Former Tampa Bay Bucs coach Tony Dungy will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame next month.
His inclusion in this prestigious group is based on his success – 11 postseason appearances in his 13 year coaching career, a Super Bowl victory and a two-time selection as NFL coach of the year. But it isn’t only the victories coach Dungy remembers.
He spoke to the media during a conference call on Wednesday and talked about his milestones. It was a string of defeats, however, in his first year at the helm in 1996 that sparked a big memory.
“I thought we had a group of talented players and I thought I had the right system and we were going to win, so when you don’t win, it catches you by surprise,” Dungy said. “The thing that happened is we had a coaching staff who really believed in how we were doing it. We were able to stay together.
"We were in games in the second half of that stretch; we just weren’t making the plays to finish them.”
The game that Dungy pegged as a turning point? The Bucs 20-17 overtime win over the Oakland Raiders.
“We finally won a game in overtime against the Raiders, our second win, and I just felt like by doing it, winning in overtime, overcoming some adversity, this is what I think is going to catapult us,” he said. “And from then on, we did start to see that success in the win column.”
The Bucs finished the 1996 season 6-10, one of only two seasons Dungy failed to advance to the playoffs.