Dr. Matthew Bowman, the Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University discussed his new book, Game Changers: AJ Dybantsa, BYU, and the Struggle for the Soul of Basketball, which he co-authored with BYU alum Wayne LeCheminant. Their fascinating conversation peeled back the historical layers of basketball, revealing that the sport was intentionally designed to promote religious virtue/

Invention of a “Christian” Sport

While many fans know that James Naismith invented basketball using peach baskets in Springfield, Massachusetts, few realize that Naismith explicitly designed basketball to produce “Christian gentlemen”.

Naismith was a frustrated minister working at a YMCA training school during the dead of winter. His students were bored with indoor calisthenics, but it was too cold for outdoor sports. To keep them active, Naismith created basketball, drawing heavily on the popular 19th-century concept of “muscular Christianity,” which taught that developing a healthy body was just as important as developing a healthy soul.

Unlike other popular sports of the era, Naismith structured basketball around self-sacrifice and fellowship. He believed baseball was too individualistic, focused largely on the isolated duel between pitcher and batter. By contrast, basketball was designed as a game of unending cooperation. The earliest rules only allowed passing or shooting—no dribbling—forcing players to subordinate their individual egos for the good of the team.

Civilized Alternative to Football

In the 1890s and early 1900s, football was wildly popular but incredibly violent. Without modern helmets or pads, the sport was literally killing dozens of players each season. In 1905 alone, 18 football players died, leading multiple states to consider banning the sport entirely.

Because of this brutality, the board of trustees at Brigham Young Academy (now BYU) voted to ban football in 1901. Basketball was championed as the perfect, civilized alternative. It allowed for vigorous physical activity without the deadly consequences, aligning perfectly with the moral framework desired by religious leaders.

LDS Church Has Basketball Court

As the LDS Church looked to expand out of Utah and into urban centers across the country, basketball offered a logistical advantage. While baseball required large outdoor fields, a basketball court could easily be placed inside a church building right in the middle of a city.

During the presidency of Joseph F. Smith, the Church built the massive Deseret Gym in Salt Lake City (where the Conference Center stands today), featuring multiple basketball courts. By the 1920s, the Church formally recommended that wards build “recreation halls” or “amusement halls” under the same roof as their worship spaces.

The primary goal of these courts was to attract the youth. Church leaders believed that by offering basketball, they could bring young men off the streets and into the Church building. Because young men were priesthood holders necessary for the formation of new wards, keeping them engaged in wholesome, cooperative activities was seen as crucial to the church’s growth.

To hear the full interview and learn more about how modern money is reshaping BYU’s basketball legacy, check out the full episode on Gospel Tangents!

What’s Next?

Basketball’s role in the Church evolved deeply throughout the 20th century, leading to massive All-Church tournaments and a prominent NCAA footprint at BYU. However, the landscape of college basketball is shifting. Today, athletes like BYU’s AJ Dybantsa are navigating an era of millions of dollars in NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) money and “one-and-done” draft prospects—developments that past leaders like Ernest Wilkinson would likely have hated.

The Golden Era of the All-Church Tournament

Before March Madness dominated the spring, the All-Church basketball tournament was a massive cultural phenomenon. Flourishing after World War II, the tournament featured thousands of teams from wards all over the globe, with regional champions flying into Salt Lake City to compete in the finals at the Deseret Gymnasium. The tournament was so prestigious that Marion D. Hanks actually quit the University of Utah basketball team just to play in the All-Church tournament. The competition was incredibly fierce—wealthy members would even offer jobs and build houses to lure talented players to move into their wards to stack their local team roster.

Hoops Diplomacy: Missionaries Take the Court

Long before the controversial “baseball baptisms” of the 1960s, LDS missionaries were using basketball as a grassroots tool for international diplomacy. As Americans who had grown up playing the sport, missionaries arriving in places like Europe, Argentina, and Australia were often vastly superior to local club teams. Using the Protestant language of “muscular Christianity,” missionaries challenged local YMCA and national teams, using the games to break down anti-Mormon prejudices and build bridges. Sometimes, they were so good they ended up coaching or playing for national teams. Missionary Ralph Larson, for instance, stayed in Argentina and became a celebrity playing for the Argentine national team.

