The Making of a Servant Leader

Mrs. Bell, Tyrone’s seventh-grade history teacher, later returned to the school to teach in his senior high school years. By then, she had been ordained a minister, and she asked Tyrone if she could pray for him. Everything she said would come true. At Callaway H.S., Tyrone was named the state’s most valuable defensive player and he earned a spot on the High School All-American team.

Tyrone went on to Mississippi State and earned recognition for his outstanding play as a defensive lineman as a three-time All-Southeastern Conference selection. He turned in his greatest performance in a 1980 game against the University of Alabama. The Crimson Tide came into Jackson’s Memorial Stadium sporting a 28-game winning streak and was the No. 1 ranked college football team.

But with twenty-two seconds remaining in the game, Mississippi State found itself clinging to a 6-3 lead as Alabama lined up at the Bulldogs’ 4-yard-line and appeared poised to score the game-winning touchdown. Tyrone derailed their hopes, slamming into the quarterback and jarring the ball loose. Mississippi State recovered the fumble, completing one of the greatest upsets in college football history.

For Tyrone, however, what happened after the game completely eclipsed anything that had occurred during it. The moment changed the paradigm and created a perspective that helped him see life beyond the game.

“The door to our locker room opened, and Bear Bryant, Alabama’s legendary coach, shuffled in,” Tyrone explained. “The room grew quiet, and what followed, was the greatest example of character and sportsmanship I had ever witnessed at the time. With a thousand fans jeering at him, he walked all the way across the field to congratulate not just our coach, but our team. Now that was class.”

Bear Bryant never knew the impact of his shuffle and gesture of respect that day, but Tyrone savored the moment he had witnessed in that locker room. Years after his career at Mississippi State, Tyrone won his most treasured award, a spot on the SEC’s Story of Character team as the conference celebrated its 75th anniversary.

In the spring of 1981, the New York Jets drafted Tyrone, but he opted instead to play in the Canadian Football League, which he called God’s Plan. As he arrived back at Mississippi State to thank the coaching staff, Coach Bellard shared with him that Coach Vic Rapp of the British Columbia Lions had visited with him and they planned to draft him with their first-round pick.

Tyrone met with Coach Rapp at the Holiday Inn in Starkville, the same place he stayed on his official visit to MSU. He shared with coach Rapp that he would entertain the opportunity to play for him and defensive coordinator Vince Tobin, whose brother Bill served as the director of player personnel with the Chicago Bears.

Two years later, Bill Tobin recruited Tyrone to play for the Chicago Bears, George “Papa Bear” Halas, one of the NFL’s founding fathers, and Coach Mike Ditka. Tyrone had worn Ditka’s No. 89 jersey. The Bears jumped from a six-win season in 1982 to 8-8 and then 10-6. In 1985, they bolted an unbeaten mark of 12-0, setting the stage for a dramatic Monday night contest against the Miami Dolphins.

What ended up happening that night was not something Chicago Bears fans would’ve ever imagined. The Dolphins soundly beat the heralded Bears 38-21 on national television, and suddenly the Bears weren’t so invincible anymore. After the game, Coach Ditka told the team they could let the defeat eat away at them, or they could use it as a springboard for a great comeback. The decision was theirs. Coach Ditka’s favorite saying was “If we can believe it and the mind can conceive it, it will be achieved. He was giving us the go-ahead to Produce the Shuffle — “basically the song was to put a chip on our shoulder”. Many recalled when President Kennedy made a bold statement “that America will put a man on the moon.” To me, Coach Ditka’s statement had a similar effect—it was bold and it was powerful.

The next morning, the Chicago Bears recorded The Super Bowl Shuffle, six weeks before the NFL’s championship game, and it helped get their swagger back while entertaining America and raising more than $300,000 dollars for needy families in the Chicago area. Quite a comeback! The Bears went on to win the rest of their games that year and defeated the New England Patriots with a score of 46-10 in the Super Bowl XX in New Orleans.