FCA honors Menomonie's Bostrom

Oct. 31--There are usually no short or boring conversations with John "Jake" Bostrom.

He is a walking encyclopedia of area athletics, particularly at Menomonie High School and UW-Stout.

Yet, when you converse with Jake, his voice rises and his normal hyper-active demeanor amazingly ramps up when he talks of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, an interdenominational Christian sports ministry.

It makes sense. Jake started the state's first FCA chapter. He routinely attends student-athlete and adult FCA national events, even arranging and sponsoring transportation and scholarships for students over the decades.

Yet, when asked why he's done all that, Bostrom deflects recognition, saying: "I just let God use me. Everything has been in his best interest, not mine."

Bostrom, who turned 76 Thursday, recently became the first person from Wisconsin to be inducted into the FCA's Hall of Champions.

Others in the five-member 2015 class include Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of evangelist Billy Graham, and former NBA star Bobby Jones.

"It's kind of awesome," Bostrom said about the honor. "It shows that if you stick around long enough, I guess things happen."

Well, Bostrom's efforts are well documented to have influenced the start and continued success of FCA chapters in the Chippewa Valley and across the state.

When asked how he got involved with FCA, Bostrom, a native of Two Harbors, Minn., said he mentions that while stationed at the Army Information News Center in Kansas City, Mo., in 1963, he attended an FCA father/son banquet. Len Dawson, then quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, was the main draw.

"That hit me big and I was in," said Bostrom, who was enthralled with the combination of athletics and evangelism.

Bostrom married Shirley in 1964 and he worked in the insurance industry and later at Augsburg College in Minneapolis while getting quite involved with FCA activities. The Bostroms moved in 1968 to Menomonie, where Jake became adviser to UW-Stout's Stoutonian newspaper. The next year, an FCA "huddle group" (a small Bible study/devotion group) in Menomonie for athletes and coaches was formed. Less than three years later, Bostrom was back in the insurance business.

"You don't do any of this all on your own," Bostrom said, again reeling off a sizable list of people who assisted in developing the area's FCA program. "All you have to do is tell the big guy upstairs that you are in, and actually be all in, and he does the rest."

"Jake is relentless and passionate in his attitude and efforts for sports ministry in the region," said Andy Draper, director of the northwest Wisconsin FCA chapter. "He is an absolute servant. I am incredibly thankful for all the groundwork he laid that made the FCA ministry in northwest Wisconsin possible."

Mark Hull of Eau Claire, Northland Region (four states) Coaches and International Coordinator for FCA, said Bostrom's continual and effervescent efforts on behalf of FCA have been extremely impressive, saying: "He represents what our Hall of Champions is all about: faithful service over the long haul; as excited about the ministry as he's ever been, after 51 years!"

Dennis Nelson, retired teacher and coach at Wisconsin Rapids High School, was a junior at Menomonie High School in 1970 when Bostrom got him involved with FCA.

"His constant example of commitment, service, integrity and the joy of serving Christ, spoke very loudly to all of us," Nelson said in a letter in support of Bostrom's induction. "Jake's contagious attitude continues to affect all who are blessed to meet him. Jake is truly the embodiment of the vision, mission and values of FCA."

Jake and Shirley have two daughters, Kristen and Kari. In a letter of recommendation, Kari said her father, who attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, thought he was going to be a pulpit preacher.

"Dad being out of the pulpit actually freed him to preach, teach and reach athletes in ball fields, locker rooms, stadiums, outfields, infields. Wherever there was a ball game going on, there was dad with a microphone in one hand and a Bible in the other."

Bostrom, a veteran radio broadcaster for area athletic contests, admits he has a "unique mission field" with student-athletes. He quickly added: "We all have a mission field, to confront people as to who this Jesus Christ really is. That part, well, that doesn't matter if they are athletes or not."

Contact: 715-830-5831, chuck.rupnow@ecpc.com, @crupnow on Twitter

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