News channel Fox 13 in St. Petersburg, Florida is reporting that Hall of Fame NFL coach Tony Dungy recently spoke to students at Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg about thinking of the future and the importance of fathers.
"Think about your future," Dungy said. "Don't be like I was necessarily and just think about tomorrow or next week. Where do you want to be when you're 60 years old like I am?"
Dungy was the featured speaker for "Dads Take Your Child to School Day," which was followed by a "Day of Dialogue" panel discussion about the academic achievement of black boys. The two events were sponsored by the Florida Council on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys.
Dungy, a former head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, told students that when he was growing up sports was his primary focus. So his father used that to encourage him to read.
"I didn't particularly like to read but I liked sports," said Dungy. "So my dad would get the sports page and say 'read this about the Detroit Tigers. Tell me about the game last night and what happened.' And I'd read the story and then he would quiz me on what happened in the game. Then he bought me a subscription to ‘Sports Illustrated,’ so I'd get a magazine every week and he knew I would jump in and read it from cover to cover."
Afterwards he told reporter Anjuli Davis:
I was so blessed and so fortunate my father was just around all the time and there’s a role model for me, someone I looked up to, someone I could ask a question to at any time, so supportive. And you think that’s the norm, and then to see kids that don’t have that you realize what they’re missing.
Asked about teaching kids to respect authority, Dungy said:
It’s all authority figures, it’s parents, teachers, law enforcement, anybody that has that authority title. We’ve got to teach our kids how to interact properly with authority, how to respect authority, and how to be authoritative, so that when they grow into those positions they’re relating to people the right way.