When Notre Dame took the field against Penn State on Jan. 9, in the College Football Playoff semifinal, the coaching matchup between Marcus Freeman and James Franklin meant that, for the first time in college football history, the FBS championship was guaranteed to feature a Black head coach. It was as meaningful as it was stunning, given that the NFL’s first Black Super Bowl–winning head coach, Tony Dungy, accomplished that feat nearly two decades earlier.
Dungy, to this day, maintains an influential presence in the coaching and football world. Whether it’s as an analyst for NBC, as an informal adviser to countless coaches and players alike, as a parent (Dungy and his wife, Lauren, with three biological kids, adopted eight children and have fostered 100 more, which means a life full of practices at multiple levels) or as a mentor and author of two New York Times best-selling books, the 69-year-old is just as busy now as he was when he was the head coach of the Buccaneers and the Colts.
