Ilkin to share story of faith

There was something about the lives of several teammates that intrigued Pittsburgh Steeler Tunch Ilkin more than 20 years ago.

"They were different. There was something about them that I had never seen in men before," he said. "They had a sense of humility, a sense of joy, and they had a love for each other. They lived a life that demanded an explanation."

When he got to know Jon Kolb, John Stallworth, Donnie Shell, Ted Peterson and Craig Wolfley, he discovered what it was.

"It was not the Super Bowl or Pro Bowls or money," Ilkin said. "The most important thing in their lives was that they had a relationship with Jesus Christ."

How that changed his own life will be the topic of his presentation at the Christian Business Men's Committee 32nd Annual Banquet and Prayer Breakfast on Thursday and Friday, at the Four Points Hotel by Sheraton near Greensburg. The event also is sponsored in cooperation with the Greensburg Kiwanis.

Ilkin, 46, lived in Chicago, graduated from Indiana State University, had a 14-year career with the Steelers football team and was a Pro Bowl Player in 1988 and 1989. Though retired from playing, he remains connected to football as a member of the Fox Sports Pittsburgh broadcast team and is heard with Myron Cope and Bill Hillgrove on the Steelers radio network.

He additionally served on the executive committee and was vice president of the NFL Players Association, and is executive vice president for Business Development for Athletic Training Network. He travels nationwide as a consultant coach and frequently conducts motivational and leadership programs for businesses, churches and Christian groups.

"There's a platform for athletes to be heard and to share our lives with others," Ilkin said.

He uses that opportunity to talk about his journey to Christianity that had an unlikely beginning and many detours.

"I was born in Turkey and my family immigrated when I was 2 1/2," he said. "I grew up as a Muslim, then went from atheist to agnostic. I lived a life full of mistakes, and when I was in my mid-20s, I started feeling a real emptiness and shallowness in my life. I was very selfish, and drugs and alcohol were part of my life."

For a time Ilkin believed that men should be "tough and hard-nosed," and that Christians were "weak." Yet he saw Kolb, considered the strongest man in the National Football League, acting gentle and humble, and carrying a Bible at training camp.

"He prayed, and he loved Jesus," Ilkin said. "I had never met a man like this."

As a former Muslim, and then a man of no faith, he was not very familiar with Christianity. "My image of God was very different," he said.

He was 24 when he converted, a move that initially upset his mother. But she listened to what he had to say, and she soon converted, too.

For four years, Ilkin unsuccessfully tried to build up the courage to tell his father. Then one day when they were watching a football game, his father asked, "How come you never told me you became a Christian?"

He had read about it in a magazine, and did not react how Ilkin had expected. In fact, his father was baptized in 1998, the year before he died.

Ilkin tells his audiences that challenges and pain are a part of life. One of his own humbling experiences, he said, was at age 36 when he was at the end of his football career.

"My body was falling apart and I was no longer the player I was," he said. "But I came to realize that I am not Tunch Ilkin, the football player, but I am Tunch Ilkin who loves the Lord, and that's where my self-worth and self-esteem come from."

Additional Information:

If you go

Christian Business Men's Committee 32nd Annual Banquet and Prayer Breakfast

When: Banquet: 7 p.m. Thursday; breakfast, 7 a.m. Friday

Where : Four Points Hotel by Sheraton, east of Greensburg

Tickets : $25 for banquet; $10 for breakfast

Reservations : 724-836-2975, 423-6688 or 834-0150