Dusty May’s story begins underground. It starts in the mines of southwestern Indiana, where the coal boom of the late 1800s and early 1900s attracted laborers from surrounding states. More than a century ago, Dusty’s great-grandfather moved from Ohio, pitched a tent in a field in Jasonville, Ind., and went to work as a miner.
Generations of May men followed in that line of work, including Dusty’s dad. Donald “Duck” May worked 27 years in a Greene County coal mine—some of it below ground, some doing surface strip-mining—before retiring. Most of the mines in the area are closed now, but they are the reason the basketball coach of the Final Four–bound Florida Atlantic Owls was born a Hoosier.
There is a lot beneath the surface of 46-year-old Dusty May. Poised, polished and professional in his public life, Dusty doesn’t project the image of a coal miner’s son. Truth be told, he is more of a mama’s boy—Sandy Garrett’s child—in terms of parental influence.
