Tony Dungy
Tony Dungy was born October 6, 1955 in Jackson Michigan. He is one of 4 children born to Wilbur and CleoMae Dungy. Wilbur was a Physiology Professor and CleoMae was a high school English teacher. Tony was very academically inclined due to his parents. His fame started young. He was the guard for his highschools basketball team and quarterback for the football team. He was featured in sports illustrated at the age of fourteen for his accomplishments in highschool.
Tony would later attend the University of Minnesota. He started for the Gophers for four years and set records at the school. He set the career leader for most pass attempts at 576, completions at 274, touchdown passes at 25, and passing yards at 3,577. He also received 2 MVP awards. After his college football career he signed with the Pittsburg Steelers as a defensive back. In 1978 he led the team in most interceptions. Then in 1979 he got traded to the 49’s. He is the only player in the AFL- NFL merger to throw and intercept a pass in a single game. He was the back-up quarter back for the Steelers and Safety for them.
In 1980 Tony got offered a career as assistant coach at the University of Minnesota. He only went a year with this college as the defensive backs coach and then was offered back to the NFL as an assistant coach for the Steelers. Getting back into the NFL basically set him up for his future jobs. In 1996 Tony achieved his long term dream as head coach. He received the chance to head coach the Buccaneers and obviously took it. Ultimately Tony Dungy led the Buccaneers to a winning season. They were led to four playoff appearances and won the division but because Dungy couldn’t capitalize on winning once he reached the second rounds of the playoffs he was fired by the owner of the franchise. In 2002 Tony was hired as head coach of the Colts. Dungy pried at the Colts. The Colts’ offense was steller but the defense needed much work. After three years of losing in the playoffs Dungy finally made the right tweak to the defense. He added the super bowl contender Corey Simon. In 2005 the Colts fired up to set records. They were striving to be the first team to go undefeated since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. But were shot down when they were defeated to the Chargers which led the team to the first team ever to go 13-0 and not win the super bowl. This would lead to boiling points and ultimately they came back in 2006 and wreak havoc. They achieved the AFC championship and off to the super they went. On February 4, 2007 Tony Dungy had won the super bowl against the Chicago Bears. He later announced that he would be back in 2008 but then retired in 2009.
Tony had many achievements. Among these achievements was the first NFL head coach to defeat all 32 teams, youngest assistant coach at the age of 25, the biggest was that he was the first black head coach to win the super bowl. He was the sixth man to play in a super bowl and coach a super bowl game and he also was the third man to win a super bowl both as a player and as a head coach.
Even though Tony Dungy’s name wasn’t on the list I felt that this was a good topic to blog about. This is a very big accomplishment by a black person and shows that even these days a black person can still be recognized just as much as the infamous black people of the olden days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Dungy#Early_life
i also got my info from the book about tony called uncommon
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