Ed Hastings played at Villanova, became a priest, and now helps athletes find the joy in losing

It’s been more than 50 years but Ed Hastings can still feel the sting of leaving the Palestra in March of 1969 after losing in the Catholic League playoffs.

“That’s a long time ago,” Hastings said of Monsignor Bonner’s overtime loss in the semifinals to North Catholic. “But I can go over certain things and where it took place on the Palestra floor.”

And Hastings can still feel the comfort of his uncle, who was waiting for the teenager at his home in Drexel Hill. Bob Devine played at West Catholic and captained the hoops team at Notre Dame before becoming a priest. He told Hastings he knew how he felt — “I was hurting,” Hastings said — but promised that the loss would prove beneficial.

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“He was giving me perspective and he was also giving me hope,” Hastings, 75, said. “There would be more challenges to come but also maybe I would respond better the next time after I’ve gone through this kind of loss. I took that with me.”

That loss at the Palestra prepared Hastings for what was to come: a knee injury at Villanova that cost him the chance of playing for the 1971 national title, 16 years as an Augustinian priest, and now a trip to Rome to speak to a sold-out crowd a day before Villanova opens its season there.

Hastings, who left the priesthood in 1999 and now teaches theology at Villanova, will focus his talk on what athletes can learn from losses. He might even mention that afternoon against North Catholic — Hastings hit a go-ahead shot with 12 seconds left before North forced OT — and the lesson he learned.

“I did a lot of winning, but certain losses stick and they can inform us perhaps more than anything,” Hastings said. “Spirituality has since informed me that the necessary suffering can help us more than anything. Winning is great. I promise you, I never went on a field or in a gym being content with losing. But through the hard times, I’ve learned that losing — if we use it well — can be the very thing that helps us develop the most spirituality.”

Jack Kraft knew Hastings wasn’t happy to sit after injuring his knee weeks earlier, so the Villanova coach inserted Hastings late in a blowout game in Hawaii.

“I brought the ball up court,” Hastings said. “I planted my foot, and my knee went one way and my body went the other way. I tore my ACL.”

His sophomore season — and his role as the team’s sixth man — was over. Hastings didn’t go to practice or travel with the team to road games. His roommate was fellow guard Tom Inglesby, who is now his brother-in-law, but Hastings struggled to find his place with the team without being able to play.

“My community at Villanova was the basketball team,” Hastings said. “That was really hard.”

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He was allowed to travel with the team to Houston for the Final Four. He watched them beat Western Kentucky and then give UCLA enough trouble in the national championship that John Wooden slowed down his up-tempo offense to force Villanova to come out of Kraft’s famed “ball defense.” Hastings could only watch as the Wildcats lost by six. It was another loss to learn from.

“That was exciting,” Hastings said. “But I thought, ‘Wow, I could be playing in the national championship against John Wooden, of all people.’”

Hastings played two more seasons at Villanova and co-captained the squad as a senior. He wanted to be a basketball coach, so he stayed at Villanova after graduating in 1973 to be a graduate assistant under new coach Rollie Massimino. He was a character, Hastings said. One season was enough for Hastings to find a new calling. He entered the seminary.

Hastings graduated from Villanova a few months before Pope Leo XIV arrived on the Main Line. But Hastings knew him when they were both in the seminary.

“I asked a couple people, ‘How are we going to refer to him?,’” Hastings said. “Because to me, he was Bob Prevost. But I guess it’s ‘Your Holiness’ or something like that. It’s honestly hard to believe. When we first heard this, it was like, ‘This is amazing.’ It gave me great hope for the church that he was elected.”

It was a relief, Hastings said, that the pope won’t be in attendance for his speech in Rome as the former Villanova guard didn’t need any more pressure. Hastings said the vow of celibacy pushed him out of the priesthood and he now lives in Haverford with his wife, Kathy. He will be joined in Rome by Villanova’s minister for sport and spirituality David Walsh and Notre Dame’s assistant vice president of campus ministry Rev. Peter M. McCormick. Their talk is titled “Win or Lose, Be Fully Alive” and will focus on what Hastings has spent most of his life centered on: finding spirituality in sports.

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Hastings founded Neumann University’s Center for Sport, Spirituality and Character Development in 1999 shortly after leaving the priesthood. He shows his Villanova students examples of “spirituality in the sports page,” and thinks back to how impactful the pickup games were in Delaware County. He learned how to shoot by watching Herb Magee, Jim Lynam taught him how to play point guard, and Fran Dunphy was stiff competition. More so, they showed Hastings how to carry himself while they played at places like the Aronimack Swim Club.

“I looked up to them,” Hastings said. “These people are classy people. They were really good people. So I became involved with them and saw how they treated others. I could see something going on there.”

One of Hastings’ classes at Villanova is titled “Sports and Spirituality.” Sports, he said, is the hook to get students to sign up.

“But then I’m sneaking in spirituality and teaching them spirituality through the experience of playing sports,” Hastings said. “That’s what I’m doing. My expertise is spirituality. It’s how we can look at sports and see spirituality.”

He teaches his class at Villanova like his uncle taught him that night years ago in Drexel Hill. He was crushed about losing in the Catholic League playoffs. But his uncle saw a chance to use sports as a way to guide the teen’s spirituality. Yes, he still remembers the disappointment of losing to North Catholic. But he also remembers the hope his uncle gave him. And that’s what he’ll carry to Rome.

“Winning is great and everyone wants it and I’m for it,” Hastings said. “But it’s losing that can really teach us about life. That’s what I want to talk about.”