After NFL's First Prayer, Religion Touched Down

"I don't remember it as shocking or anything like that," Jaworski said. "We just took it as, 'That's Herb.' We knew he was a religious man, and this is who he was. Very few people paid much attention to it."

Said Vince Papale, Lusk's teammate, whose career was portrayed in the 2006 movie "Invincible": "Religion was such a hot-button issue that no one wanted to touch it. . . . What I liked about it, it was a private, sensitive moment for him. It wasn't like, 'Hey, hey, look at me,' like a lot of the celebrations have become these days. It wasn't demonstrative."

According to Sabol, Kansas City's Elmo Wright conducted the first end-zone celebration in 1973, when he ran in place after catching a touchdown pass, so there was sort of a precedent for Lusk's display. Still, Lusk recalled being warned after the game by Carl Peterson, then the Eagles' director of player personnel, that praying could earn the Eagles a delay of game penalty.

"I wasn't trying to draw attention to myself," Lusk said. "This was just a moment between me and God."

Lusk actually began praying after touchdowns while playing at Long Beach State. As a junior, he suffered a knee injury that threatened his career.

"I prayed and asked God to come back and play football," Lusk said. "He not only answered my prayer, but did it over and above. I decided I would thank and praise God after each touchdown I scored."

In 1975, his senior season, Lusk was second in the nation with 145 rushing yards per game, and scored 16 touchdowns. Many, however, didn't understand his end-zone prayer. He likes to tell the story about scoring while playing in the East-West Shrine Game after that season. Teammate Chuck Muncie stood over a kneeling Lusk, and held up his hand waiting for a high-five. Lusk never delivered it.

"That [moment] explains how people responded," Lusk said. "They weren't ready for it."

Before the Eagles selected him in the 10th round of the NFL draft, Lusk made a promise to himself: He would play only three seasons in the NFL, then enter the ministry. Still, he reported for training camp for a fourth season in 1979.

"It was so much of a lure, so much of a temptation," Lusk said of playing a fourth season.

On July 12, after one day of camp, Lusk said he woke up in his dorm room at the Eagles' training facility at Widener University and, "I can't say I heard a voice, but I got on my knees like I did when I was in the end zone, and I knew that was it."

Lusk went back to school to complete his degree. In 1982, he was named pastor at Greater Exodus, whose membership had dwindled to less than two dozen, with a dilapidated facility. Today, the congregation numbers more than 1,500, and People for People has filled an adjacent eight-story building that used to house the Philadelphia Traffic Court, with a charter school, day-care center, a youth mentoring program and banquet hall. It is located one mile down Broad Street from City Hall.