David Smale was just two and a half years old when doctors told his parents something no mother or father wants to hear. Their little boy, diagnosed with diabetes in July 1961, might not live long enough to graduate from high school. Reaching his 30th birthday seemed even less likely.
“The doctors told my parents, enjoy him while you’ve got him because he probably won’t graduate from high school because he’ll be dead,” Smale recalled. “He definitely won’t live to see 30.”
Today, more than six decades later, Smale is still here. He has raised a family, spent more than 45 years covering sports, written dozens of books and witnessed some of the most memorable moments in professional and college athletics.
Yet Smale is quick to distinguish between what he does for a living and who he is.
“I’m not a sports writer who happens to be a Christian,” Smale told K-LOVE’s Crystal Thornton. “I’m a Christian who happens to be a sports writer.”
It’s a conviction that has remained central through childhood health challenges, his wife’s battles with cancer and personal struggles that continue to shape his understanding of God’s faithfulness.
Hear David Smale share his extraordinary journey, the faith that has sustained him and the lessons he’s learned beyond the scoreboard in his complete conversation with K-LOVE’s Crystal Thornton below.
Doctors Didn't Expect David Smale to Live Past 30. His Story Is Still Being Written
A Life That Defied Expectations
Smale’s parents faced a daunting responsibility after his childhood diagnosis. The prognosis offered little reassurance, but they were determined to help their son build a life that extended beyond the limitations others expected.
They taught him to take responsibility for his health while reminding him that diabetes was something he lived with, not the sum of who he was.
“I’m not a diabetic named David,” Smale explained. “I’m David who happens to have diabetes.”
Sports offered another important part of his childhood. Surrounded by family members who loved athletics, Smale became fascinated with baseball cards. He learned to read through sports publications and developed an extraordinary memory for baseball statistics.
By adulthood, that childhood passion had grown into a career covering high school, college and professional athletics.
And the more stories he told, the more he recognized that some of the most meaningful moments in sports aren’t necessarily about winning. They’re about how people respond when life takes an unexpected turn.
A Lifetime in Sports and a Kingdom Beyond Football
For Smale, few teams hold the memories and personal significance of the Kansas City Chiefs.
He was nearly five years old when the franchise moved from Dallas to Kansas City in 1963. His father was excited that their hometown would have a professional football team, and young David eagerly shared that enthusiasm.
More than six decades later, the Chiefs remain an important part of his life and career.
His latest book, The Keys to the Kingdom: An Illustrated Timeline of the Kansas City Chiefs, Second Edition, chronicles the franchise’s journey from founder Lamar Hunt and the early American Football League years to the championship era led by head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The updated edition celebrates the people, defining moments, setbacks and remarkable comebacks that have shaped the team’s history.
But even the story behind Smale’s original book reflects an unexpected turn of events.
In March 2020, while covering the Big 12 basketball tournament, Smale received an invitation to write a history of the Chiefs, fresh off their Super Bowl LIV victory.
The publisher initially proposed a deadline several months away. Smale suggested an earlier release and agreed to deliver the manuscript in just one month.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic brought the sports world to a sudden halt.
The basketball tournament was canceled. Other major sporting events were suspended. Suddenly, a sportswriter who had expected a busy spring found himself with an unexpectedly open calendar.
He completed the manuscript in two weeks.
Looking back, Smale doesn’t see the timing as merely fortunate.
“I don’t believe in coincidence,” he told Thornton. “I believe in God’s providence.”
When Thornton asked what decades of covering extraordinary athletes had taught him about the difference between success and significance, Smale turned the conversation toward his family.
“Do my kids know who I am? Do my kids know that I put my faith in front of everything else?”
For Smale, those questions matter more than the number of books bearing his name or the championships he has witnessed.
When the Game Changes Without Warning
After decades of covering athletes whose careers have been shaped by victories and devastating defeats, Smale has learned that character often becomes most visible in disappointment.
He remembers interviewing former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer after Dilfer and his wife, Cass, lost their five-year-old son, Trevin, to a virus that attacked his heart.
Dilfer had stepped away from media interviews to grieve privately. When he eventually agreed to speak with Smale for a Fellowship of Christian Athletes publication, the conversation became one of the most emotional interviews of Smale’s career.
