LEADER

Biography of an Effective Leader

Biography of an Effective Leader

Tony Dungy is a former professional football player and retired coach for the Indianapolis Colts. During his seven years leading the Colts, he became the first African American coach to win a Super Bowl. He was also one of the most respected and popular NFL coaches in the league. Colleagues and friends consider him to be a family man of great faith and Christian character.

Life's Work

Individuals who coach professional sports teams for a living are a unique breed. Their personalities must be fiery enough to contend with the antics of the most pampered athletes. At the same time, they must be modest enough to credibly project the belief that it is the players, not the coaches, who are responsible for the outcomes of games. Pro football head coach Tony Dungy manages to belie both of those characterizations. Those with whom he has worked are unanimous in describing Dungy as the least excitable person ever to prowl a football sideline.

And while he is the picture of humility, he is almost universally hailed as a coaching genius, capable of virtually single-handedly turning a football program around, transforming pathetic defenses into great ones, and changing losing organizations into winners.

Dungy was born on October 6, 1955, in Jackson, Michigan. Unlike many of his jock peers, Dungy grew up in a family that valued intellectual accomplishments as much as athletic ones. His father, Wilbur, is a retired physiology professor. His mother, Cleomae, was a high school English teacher for many years. Dungy's siblings include a sister who is an obstetrician, another who is a nurse, and a dentist brother.

Even in a household where the focus was on academics, however, Dungy was drawn to football at an early age. Wilbur Dungy, when interviewed for a 1996 USA Today article, recalled that as a graduate student at Michigan State University, he would watch Detroit Lions football games with the six-year-old Tony. While the elder Dungy concentrated on his studies, "Tony would fill me in, telling me who handled the ball on every play and what happened."

Excelled as Gophers' QB

Dungy starred as a basketball guard and an option quarterback in football at Jackson's Parkside High School. It was his football exploits that captured the attention of University of Minnesota head coach Cal Stoll. By the end of his freshman year at Minnesota, Dungy had cracked the starting lineup. It quickly ...