Hank Erwin

Biography

As a member of the 1967 Troy State University baseball team, Erwin came to the realization that he should not play for his own glory but for the glory of God.  As a member of Wales Goebel Ministries in Birmingham in 1974, he was called upon to speak to the Woodlawn High School football team in an effort to ease the racial tensions among the athletes in the newly desegregated school.  “The school was a racial hotbed,” said Shelia Erwin, who was an intern at the school. “The black students didn’t want to be there. They wanted to be at their own school where they were the class presidents and the captains on the football team. At Woodlawn, they were not a part of anything. And the white students didn’t want them there. Nobody was happy.”  

​

Racial tensions caused name-calling and knives to be drawn. The situation was volatile.  “The cheerleaders were the ones who asked for help in relieving the tension,” Shelia Erwin said. “They had boyfriends on the team and they realized something had to be done.”  That’s when Hank Erwin was asked to speak to the team.  “Woodlawn” is the story of the magnitude of what God did to relieve the racial tensions and how He changed hearts and attitudes from hate to love.  The Woodlawn players listened to Erwin’s message that there was one hope, one truth and one way to the spiritual healing that must take place to bring unity and harmony to the team. That one way was through a revival that would lead to changed hearts.  “There in that locker room, the players – nearly everyone of them – came to Christ,” Erwin said. “They knelt together and got up loving each other.”  The story of the 1974 Woodlawn High School vs. Banks High School football state championship game that was played before 42,000 fans at Legion Field in Birmingham is the culminating story of “Woodlawn.” More than 20,000 people were turned away from what is still the biggest high school football game played in Alabama.  Erwin said the atmosphere was electric.  “There were signs all around the stadium with Bible verses on them,” Erwin said. “The teams ran onto the field through banners with scriptures on them. ‘One Way’ was the battle cry. They played for the glory of God. There were no losers in that game.”  Erwin shared the Woodlawn story with the students at Pike Liberal Arts School Tuesday. He said racial tensions were healed at Woodlawn because the students were “all in” to what God can do.  “Woodlawn has become a legend,” he said. “People all across the country know the Woodlawn story. It’s a story that changed the hearts of a football team, their school and their community. It’s Woodlawn.”​