waiver to compete as an Independent at the highest level, and the waiver was granted in February 2017.
Over the past decade, we have seen this program reach heights few of us thought possible this quickly. With the support of the administration, the trajectory of the athletic department is on a steeper incline than any university in the country.
The money being spent on facilities and coaches is allowing Liberty to attract the top athletes needed to compete with the best the Group of Five has to offer as evidenced by the Flames’ best recruiting class in school history just inked earlier this week.
With Dr. Falwell smiling down on the first bowl victory and the now 14-0 men’s basketball team, those who knew him and the vision he cast, realize there is much more to be achieved.
The pace of the journey to being the Evangelical equivalent of Notre Dame and Brigham Young has seen a meteoric rise in recent years. Let’s continue to enjoy seeing this vision being realized as we embrace those achievements Dr. Falwell once envisioned.
