Fresh off of Saturday’s win over defending national champion Indiana, members of the Ohio State football team were back on campus Monday to spread the Gospel and participate in what has become an annual campus-wide worship night. “Fall Kickoff: an Invitation to Jesus” is now in its third year hosted by Ohio State players, and included worship, athletes sharing their testimonies, and ended with a mass baptism.
Nearly 1,000 people were in attendance and 35 baptisms took place, according to Mairin O’Brien, a former OSU swimmer who helped organize this year’s event.
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Current football players Beau Atkinson, T.J. Alford, Epi Sitanilei and Carson Hinzman were four of the six student-athletes who shared their testimonies, as field hockey player Katie Fichtner and dance team member Chloe Cerreto also spoke. Numerous athletes wore “Jesus Won” T-shirts.
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Former football players Gee Scott Jr., Master Teague and Kamryn Babb also spoke and have been leaders in keeping the event going since helping plan the inaugural event in 2024. That night drew nearly 2,000 people, and since then each subsequent event has brought a spotlight on Jesus around campus and the sports world at large.
Other former players like wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, running back TreVeyon Henderson, defensive back Caleb Downs and linebacker Sonny Styles have participated in previous years, but currently are busy with their respective NFL teams.
“Just for two hours, three hours, however [long] we’re here for, just put [all stressors] to the side,” Babb said, according to The Lantern, Ohio State’s independent student newspaper. “And I promise you, He wants to meet you. So if you just give Him your heart, you’ll be so surprised on what He can do.”
Hinzman, a fifth-year center, shared his testimony of growing up in rural western Wisconsin, where he regularly attended church with his family but couldn’t quite discern God’s meaning for his life. He didn’t play a snap as a freshman and started to contemplate if he should transfer elsewhere.
His father encouraged him to pray about it.
“I just cried and praised the Lord,” Hinzman told the crowd. “[I thought,] ‘I don’t know what to do anymore, I have no other way to go. I feel like I’m just an embarrassment. I feel like I can’t do this right.'”
Looking back, he can see how he was putting a lot of unnecessary pressure on himself thinking about people back home who he wanted to “do good for.”
“I felt that my validation came through what I did in my sport,” he said.
He eventually went on to earn a starting role and help lead the Buckeyes to the 2024-25 national championship, and he now has a more mature and tested faith to share with others. One student told The Lantern that it was the faith of the Ohio State football players that led her to attend school there.
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Ohio State’s 2024 event sparked a wave of similar events on college campuses across the country. Last month, nearly 400 people showed up to an athlete-led worship event at the University of Toledo, where 50 people were baptized. Last year at the University of Pittsburgh, athletes hosted an event called “Pitt for Jesus” that featured baptisms, live worship music, prayer and athlete testimonies. They hosted another event this year.
At Purdue, 13 athletes publicly professed their faith at a baptism night in November 2025. In May 2025, a “Worship on the Hill” event at Western Kentucky University led to 29 people getting baptized, then was followed up by an impromptu event the next day at which 26 more people from Conference USA softball teams got baptized ahead of the conference tournament.
Current NFL stars like C.J. Stroud and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who regularly proclaim their faith in Christ, were eternally impacted while at Ohio State. That was largely because of teammates like Babb, Scott and Teague, who continue to pour into the athletes in Columbus, Ohio.
“Over the last couple years we’ve really seen the Lord start a revival on our team,” Egbuka said in 2024. That revival continues.
On the football field, Ohio State is 5-1 and ranked No. 3 in the most recent AP top-25 poll after beating Indiana. The Buckeyes have a bye this week and will play again Oct. 31 on the road against USC.
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