So I got to meet Tony Dungy, head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, some other miscellaneous Colts personnel, and Tony’s sister Lauren (who’s a nationally renown crisis pregnancy doctor) the other day.
The occasion? Spring Arbor University is involved in an initiative to encourage youth–namely minority youth–to consider higher education a necessity in their life. The late Wilbur Dungy–Tony and Lauren (and Linden and Sharon’s father)–was one of the first minority Ph.D. holders in Jackson county. He taught at Jackson Community College and encouraged a great number of minority students to continue their education at Spring Arbor University.
We’re working on a video to show in his honor at a scholarship fund-raising dinner in the spring. We interviewed members of the Dungy family to testify to their father’s influence on their life. We’ve also interviewed Tom Izzo (MSU basketball coach) and Tyrone Willingham (ND head football coach) and had them speak of the importance of higher education.
I’ll just say that the Dungy family is very impressive. During the interviews with Tony and Lauren, it was so obvious the impression Wilbur left on his kids. And it shows. Tony–as an NFL head coach–considers his job the "least" among his siblings. Besides Lauren’s MD position, his brother is a dentist serving an underprivileged community in Minnesota and his other sister is an RN.
"I get the limelight because of my position," he says, "but they are the ones doing great work."
Wilbur taught his kids that ANYTHING was possible–especially with God’s strength. They’re a Christian family leaving their mark on the world. And they’re passing down the legacy from generation to generation. The Lord’s richly blessing them for their faithfulness to him and to what they’ve been given.