The Battle for BYU’s Soul: Watts vs. Wilkinson

As college basketball grew into a lucrative business, a massive ideological battle took place at BYU. On one side was university president Ernest Wilkinson, who fiercely believed in the pure amateur ideal. Wilkinson believed sports were strictly for the personal edification of current students; he despised the idea of athletic scholarships, recruiting players who didn’t fit the university’s academic mission, or bringing in non-LDS ringers.

On the other side was legendary BYU basketball coach Stan Watts, who wanted to modernize the program and compete at the highest level. Watts pushed for scholarships, brought the fast break to BYU, and led the team to an NIT championship at Madison Square Garden. This massive victory brought immense publicity and booster money to the school, eventually paving the way for the massive Marriott Center to be built.

The Original AJ Dybantsa: Kresimir Cosic

Ultimately, Stan Watts’ vision for a modern, competitive basketball program won out over Wilkinson’s strict amateurism, culminating in the arrival of Kresimir Cosic. Arguably the greatest player in BYU history, Cosic was an incredibly gifted 6’11” forward from Yugoslavia who played with the ball-handling skills of a modern guard.

Cosic was not LDS and didn’t even know BYU was a religious school when he decided to come. He met a Finnish BYU player at a European tournament, defected during a game in Italy, hopped in a cab, and flew to New York, calling Coach Watts from the airport to announce his arrival. Cosic was so talented he was drafted into the NBA twice, but turned it down to return to his home country. He eventually embraced the LDS faith enthusiastically, forever changing the trajectory of BYU’s basketball program and proving that international, non-LDS talent could thrive in Provo.

AJ Dybantsa and just declared for the NBA draft.  We discuss why AJ Dybantsa picked BYU. He’s likely top NBA prospect, and he is reportedly earning millions to play in Provo. Dr. Matthew Bowman, author of Game Changers, dives into the modern reality of college sports and its collision with BYU’s historical values. We explore the massive shifts brought about by NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals and how BYU continues to rely on its unique religious culture to recruit top talent.

NIL Revolution and the End of the “Student-Athlete”

For decades, the NCAA heavily enforced strict amateurism rules—sometimes to absurd lengths, such as penalizing a player for putting cream cheese on a bagel provided by a coach, or suspending players if a fan took them out to dinner. However, recent lawsuits, spearheaded by former players like Ed O’Bannon, have completely dismantled this restrictive system. Today, athletes can legally profit from their likeness and sign massive endorsement deals. Through BYU’s NIL collective “The Royal Blue,” as well as sponsorships like Crumbl Cookies, AJ Dybantsa is set to make around $5 million to play at BYU.

More Than Just a Paycheck

While the massive payday is undeniable, Dybantsa’s family stated they requested the exact same monetary offer from all the schools recruiting him—including heavyweights like Kansas and Arkansas—so that his final decision wouldn’t strictly be about the highest bidder. Ultimately, Dybantsa chose BYU because of its strong emphasis on family and its supportive environment. His parents, Ace and Chelsea, actually toured the campus first and were highly impressed by what they saw.

This family-centric appeal isn’t just for players. Head coach Kevin Young left a highly promising NBA career trajectory to coach at BYU, specifically because the university environment offered a better work-life balance for his family, including not having to work on Sundays.

Navigating Race and Religion on Campus

Let’s look at the complicated history of race in BYU athletics. During the Ernest Wilkinson era in the 1960s and 70s, the school faced federal investigations and intense protests—such as the Wyoming 14 incident—over its virtually all-white teams and the church’s racial priesthood ban. It wasn’t until the last decade that BYU fielded its first all-black starting five in basketball.

Today, recruiting has shifted in fascinating ways. While BYU has historically struggled to recruit Black athletes due to the cultural difficulties of the Honor Code, the university is increasingly finding success by recruiting religious non-LDS players. Many Muslim athletes, for instance, find the Honor Code’s strict ban on alcohol perfectly aligned with their own faith. Dybantsa, whose parents have Catholic roots from the Congo and Jamaica, similarly found BYU’s faith-based environment appealing. Other religious players, like Eastern Orthodox athletes, have also explicitly praised the school for supporting their strong personal faith.

The Struggle for BYU’s Soul

As BYU competes in the Big 12, it faces a philosophical crossroads. Some Ivy League schools chose to stop chasing athletic scholarship money, allowing their sports programs to recede into purely amateur, educational endeavors. But BYU has taken a different path. The university is now grappling with the tension between its original religious mission and the modern reality of operating what critics call “professional teams with schools attached.”

Are big money sports compatible with BYU and the Church’s mission?