Dilfer was driving during their telephone conversation. Several times, overcome by grief, he needed to pull over.
“I’m driving. Give me a minute. I got to pull over and cry,” Smale remembered him saying.
It was a conversation that stayed with Smale long after the interview ended. Here was a father carrying unimaginable grief, yet holding tightly to a faith that mattered more than his professional football career.
Watching someone cling to that faith when there was no victory to celebrate left a lasting impression.
In time, Smale’s own family would face a profoundly difficult test.
The Quiet Courage of Caring for Someone You Love
Smale’s wife has survived leukemia twice.
He speaks about her experience with gratitude, recognizing the medical professionals who cared for her, her own faith and the responsibilities he assumed as her husband and caregiver.
After one round of treatment, she could leave home only for medical appointments for the first 100 days. Smale took on the daily responsibilities of running their household while she focused on recovering.
“I had to do everything,” he recalled.
The sportswriter who had spent decades documenting other people’s challenges was now facing one of the most difficult seasons of his own life.
His wife survived, and today, Smale says she is thriving.
He credits God, the wisdom of her physicians and the care that helped her through those difficult months.
The experience deepened his understanding that trusting God doesn’t mean life will always unfold the way we want.
“He’s in control,” Smale said. “He doesn’t necessarily call us to understand his plan. He just simply calls us to be obedient.”
Sometimes, he acknowledged, that means accepting circumstances that are completely different from what we hoped or prayed for.
And while Smale readily admits patience has never been one of his greatest strengths, life’s challenges have given him many opportunities to practice it.
Twenty Years of Lunches and One Extraordinary Answer
One of the most moving stories Smale shared with Thornton involved his uncle Lou, a man whose resistance to Christianity had become something of a family legend.
Lou was outgoing and fun-loving, but discussions about faith could quickly bring out his stubborn side.
During family visits, he sometimes started a lawnmower outside the bedroom window or unplugged the alarm clock in hopes that the family would miss church.
Later in life, Lou lived across the street from a church. Its pastor began visiting him regularly.
Lou insisted the visits weren’t changing his mind.
What Smale’s family didn’t fully realize was that the pastor had been coming to Lou’s home about once a week for 20 years.
They would eat lunch together and talk. Despite Lou’s resistance, the pastor kept returning.
Eventually, Lou became gravely ill with cancer.
When Smale’s parents arrived at the hospital, they noticed something different about him. There was a sense of peace in his expression.
Another man was sitting in the room. Lou introduced him as the pastor from across the street.
The pastor shared that after two decades of weekly visits, Lou had accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior the previous week.
Lou died that Saturday.
For Smale, it remains a deeply personal example of God’s patience and the importance of never giving up on someone.
“The clock was ticking,” he told Thornton. “If life is a 60-minute game, there was less than a second left on the clock. It’s not too late.”
The Legacy That Matters Most
Smale has spent decades preserving the stories of coaches, athletes and teams whose names occupy an important place in sports history.
Yet when Thornton asked what he hopes his own grandchildren will remember about him, his answer had nothing to do with the Kansas City Chiefs, his professional career or the number of books he’s written.
“Love.”
Smale is the grandfather of three girls. On Sunday mornings, he sometimes waits in the church fellowship hall between services for two of his granddaughters to come running toward him for a hug.
Another granddaughter has a way of brightening even his most difficult days.
“Grandpa, I’m here.”
For a man who once faced such an uncertain future, those ordinary family moments are precious.
“I just hope that they all remember the love that I have for them and the love I have for the Lord.”
Smale is still writing, still navigating life’s challenges and still learning to trust God’s timing.
When Thornton asked him to finish the sentence, “At the end of the game, what really matters is...,” the longtime sportswriter answered with a familiar expression.
The final score.
But his definition reaches far beyond wins and losses.
“The final score is the collection of stories that make up my life story,” he explained, “and the principal story, the principal plot line is my faith in Christ.”
It’s a remarkable perspective from someone whose parents were once told he might never reach adulthood.
David Smale has lived to see the championships, write the books, raise his children and hold his grandchildren. He’s also endured the kind of hardships that can change a person’s understanding of what matters.
And while his latest book, The Keys to the Kingdom, chronicles the unforgettable moments of a football franchise, his own life tells a story that no scoreboard could ever capture.
A story of faith, perseverance and love.