Former NFL coach and player Tony Dungy, the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl and who’s set to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, Aug. 6, called the recent deaths of civilians and police officers “tragic,” on Wednesday.
“You always hope that sports can impact our nation and reflect maybe how we should do things,” Dungy said on a conference call with reporters. “It’s been very, very tragic these last couple of weeks. You’re hoping that sports in a small way that it can be helpful and instructive to people about what we can do when we are all working together.”
Dungy will become just the 24th coach to be enshrined in Canton, Ohio. He had a 148-79 overall record (.652) in a 13-year career that began in Tampa in 1996 and ended in Indianapolis after the ’08 season.
He won the Super Bowl with the Colts in 2006, going against his former defensive coordinator Lovie Smith, who was head coach of Chicago at the time. He’s the winningest coach in Colts history (92-33) and is the only coach in NFL history to lead his team to the playoffs in 10 consecutive seasons.
Dungy, after a brief playing career, joined the Steelers as a coach and was already being talking about as head coach back in 1980s. He didn’t get the opportunity until 1996.
Art Shell became the first African-American head coach of the modern era in 1989. He was the league’s first African-American coach since Fritz Pollard, a graduate of Brown, headed the Akron Pros in the 1920s.
“It is very significant and I feel proud to represent a lot of those men,” Dungy said. “That’s something that my Dad was awfully proud of. I think that’s why he took me to the Browns and Lions game (as a kid) because the Browns had so many special African-American players at that time.
“Paul Brown had done so much to integrate the league. Without saying that, he impressed on me the importance of that. When I came into the league as a player, there were not a lot of African-American coaches. But the guys who were there were role models for us.”
Dungy has deal with social issues in the past.
“I did realize the significance of becoming a head coach,” Dungy said. “Going to the Super Bowl. Coaching in the Super Bowl as an African-American head coach and now going into the Hall of Fame.
“You just feel like you’re representing a lot of men and a group of men who put a lot into this league and helped to make it what it is. I’m proud of that.”
