After the Buccaneers fired coach Tony Dungy following the 2001 season, Colts owner Jim Irsay mobilized.
He called Dungy and explained what he’s hoping to do with the Colts. Dungy liked what he heard, and it went from there and culminated in a Super Bowl win.
Dungy joined PFT Live on Thursday to reflect on his time with Irsay. The full video is attached to this post.
He eventually was asked to give us his best Jim Irsay story. Here it is: “Well, the best one I can tell you is it’s a personal one, and he did a lot for people, but I got there in 2002, my dad was getting up in age, and my dad would come to all the home games, and Mr. Irsay saw him at a couple of away games. So he said, ‘Does your dad go to every game? ‘And I said, ‘Well, he tries to go to the ones that are close that he can get to.’ So, if he wants to go to every game next year, tell him to just come to Indianapolis and fly with us.’ And 2003, he flew my dad on the team plane to every single away game. And my dad passed away at the end of the year, and my greatest memory was sitting with him and being with him at away games, just because Jim Irsay — that’s who he was.”
It’s a great example of how Irsay had a basic awareness of the people around him, and a natural willingness to go out of his way to help.
Irsay truly was one of a kind. There is no other owner like him, and there probably hasn’t been. Hopefully, there will be another.
It’s actually simple. Jim Irsay combined caring about others with the immense resources to do so. It can be a public contribution, or it can be a private gesture done with no effort or desire to get credit for it.
Something as simple as giving the coach’s dad a seat on the plane so he could fully enjoy his son’s success.
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