Monday night (actually early Tuesday morning) the Clemson Tigers won their first football national championship in 35 years. The hero of the game was quarterback Deshaun Watson. The hero of his life is former NFL running back Warrick Dunn.
But Dunn’s heroism had nothing to do with the football field. From an article in the New York Daily News by Evan Grossman:
“In 2006, Watson, his mother Deann and three siblings qualified for a Habitat home near Atlanta. Deann, a single mother, learned about Habitat from a brochure she found at the bottom of a bag of Halloween candy, ESPN reported. After she volunteered more than 300 hours on other builds, Deann qualified for a home and the chance to get her family out of apartment 815 at the Harrison Square complex and into a three-bedroom place of their own.”
It was Dunn’s support of Habitat for Humanity that enabled the organization to build the home. After losing his mother, a police officer murdered in 1993, Dunn made it his life’s mission to provide for single-parent families.
Watson has never forgotten this generosity. Grossman continues:
“Watson was 11 the day he and his family moved into that house. Dunn was there to give Deann the keys to their new home. It was a memorable, life-changing experience for the Watson family.“I felt grown having my own room,” Deshaun Watson told The Associated Press prior to last season’s championship game. “Just having my own bed, not really being squished, not really worrying about someone sneaking up on me, it was a great moment, a special moment.”
Warrick Dunn’s occupation was football player.
His life’s work has been putting roofs over the heads of families in need.
At Areena we have a phrase: “Leave an Enduring Legacy”. Dunn played years in the league, rushed for 10,000 yards and scored 50 touchdowns. But the stat he’ll forever be remembered for is the 150 homes he has built for those families.
“It’s like a movie,” Clemson center Jay Guillermo told ESPN after the Watson show was over. “All the sports movies you watch, the storybook ending. It’s one they’re going to be writing about for a really long time.”
Art Gurwitz
Founder, Areena
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