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Dunn True To His Word

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By LENORA LAKE

llake@tampatrib.com

Published: March 4, 2009

NORTH TAMPA - Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer All-Pro Warrick Dunn carried his message of helping others to the students of Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School.

"Take responsibility for your own life - and help others that might not have had the opportunities we have," Dunn told the students and guests gathered Feb. 25.

What Dunn didn't tell them was only hours before his appearance he had been cut from the team.

Instead, Dunn focused on his life as outlined in his book, "Running for My Life." His appearance was part of the school's Distinguished Speaker Series, designed to raise money for the charter school and to expose the students to leaders.

Dunn said he came because school co-founder and teammate Derrick Brooks asked him. Brooks was cut from the team the same day.

Dunn was 18 and a senior in high school when his mother, a Baton Rouge police officer, was killed in 1993 while working an off-duty job.

He talked about how hard she worked yet volunteered for school and community projects. She encouraged him but didn't tell him how to solve problems.

"She gave me the gift of figuring it out," Dunn said, adding that he learned to admit when he needed help and to go get it.

He graduated from Florida State University and said he was helped by Coach Bobby Bowden and former teammate Charlie Ward, who was a fifth-year senior when Dunn was a freshman.

Ward "listened to my stories and he listened to me cry," Dunn said. "You have people in your life who keep you grounded, keep you together. Those guys did."

Dunn started a foundation, Home for the Holidays, in memory of his mother. It has helped 84 single-parent families own a home. His mother always wanted a home, he said.

"I found a job by bringing a piece of her dream to others," Dunn said.

He told the students they should stay in school and find ways to help others by serving as role models to younger children or friends the elderly.

"There is a significant need for role models; you don't have to be famous," he said.

During a question-and-answer period, student Alicia Harris asked Dunn what he would have done if had not played professional football.

He said he majored in information technology services "and I guess I would have been a little nerd behind a computer."

Correspondent Lenora Lake can be reached at (813) 865-4851.

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