A few years ago I had the privilege of working with the All Pro Dad organization at an event in Charlotte with the Carolina Panthers. It was a great day of football drills with young kids, but even more significant was the impact the day had on supporting and training fathers about how to be a great dad through encouraging, positive and affirming words to the boys both on and off the football field. APD is part of the life ministry of Coach Tony Dungy, former NFL player and Super Bowl winning head coach. I got a golf shirt for my participation, proudly wear it and happily explain the ministry to all those that ask me about the logo on the shirt. In fact, I even wore that shirt to the hospital the day our triplets were born, so in all of the first photos of the children, the All Pro Dad moniker is prominently displayed. I suppose it was my own reminder to myself about the kind of father I want to be.
I have always wanted to start an All Pro Dad chapter here in Durham through either a high school or even the local Durham Eagles Pop Warner organization, but I just never made it happen, and now, with this leukemia diagnosis, it seems to be an even greater challenge.
Darrin Gray, VP of Operations for APD and I were on the phone recently and he was excited about my book THE QB MENTOR being published in January of 2016. He was also overflowed with enthusiasm for a project that APD was part of; the production and support of the recently released movie Woodlawn. It is the true story of what happened at Woodlawn High School during the explosive era of forced integration in Birmingham Alabama in the 1970’s. The movie centers around the Woodlawn football team in 1973-74 and the experience and leadership of Tony Nathan, who was a superstar high school running back caught in the middle of the racial tension. Darrin sent me a link to an advance viewing of the movie. I was deeply moved by the true story that unfolded 40 years ago. I was saddened to realize it actually happened, but I was more so inspired to feel the power of the spirit that led to the revival and healing that the entire city experienced.
I was reminded of watching Brian's Song as a young boy, the classic real life story of racial tension on the Chicago Bears as played out in the friendship of Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers and I remember the impact that movie had on my young heart. It was about ten years ago that I saw one of my all time favorite movies, Remember the Titans, another true story about racial tension as played out on a Virginia high school football team in the 1970’s. Woodlawn is about the same realities.
Over the weekend, I had the chance to sponsor, along with All Pro Dad and Heart Of A Warrior/ZOWEH Ministries the private and free showing of Woodlawn to our Durham community at the Southpoint Mall Theatres. We sold out the first showing in 2 days, so we upgraded to a 200+ seat theatre for Thursday night, and then booked another showing primarily for the Durham Eagles Pop Warner football organization teams and the Wake County Cowboys to see the show on Sunday afternoon. Both showings were emotional for all in attendance; from coaches to parents, and from players to pastors, the message of love sunk in.
My eyes teared up several times during the movie, and my heart soared to see love and healing win the day. As I watched, my mind also flashed back to a story that I wrote about in THE QB MENTOR that Coach Steve Wilson shared during one of our "quarterback classes" with my son Shawn, who is a former Durham Eagle quarterback and now playing QB at Vanderbilt University. It was a session after my son Shawn’s senior high school season and recruiting was slower than we had hoped for Shawn and he was kind of down about his future prospects to play football in college. Coach Wilson (a former 10 year NFL vet, former national coach of the year at Howard University, and former All America WR at Howard University) sensed this and told us this story;
When I was 9 years old, I played flag football in a league here in Durham, NC with all the other black boys. The white kids played in a different league, and they had an all-star-game at the end of the season. We didn’t. I was probably the best player in our league, and people knew my dad, "Touchdown Tommy Wilson" who was a running back in the NFL. So someone from the Chamber of Commerce suggested that they let me play in the all star game with the white kids. So, I went to practice that week, but I stood on the sidelines for three days without anyone hardly even acknowledging that I was there. When it came time on Saturday for the game, I told my mom I didn’t want to go. She made me go and reminded me of the principal that if I started something, I was then expected to finish it. So I went to the game and for three quarters, I stood on the sidelines off by myself. I didn’t get to play at all. Then, late in the fourth quarter, a referee came up to the head coach and told him that one of the rules was that every player had to play. So the coach called me over and said "son, go in at running back, we will toss you the ball and you run with it around the right end." I nodded. They tossed me the ball and I ran for an 80 yard touchdown. My team mates hardly celebrated, because they barely knew me and because we were still losing the game. I came back to the bench and stood by myself again. The defense held and we got the ball back. I went to go back in the game, but one of the assistant coaches pulled me back and said "you played your one play." So I stood by myself again and watched. Finally, with about a minute left in the game, our team was losing and it didn’t appear likely we were going to win. So on the last drive of the game, the head coach motioned for me to go back in, and he told me to run the same play. I caught the toss from the quarterback, ran to my right, but the defense was waiting, so I reversed my field and ran around the left side for a 70 yard touchdown. My team mates came and hugged me in the end zone. All we had to do was convert the two point conversion and our team would win the game. So coach called time out, and brought the team over to the sidelines and said "we are going to toss the ball to Steve on the same play." So we lined up, the defense was yelling "watch the sweep" because they knew the play. I caught the toss, started to my right but several defenders were waiting, so I cut back to my left, but there were still two guys there as well, so I stuck my foot in the ground and burst right up the middle and into the end zone for the two point conversion and we won the game. My team mates jumped all over me and they named me the MVP of the game and gave me a certificate. Do you know what is on the first page of my scrapbook at home? It’s not the 2 NFC or 3 AFC championship games or the 3 Super Bowls I played in, or the HBCU Hall of Fame certificates I have. No, it is the certificate from that Durham all-star game that is on the first page.
- excerpt from The QB Mentor Book (Coming January 2016)
Coach stopped the story right there, and let it sink in. After a minute of silence and fidgeting by Shawn and I as we digested the weight of the story Coach had just told us, he said to both of us "so don’t tell me about being overlooked, or discriminated against or things not going your way, or not being treated fairly. It’s not what happens to you that matters. It’s how you react to it."
Wow.
Go see the movie Woodlawn. It will be hard NOT to be inspired by what happened to that community that still reverberates today in that town and throughout our country.
Amen and AMEN.