As head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers since 1996, Tony Dungy puts into practice the lessons learned from his father, Wilbur. Off the field Tony enjoys spending time with his wife of 15 years, Lauren, and their three children. Wilbur, and his wife, Cleo Mae, live in Michigan.

When I was in the ninth grade, I played in a basketball game, got in a fight and got ejected from the game. "Tell me what happened," my dad said after we returned home.

I explained my side and said I was just retaliating. "Well, you missed the rest of the game," he said. "You got a chance to take out your frustration and thought you were right, but the goal is to play well, help your team and win the game. You didn't do any of that down the stretch."

I thought about that for three or four days, then said, "Yeah, I took out my frustration, but I wasn't doing my team any good in the locker room and I wasn't having any fun." Thinking about it that way, retaliation didn't make a lot of sense.

That's usually my dad's perspective--he's patient and even-keeled, looking not at the short run but the long run. And I think I have a lot of those qualities too. In light of the final plan, a setback one day or one moment is not something to fall apart about.

My dad instructed me, gave me freedom to grow, and allowed me to do a lot of what I wanted, but he was strict enough to direct me toward things that would be beneficial and away from things that would be detrimental.

I'd go out to play basketball and my dad would tell me to come back at a certain time. Invariably I'd come back an hour later than I was supposed to, and he'd ground me and be upset.

Later on, he would still get upset, but he understood I just got carried away with my passion of playing. He knew I was with guys he could trust. I'd come home ready for the worst and he'd say, "You need to call. We were worried about you."

My dad also passed on the value that you can go a long way if you set your mind to it and not let little obstacles get in your way. He persevered through a lot of difficult times in the '40s and '50s in teaching. When he started out, jobs as a college professor were not easily attainable. He kept preparing himself, got his master's and a Ph.D.

When I was in high school, my dad eventually got to the point where he wanted to be. He was teaching biology at Jackson Community College (in Michigan) and he got a promotion to Delta College--about 90 miles from our home. He knew that my sister and I wanted to finish school where we were, so he commuted three days a week. It would have been easier to either stay where he was and let us finish or to take the promotion and move us. But he chose to do it the best way for himself and for us, and make the sacrifice. I learned that you have to do the best that you can to make sure you're prepared when opportunities come and be ready to take advantage of them.

My fondest memories are coming home in the car after watching a sporting event with my dad. We would always talk about why things happened or why the team ran a particular play. Not necessarily just what happened, but why. That got me to thinking about what I wanted to do.

One time as we came home from watching a legendary coach and his team, we started talking about what went on. I told my dad I didn't see the coach do much. "That's the point of the whole thing," my dad said. "When you coach it's a lot like teaching. If you're a good teacher, you've taught before the test and the test becomes easy for the students. It's the same thing if you're a good coach."

My dad's a quiet person who taught me to think about why things happen. As a hot-tempered, overly excitable teenager, I learned from my dad that it's important to be under control and to know what you're doing on the field. There were several times when he wasn't going to let me play if I didn't represent myself and the family correctly.

At first I just thought he didn't want me to lose my temper. I took it as a personal lesson, and I didn't realize until later on that it was going to help me be a better player and coach as well. As I grew up and got into college athletics, then I understood how important it was because most games are lost by losing concentration.

Even to this day, when I talk to my players, I try to talk in the same terms. The goal of the game is to win, to play well, to help our team. Retaliation or taking out your frustration causes a negative effect, and you're taking yourself away from the goal.

I try to let my children make their decisions and try to be there to guide them and help them. So I'm trying to raise them a lot like my dad raised me.