Football success in south Minneapolis starts with this man: Jim Halbur

Jim Halbur pulls his 15-seat passenger van out of a parking lot at 4:30 p.m. to begin his weekday routine of picking up kids for a youth football practice that starts in 90 minutes.

The 58-year-old pastor of Fountain of Life Church in Minneapolis stays on the move, his phone always turned on, as the glue that holds the Minneapolis Phelps Falcons sports program together.

His van has 163,000 miles on it and a rebuilt engine. His other van needed a new transmission recently. He'd love to get a new van, but he notes with a chuckle that it would "smell like a locker room in two weeks."

He makes multiple stops throughout south Minneapolis and Bloomington to get players on Phelps' middle-school football teams to practice on time. Halbur doesn't use GPS because he doesn't need it. He knows the city grid like his own neighborhood, having counseled Minneapolis families and teens for decades.

Everywhere he stops, people know him. They call him "PJ" — short for Pastor Jim. Transportation can be problematic for kids in the program based out of Phelps Park in south Minneapolis. Some kids lack stability in housing. Halbur refuses to let anyone be held back by something out of their control.

"It's amazing what it means to kids for people to take an interest in them," Halbur said.

His phone buzzes constantly as he navigates rush hour. Here's another kid calling …

Player: Hey, PJ. You think you could get me some practice pants?

Halbur: What happened to your pants?

Player: I lost them. I think somebody took them.

Halbur (laughing): I'll look, Big Dawg. You might be without tonight because I don't know if I'll have time to grab you anything. What size do you wear?

Player: Small.

Halbur: I think I have some mediums in the trunk.

Problem solved.

The next call comes a few minutes later. Someone needs a ride.

They all call him PJ. He calls them Big Dawg. This is a snapshot of why those invested in Phelps Falcons football refer to it as a family.

"Phelps is my life, if you want to be honest," said alum Isaiah Hall, a 25-year-old elementary teacher who played football for the Falcons before continuing his career in college.

Halbur has a servant's heart and humble nature that make him uncomfortable with attention. He respectfully asks that this article focus on the athletes and volunteers who give their time to coaching kids. He's just a cog in the wheel, he says.

But any conversation about Phelps inevitably comes back to the man who got the sports program off the ground and devotes his existence to providing kids with love and support.

"He will do anything for these kids," said former Gophers quarterback Bryan Cupito, who coaches his two sons' Phelps teams.

Raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm, Halbur moved to Minneapolis in 1989 for ministry school and never left. In 2007, he became involved with coaching basketball at Phelps Park, which sits one block from George Floyd Square. He soon helped form a non-profit to raise funds to support the sports program. Halbur serves as president of the Phelps Activities Council. The program's mission: secure financial donations, attract volunteers, assist kids.

"I feel like this is what I was called to do," Halbur said.

He estimates that Phelps has 300 to 400 kids playing various sports, including 200 in football.

The list of Phelps alums includes current and former pro athletes Tyler Johnson, Jericho Sims and Rashad Vaughn as well as more than a dozen Division I athletes. That group includes current Gophers safety Craig McDonald, Nebraska running back Emmett Johnson and Michigan State basketball player Tre Holloman.

Phelps won a football national championship in 2009. Cupito's 11U team finished second in a national tournament last season. Cupito coached the fourth- and seventh-grade teams to tournament championships in Iowa this past weekend, and his older squad is competing in two national events in Tennessee and Atlanta in November.

"I love being around the kids and their families," said Cupito, who is third all-time in Gophers career passing yards.

The network of Phelps supporters includes Minneapolis native and future NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald Jr., who purchases helmets for the program.

"Pastor Jim has played a crucial role in our community, consistently providing wisdom, guidance and earning the trust of the young people he mentors," Fitzgerald wrote in a text message. "It has been truly inspiring to witness his dedication over the years, and I'm honored to support as he passionately serves the youth in my beloved South Minneapolis."

Halbur extols the benefits of keeping kids involved in activities. In addition to the rides, Halbur and his volunteers frequently organize group outings outside of sports.

"It wouldn't work without volunteers," Halbur said.

Hall began playing football for Phelps when he was 9, and played later for Apple Valley High. He went on to earn Division II All-America honors at Winona State, where he was named the school's male athlete of the year in 2018-19, before playing his senior season at St. Thomas. Hall teaches third grade at a charter school now and is an assistant football coach at Apple Valley. His younger brother Xion plays for Phelps' sixth-grade team.

"Pastor Jim was that father figure that lot of us didn't have," Hall said. "He gave us a lot of things to do outside of football."

Halbur notes that every Phelps volunteer has a success story to share. He was shopping a few years ago when he saw a man in his 20s stocking shelves on a lift. The man spotted him and began wiping tears from his eyes.

The man lowered the lift so he could talk to Halbur, who immediately recognized the young man as a Phelps alum.

"He comes up crying and says, 'You saved my life,' " Halbur recalled. "The volunteers that are putting their time in are changing lives."

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

There is not a classier person in the Minnesota football community than Steve Johnson. And today, we say congratulations. The Bethel coach announced Monday that he will retire at season's end, concluding a Hall of Fame coaching career. Johnson, 68, has 250 career victories in 34 seasons at Bethel, which ranks first in wins among active Division III coaches and 29th in all-time wins across all NCAA divisions. He was named the DIII national coach of the year last season.

"I've had a great run," Johnson said. "I'll never not have [coaching] in my blood, but there's not a compelling why now [reason]. The time is right. I'm retiring incredibly grateful."

. . .

WEEKEND REWIND

"You wouldn't believe some of the things on my cellphone I've received here in less than 24 hours."

— Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell on Monday about the suggestions he's heard on how the team should proceed at quarterback — and whom to pursue — after Kirk Cousins' season-ending injury.

UP NEXT

Mankato West vs Chanhassen, 7 p.m., Friday. A rematch of the top two teams in Class 5A in the section championship. Undefeated Chanhassen beat the 2022 state runner-up 21-14 in early October.

The Vikings organization. To call this a pivotal moment for the organization would be a supreme understatement. Kirk Cousins' Achilles injury has turned everything upside down. Ownership, the front office and Kevin O'Connell must decide quickly how they want to handle this gaping hole in the roster.

A FAM FINAL WORD

I've been in a lot of postgame locker rooms under many different circumstances. The mood inside the Vikings locker room at Lambeau Field on Sunday was one of the most unusual. Players had just dominated their biggest rival to win their third consecutive game, but the prevailing emotions were shock and sadness over Cousins' injury.

Thank you for reading Football Across Minnesota (FAM), my weekly column that tours football topics in our state from preps to pros. I'll publish this each Tuesday morning in time for your lunch-hour reading, and you can find all the previous FAM columns right here. I appreciate feedback, so please reach out anytime. Thanks again — Chip (@chipscoggins on X)