“It was about the freshman 40, thanks to Annenberg,” Sims recalls.

Freshman year opened up his eyes to the reality of Ivy football. Coming from Texas, Sims thought that the league’s academic priorities would mean the players would be less physical and less intense.

“Then I met guys like Mike Clare ’01 and Chris Eitzmann ’00—legitimate football players who have signed pro contracts,” Sims says. “It was a great awakening.”

Sims’ use of the term “great awakening” is interesting, because it speaks to another aspect of his life that has been featured more prominently than football—his Christian faith.

Having grown up in a religious household, and attended Bible study groups and church youth groups in Texas as a child, Sims realized in high school that he needed to re-evaluate his faith.

“I began to realize there were a bunch of other things out there, a bunch of other ideas and I wanted to know how that fit in with what I’d been told,” he says. “That’s when I began an active relationship with Jesus Christ as a Christian.”

Upon entering Harvard, Sims also began an active relationship with campus organizations like Christian Impact, a Bible study group.

“People back home were telling me, ‘be careful up there at liberal Harvard’!” Sims recalls. “It was very fortunate to get involved with some of those groups during Freshman Week.”

During his sophomore year, Christian Impact would dramatically impact Sims’ stature on campus, when he lent his name to the “Jesus Week” campaign.

But why was Sims chosen as the spokesperson?

“Some little no-name sophomore like myself? I really don’t know,” Sims says. “They had thought about using some other people, but since I hadn’t really been at the forefront or leadership of the groups, I guess it added to the mystery.”

The “mystery” was the posters that began popping up around campus, asking only “Do You Agree With Kyle?”, telling people to gather on Friday at the Science Center to find out. The campus was awash in students carrying the posters and wearing the related orange shirts, but no one was spilling the beans.

“By mid-week people were asking, ‘Who’s this Kyle? Are you the Kyle?” Sim says. “I told them I didn’t know and they’d have to wait and see.”

On Friday Sims gave his testimony on a rock in front of the Science Center while students gathered, listened and prayed together. The Crimson had run a story earlier that day on the mystery campaign, and his identity was finally revealed.

Sims has said that was one of his proudest days, and that he heard nothing but positives after he gave his speech. Even at “liberal Harvard,” Sims says the exposure to new cultures, faiths and ideas has only strengthened his own commitment.