By Rhea Choudhary | Staff Writer
Baylor’s Dr. Paul Putz, director of the Faith and Sports Institute and program director for the Master of Arts in Theology and Sports Studies at Truett Seminary, has been awarded the 2025 Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize, one of the most prestigious national honors in church history scholarship.
The award, presented annually by the American Society of Church History, recognizes exceptional scholarship in the history of Christianity by a first-time author. Putz earned the prize for his book “The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports,” published by Oxford University Press in 2024.
“It’s been kind of surreal,” Putz said. “I’m a first-generation college student, so I don’t come from a family of those who even attended college, much less worked at one. To be a first-time author and have this recognition from scholars I respect means the world.”
President Linda Livingstone praised Putz’s achievement as both a personal milestone and a way of representing Baylor’s mission to unite faith and scholarship.
“We celebrate this national honor with Dr. Putz, which reflects the impact of his scholarship and the strength of Baylor’s commitment to advancing knowledge at the intersection of faith and learning,” Livingstone said.
Putz’s book traces the history of the American Christian athlete movement throughout the 20th century, looking at how faith and sports have been combined to shape both cultural and spiritual life. His research began in 2014 as a doctoral student in Baylor’s history Ph.D. program, where the project first originated.
“The background to the book goes back to my own story,” Putz said. “I was a pastor’s kid in small-town Nebraska and also a basketball player. Sports were a big part of my identity, and so was the church. I wanted to know how other Christians before me had connected those two worlds.”
His longtime mentor and dissertation supervisor, History professor Dr. Barry Hankins, said the recognition demonstrates Putz’s years of dedicated scholarship, as well as the growing prominence of sports history as an academic field.
“Achieving the Brewer Prize is a really big deal,” Hankins said. “It’s given by the oldest and probably most prestigious organization of religious historians in America. Paul’s book shows how big-time sports and big-time religion in the U.S. have been interwoven with each other since the 1940s. They have fed off and reinforced one another in fascinating ways.”
Putz joins Dr. Joseph Stubenrauch, who previously won the award in 2017, as only the second Baylor scholar to receive the Brewer Prize.
“Paul is one of the best Ph.D. students to come out of our program,” Hankins said. “He’s taken his research beyond the academic sphere, organizing conferences, leading training and directing Truett’s Faith and Sports Institute to help others understand the relationship between faith and athletics.”
In addition to his Brewer Prize-winning debut, Putz is already working on his second book, which explores the Christian origins and cultural evolution of basketball, a sport founded by a Presbyterian minister in the 1890s.
“Basketball was literally created as a Christian game,” Putz said. “My next project looks at how that spiritual foundation shaped its growth into a global sport that continues to bring joy and connection today.”
For now, Putz said he’s grateful that his first book, which has been more than a decade in the making, is helping others see the deeper meaning behind two of America’s biggest passions.
“Sports aren’t just games,” Putz said. “They’re places where people wrestle with questions of meaning, purpose and faith. My hope is that this book helps readers see how deeply connected those worlds really are.”
