"Hiring Tony Dungy as our head coach was a great move for our entire organization and for our fans," said Owner/President Malcom Glazer. "From all of our research and from firsthand information, we found that that Tony is not only one of the finest coaches in the National Football League, but that he is also one of the finest people in the league, as well."

Dungy is known throughout the National Football League as one of the brightest defensive coaches in pro football. In his last 14 seasons, his units have scored an amazing 48 defensive TD’s. In fact, since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, only nine teams have scored as many as seven defensive touchdowns in a season and four of those have come under Dungy’s guidance.

Tony Dungy was named defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings in 1992. In his four seasons with the Vikes, his troops racked up impressive statistics. From 1989-91, Dungy was the defensive backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs and his first NFL coaching stop was with the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1981-1988, where he was the youngest assistant coach in the NFL.

As a player, Dungy was a quarterback at the University of Minnesota from 1973-76. Following his UM career, Dungy signed as a free agent with the Steelers in May 1977. He went on to play in Pittsburgh until 1979 when he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers and then in 1980 to the New York Giants.

Dungy has been active in community affairs in all of the cities in which he has coached. Two of the organizations with which he has worked very closely are Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Alleghany County Foster Care Center in Pittsburgh.