President’s Corner & Notes

October 14, 2026 It was February 8, 2019. The inaugural One Yard at a Time Gala at the Grand Bohemian in Mountain Brook. Nineteen years to the day since Derrick Thomas died on February 8, 2000. I didn’t choose that date. The venue did. It was simply the only Saturday they had available. At least, that’s what I believed anyway. Derrick Thomas gave me my name: The Bull. That being said, some people might remember Bill Lumpkin’s November 1985 article, when Alabama starting guard

October 17, 2026 Red, White and Blue Bingo: A Night That Almost Didn't Happen I am still trying to find the words to explain what happened on October 15, 2026, when Lettermen of the USA held its Red, White and Blue Designer Handbag Bingo at The Club in Homewood. We finished with 89 people registered and 85 guests in attendance. Of the four who could not make it, one graciously told us to keep the money as a donation. That meant more than they probably realized. Those numbers

July 14, 2026 From the Football Field to Fishing for Men An Unexpected Journey of Strength, Suffering, Grace, and God’s Purpose When I look back over my sixty-two years of life, I sometimes wonder how a boy who arrived at Southside High School overweight, out of shape, and uncertain of his future ever found his way onto the football field at the University of Alabama. For much of my younger life, I thought the answer was determination, hard work, and a willingness to hit some

She Served Our Country. Now It's Our Turn to Serve Her. Lettermen of the USA | Veterans Assistance Program Throughout our nation's history, courageous women have answered the call to serve in the United States Armed Forces. They have worn our country's uniform with pride, defended our freedoms, sacrificed time with their families, and demonstrated extraordinary strength, dedication, and patriotism. Their service deserves more than our gratitude. It deserves our continued comm

Ah, 1986—a year burned into my memory like a highlight reel on a worn VHS tape, spooling through victories, heartbreaks, and those electric, formative moments that shape a young man’s life.

Remember Your Why “You’re on God’s team, and I want to be on your team.” Those words still land with me every time I hear them. A stranger said them to me years ago, and they have stayed with me ever since.

God never intended for us to journey through this life alone. I have learned that the hard way, and by the grace of God, I have also learned it the blessed way. The Lord has a way of placing people along our path at just the right time. Some encourage us. Some pray for us.

September 4, 2026 The Mustard Seed at the Brook Besor This morning at the prayer breakfast at The Brook Besor in Pell City, a man with Church of the Highlands disaster relief asked a question that stopped me cold: after the corporate years are over, what are we going to do? Do we retire, go home, and slowly fade away, or do we take whatever God has left in our hands and grow the mustard seed for the Kingdom? I have been thinking about that question ever since. The Brook Besor

Twenty-five years have passed since the morning of September 11, 2001, but time has not erased the images, the names, or the meaning of that day.

August 31, 2026 I wasn’t at Bio-Rad long enough to know where to order the paperclips. Ninety days was about all it took for me to realize that sometimes the most important things a man learns in a job are the very things that will never appear on his resume. I came from red dirt in Northeast Alabama, right up against the Georgia line, where the Coosa River bends around the land near Cedar Bend Road and the foothills of the Appalachians begin to rise. My father raised about a

Some stories make sense when you look back at them. This one still does not. Fifteen years later, I can point to the programs, the veterans, the families, the footballs, the wheelchairs, the homes, the meals, and the hundreds of former athletes who answered the call. I can tell you that Lettermen of the USA has now impacted more than 1,700 veterans and family members.

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope” (Psalm 130:5). If I had kept the Psalms closer to my heart and read Proverbs the way a man is supposed to, I probably would have been a much wiser man. Maybe a wealthier one, too.

July 17, 2026 Every Friday morning I leave my Coosa River Bridge home at exactly 4:56 to catch the men’s breakfast in Pell City. Not 4:55 and not 5:00. It is 4:56. I cannot point to a particular verse establishing 4:56 as the biblical hour for men’s breakfast, but Ecclesiastes does say there is “a time to every purpose under the heaven,” so until somebody produces a better interpretation, I am sticking with 4:56. This morning I pulled out and discovered the Honda mad dash al

I do not have the Ten Commandments memorized. I do not know all the Beatitudes by heart. Next to the Lord’s Prayer, these are two of the most important things every Christian should know. They are the bedrock of the faith. And yet here I sit, a man who has been striving, since my mechanical valve replacement surgery in 2019, to become a better, more faithful follower of the Nazarene.

July 26, 2026 Every night, I pray the words found in First Kings. When God offered Solomon anything he desired, Solomon did not ask for long life, wealth, or victory over his enemies. He asked for “an understanding heart” so that he could lead with wisdom and discernment (1 Kings 3:9). That is also my prayer. I ask God for an understanding heart to lead Lettermen of the USA, not for myself, but for the brothers who played that flag football game on August 13, 2011. Those men

July 16, 2026 A Young Linebacker on Capitol Hill Washington first entered my life during spring break in 1977. I was twelve years old, standing on the steps of the United States Supreme Court with my father and my older brother, David. I was wearing a blue windbreaker from Lyman Ward Military Academy, where I was finishing my last year. My father, Robert Frank Fuhrman, stood beside me. He was a Korean War Marine, cattle farmer, factory worker, and vice president of the Etowah

July 11, 2026 The Lust of the Heart: My Story My second marriage ended, in part, because of a woman from my past. She was someone I had been involved with before I got married, and toward the end of my marriage, I was no longer faithful. That relationship became a contributing factor in the breakup, and the consequences hit me hard. This morning, the subject at our men’s prayer breakfast was lust, and the message cut straight through me. One of the brothers shared a humorous

The Importance and Significance of Food for Heroes: A Lettermen of the USA Initiative Food is one of humanity's most basic needs, but it is also one of the most meaningful expressions of gratitude, compassion, and community.

June 10, 2026 Sobornost at 3 a.m. Sobornost is a profound Russian spiritual concept that speaks of deep, organic unity, the living communion of all believers joined together as one in Christ. It is not mere togetherness, but a mystical oneness in the Holy Spirit. Fyodor Dostoevsky explored this longing for true spiritual unity in The Brothers Karamazov. I believe I have tasted something of that unity. What began as a small mustard seed of obedience has grown into something fa

Independence Day 2026: One Yard at a Time As Americans gather across our great nation this Fourth of July, we celebrate far more than fireworks, parades, and family traditions. We celebrate the enduring spirit of freedom, the courage of those who secured it, and the responsibility each generation carries to preserve it. Two hundred and fifty years ago, brave men pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to a bold idea—that liberty was worth fighting for and that a free