[6] He was raised in Fort Worth, Texas, where as a teenager he preached at Church of Christ congregations.

[6][7] He attended David Lipscomb College in Nashville, Tennessee, where he studied history and speech on a baseball scholarship.

[6][7] In 1968, Banowsky returned to Pepperdine as executive vice president of the school's South Los Angeles campus.

[9] He was the chairman of the Los Angeles County Committee to Reelect the President and also the California Republican National Committeeman.

[12] Banowsky left the university again in 1984 to head Gaylord Broadcasting, and in 1988 he was named executive vice president of National Medical Enterprises.

[2] He was the author of several books, including The Malibu Miracle, a memoir about his time at Pepperdine, and The Mirror of a Movement, a history of the Churches of Christ.