Anthony Kevin “Tony” Dungy (/ˈdʌndʒi/ DUN-jee; born October 6, 1955) is a former professional American football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). Dungy was head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1996 to 2001, and head coach of the Indianapolis Colts from 2002 to 2008.
Dungy was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on February 6, 2016.
Dungy announced his retirement as coach of the Indianapolis Colts on January 12, 2009 following the Colts’ exit from the playoffs. Since retirement, Dungy has served as an analyst on NBC’s Football Night in America. Tony Dungy is also the national spokesman for the fatherhood program All Pro Dad.[5] The Colts qualified for the playoffs in every season they were coached by Dungy.
After playing quarterback in college for the University of Minnesota, Dungy went undrafted in 1977 and was signed as a free agent by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League as a safety. He played as a defensive reserve and special teams player for the Steelers in 1977 and the Super Bowl champion 1978 season, leading the team in interceptions in the latter campaign. In 1979, Dungy was traded to the San Francisco 49ers, then finished his career a year later in the training camp of the New York Giants in 1980.
Dungy is the most recent NFL player to intercept a pass and throw an interception in the same game. Dungy was the emergency quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 1977 game against the Houston Oilers when both Terry Bradshaw and Mike Kruczek went down with injuries on October 9, 1977. He played safety on defense.
Dungy has one Super Bowl title as a player, as he was a member of the Steelers when they won Super Bowl XIII.
Dungy achieved his dream of being an NFL head coach when he was hired by Rich McKay to reform the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team then well known for its lack of success, on January 22, 1996. Dungy installed his version of the Cover 2 defense with defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin with a few new wrinkles. The result was the now-famous Tampa 2, though Dungy openly admitted it was based on concepts he had picked up from his days in Pittsburgh.
In 1997, the Buccaneers started 5-0–their best start since 1979. They ultimately finished second in the NFC Central division, Tampa Bay’s first winning season since 1982. In the last game played at Tampa Stadium, the Bucs defeated the Detroit Lions for only their second playoff win in franchise history. They lost the next game to the defending champion Green Bay Packers.
While the Bucs barely missed the playoffs in 1998, they rebounded strongly in 1999 to win their first division title since 1979, only to lose to the St. Louis Rams in the NFC Championship Game. They went on to reach the playoffs again in 2000 and 2001, only to be defeated in the wild card round each time by the Philadelphia Eagles. The Bucs were hobbled by constant changes to the offensive coordinator position; QB Shaun King had to work with three different coordinators in three years. Dungy was fired on January 14, 2002 due to the club’s repeated losses in the playoffs. Additionally, owner Malcolm Glazer felt Dungy’s offense was too conservative. Dungy thus became the first coach in Bucs history to leave the team with a winning record.
On January 22, 2002, Dungy was hired as head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, a team that at the time was very potent offensively, but very weak defensively. He installed his “Tampa 2” defense immediately and continued to retool the Colts’ defense to his liking during his tenure. After joining the Colts, Dungy left the high-powered offense previously installed there by Jim Mora, in both playing style and in personnel, virtually unchanged. Dungy was reunited with Tom Moore, who was retained as offensive coordinator. Moore and Dungy had previously worked together at Minnesota and Pittsburgh.
During his early tenure in Indianapolis, Dungy struggled to fix the Colts’ defense and had mixed results in the postseason. In his first season at Indianapolis, the Colts were shut out 41–0 by the New York Jets in a first-round playoff game, and the team lost postseason games to the New England Patriots in both 2003 (in the AFC championship game) and 2004 (in the second round of the playoffs). Dungy signed a three-year contract extension in October 2005 for US$5 million per year.
Their thirteenth win guaranteed the Colts home field advantage throughout the playoffs. With nothing to play for except the chance to go unbeaten, the Colts lost their 14th game to the San Diego Chargers. The Colts played their starters sparingly in the last two games. The Colts lost in their first playoff game to the eventual Super Bowl winner Pittsburgh Steelers. This loss made the Colts the first team to ever start a season 13–0 and not reach the Super Bowl.
The Colts‘ 2006 playoff run was characterized by a marked improvement in defensive play, as the Colts defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, holding one of the NFL’s best running backs to less than 50 yards, and upset the favored Baltimore Ravens in the divisional round. On January 21, 2007, after trailing 21–3, the Colts defeated the New England Patriots to become AFC Champions and advanced to Super Bowl XLI. This was the largest comeback in conference title game history. By a matter of only a few hours, Dungy became the second African American coach to lead his team to the Super Bowl. His good friend, Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith, had clinched the NFC’s bid in the Super Bowl earlier in the day.
On February 4, 2007, Dungy and the Colts won Super Bowl XLI 29–17 over the Bears at Dolphin Stadium in Miami.
On December 23, 2007, with a win over the Houston Texans, Dungy won his 72nd game as Colts head coach, passing Don Shula to become the winningest coach in franchise history.
On January 12, 2009, Jim Caldwell who’d been a long time Colts assistant was chosen as the new head coach for the Indianapolis Colts after being named Dungy’s future successor a year earlier. On November 1, 2010, the Colts added Tony Dungy’s name to the Indianapolis Colts Ring of Honor located on the middle balcony on the east side of Lucas Oil Stadium.
Dungy’s career has included several notable firsts. Among them, Dungy is the first NFL head coach to defeat all 32 NFL teams. He was also the youngest assistant coach at age 25 and the youngest coordinator at age 28 in NFL history.
