Ben Malcolmson was shocked when he made the University of Southern California's football team as a walk-on, but the excitement soon wore after the devout Christian anonymously gifted his 100 teammates with bibles, leaving them by their lockers on Christmas Eve.
Malcolmson got the shock of his life two days later when he walked back into the lockerroom and found the bibles ripped up on the floor.
"When I made the team, I had a deep sense that I was there for a reason and that God had put me on that team for a purpose," Malcolmson told The Christian Post. "Because why else would he put me on that team? There had to be a reason. I was pressed into that from day one."
Malcolmson explained to Fox News he had made numerous attempts to share his faith with his teammates but this only led to "heartbreaking failures."
First Malcolmson started a Bible study but none of his teammates showed up. Then he tried to hold a prayer group but again nobody came. However, the most heartbreaking experience for Malcolmson came when he anonymously gifted those 100 Bibles to his college football teammates, only the have them shred the Holy Books.
"When I walked in and saw the Bibles torn up and shredded all over the lockerroom carpet, I was devastated," Malcolmson said, according to Fox News. "It was the culmination of a season full of discouragement and my hopes for finding my purpose were now shredded all over the floor of the locker room."
Malcolmson said his heart sank when he realized his fellow college football teammates were capable of ripping up the Bibles. The incident happened in 2006.
"Never in any of my daydreams had I envisioned a scene like this," he told The Christian Post.
He said he felt like a failure but there was a silver lining to his story. Four years later he learned that one of his teammates had picked up a bible and accepted Christ into his life days before passing away.
"With hindsight perspective and years removed from that experience, I could see that God's goodness was on me and that situation all along," Malcolmson told Fox News. "Even when I couldn't see His hand in the moment, He truly was at work all along."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.