Dungy was the first African-American head coach to win the Super Bowl (with the Colts’ victory over the Bears in 2007). He was the third black head coach to win a pro football championship in North America, behind Darren Arbet of the San Jose Sabercats (Arena Football League) who won ArenaBowl XVI in 2002 and Pinball Clemons of the Toronto Argonauts (Canadian Football League) who won the 92nd Grey Cup in 2004.
Dungy also became the sixth man to play in a Super Bowl and be the head coach of a Super Bowl team. He joins Dan Reeves, Sam Wyche, Mike Ditka, Forrest Gregg and Tom Flores. After the win in Super Bowl XLI, Dungy became the third man to win Super Bowls both as a player and a head coach, following Ditka and Flores.
Dungy is also credited with supporting and fostering the development of defensive-minded coaches, notably during his tenure with the Buccaneers. His contributions have had a great effect on the diversity of the league and helped lead to the institution of the Rooney Rule by Steelers owner Dan Rooney, requiring teams to interview minority coaches. Among those who have gone on to head coaching positions after working with Dungy include:
- Lovie Smith for the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Linebackers coach under Dungy at Tampa Bay)
- Mike Tomlin for the Pittsburgh Steelers (Defensive backs coach under Dungy at Tampa Bay)
- Jim Caldwell for the Indianapolis Colts and Detroit Lions (Quarterbacks coach under Dungy at Indianapolis)
- Leslie Frazier for the Minnesota Vikings (Defensive backs coach under Dungy at Indianapolis)Moreover, Rod Marinelli, the defensive line coach under Dungy at Tampa Bay, was the head coach of the Detroit Lions from 2006 to 2008. Mike Shula, the offensive coordinator under Dungy at Tampa, was the head coach at the University of Alabama from 2003 to 2006. Herman Edwards, the former head coach for the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs was an assistant head coach under Dungy at Tampa Bay. Jim Caldwell, an assistant under Dungy in Indianapolis, was promoted to head coach in 2009, and coached the Colts for three seasons.Joe Barry, a linebackers coach under Dungy at Tampa Bay, was the defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions from 2006 to 2008.
Mike Tomlin has a mental snapshot from his first day on the job as an NFL assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2001, when his new boss, Tony Dungy, summoned him to his office.
As Tomlin entered the room, he was struck by the video game projected on the big screen, with Dungy’s son, Eric, sitting on the floor working the controls.
“In an instant, it showed me how he balances who he is and what he does,” the Pittsburgh Steelers coach reflected for USA TODAY Sports. “It left an imprint on me. I think about it often when I’m stepping over my (two) boys when they are in this environment.”
Dungy, on the verge of being enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame next weekend, is proud of his legacy as a success story who operated against some of the conventional norms of the coaching industry. His faith-family-football credo was genuine.
Yet the fact that he hired Tomlin – and on the same day, current Detroit Lions coach Jim Caldwell – to his Bucs staff epitomized another type of statement that resonates deeply now. Dungy is set to become the first modern-era African-American coach enshrined while renewed attention is focused on the NFL’s pitiful record for affording opportunities for minority coaches.
Dungy hired Tomlin and Caldwell from the college ranks, and look at them now – they are two of the league’s six minority coaches.
“It was intentional to look for guys to come into the league,” Dungy told USA TODAY Sports last week, taking a break from a family RV vacation. “Climbing that ladder, I had a desire to help people.”
Dungy, who with the Indianapolis Colts became the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl, is clearly a model for opportunity. When he talks of intentionally hiring Tomlin, Caldwell and Lovie Smith (all of whom guided teams to Super Bowls, with Tomlin winning one) from the college ranks, he is underscoring the commitment to diversify his staffs to fuel the pipeline.
No doubt, he had a role model in Dennis Green, whose recent passing hit home with Dungy.
Not only did Dungy serve under Green as the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator, he received what he calls “on-the-job mentoring” that prepared him for bigger jobs that paved his path to Canton.
Green included Dungy in meetings that exposed him to head coaching responsibilities. He explained his reasoning to Dungy for key personnel moves that didn’t involve the defense, such as a quarterback switch. He talked through his thinking of how he’d communicate issues to the team and the public.
When Dungy finally landed his first interview for a head coaching job, with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1995, Green helped him by giving him a four-page interview preparation booklet. Dungy didn’t get that job, but the next year he was hired by the Bucs – sparking that franchise’s turnaround.
“I wouldn’t have gotten where I was without him,” Dungy said.
Which is just what can happen when given a legitimate chance.
On February 6, 2016, Dungy was elected to the 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame class, the first African-American head coach of the modern era, and the second of all time to Fritz Pollard, to receive this honor. (Former Oakland Raiders player and head coach Art Shell was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1989, but for his accomplishments as a player.)
Quotes
If someone needs help, I can offer advice. I’m not always right and people don’t always listen.
I guess I’m flattered that people think I can help get things done.For some reason the football coach of a major college program is seen as one of the leaders of the campus. And some way we have to let our young people know that that leader can look like anyone.
Football was really my least favorite sport and the last sport that I ended up picking up as a kid. My dad started me off with baseball, which most kids did at that time. I really enjoyed basketball. That was my favorite sport.
The narrow path that ‘Uncommon’ people will take, that the Lord wants you to go down, that really is the ultimate way to go.
My dad, who was a teacher, used to tell me that a teacher’s goal should be for every one of their students to get an A. If that’s your goal every day – to make every student or player learn – then it doesn’t matter if you won last year or didn’t win. When next year’s team shows up, I try to help every player become as good as they can be.
You’re born with some things inside you that will allow you to lead, but I think you have to take the bull by the horns. You have to want that leadership position, and then there are things you can do to develop that.
