A gift for giving

Sporting News, The, August 2, 1999 by Paul Attner

That is what Green is, too. "We have all seen the selfish people, the selfish athlete," says Dr. Ernst Volgenau, president of SRA Inc., a company that works with Green. "Darrell is selfless. He looks at his fame as a player as a means to an end, a temporary thing."

Green's learning center, which is supported mostly by funds raised through his foundation, functions at the basic level of inner-city life. He knows it is not enough to tutor after school these youngsters who range from elementary to high-school level. It is not enough to require them and their parents to sign a contract agreeing to behavior and attendance standards. It is not enough to give them moral guidance and Bible study. If you do all this, and then forget about them as soon as they return to a volatile home environment, it is not enough.

So the learning center maintains a constant link with its students. They are not allowed to go hungry, to go without proper clothing, to live in an atmosphere of abuse or neglect. Most are directed out of the public school system and into private and charter schools, where scholarships pay their tuitions. There is such a clamor to get into the center that they have stopped keeping a waiting list.

"I had to do something to break the cycle within the city," Green says. "I needed to help educate and nurture these kids and their parents and train them morally, so they know about honesty and integrity and the sanctity of marriage, and they won't be destined to the same lifestyle they witness every day. So when they leave the learning center, they will not come back as repeat offenders, but they will come back and change the neighborhood and change the city and change the nation. That is what I want. I am building them for the long haul, not just with Band-Aids. Outside the learning center, these kids are at-risk. Inside, there is no risk at all."

His work goes on. There are plans for a training center, which will graduate teachers and administrators who can run new learning centers. But progress is slow. It takes money. Green knows he must establish an endowment that will spit out $1 million or more a year so there can be more centers. "I'm not doing this because I am a good guy," he says. "I do this because it is my calling, my conviction. I will have the thrill of changing children's lives who will be here when I am gone. If I retire and they remember me as a great player and that is all, I have failed. Let's see what Darrell Green is five years after he retires. That is when the story will be told."

Information please

To make donations to or get more information about David Robinson's and/or Darrell Green's foundations, write:

David Robinson Foundation, RO. Box 780577, San Antonio, TX, 78278

Darrell Green Youth Life Foundation, 1713 Benning Rd. NE, Washington, D.C., 20002

If you want more information about the work of the other 97 Good Guys, write to the community relations directors of their respective teams.

If you want to tell THE SPORTING NEWS about a Good Guy who plays in the NBA, NFL, NHL or MLB, write to Paul Attner, Senior Writer, 10176 Corporate Square Dr., Suite 200, St Louis, MO 63132, or send him e-mail at goodguys@sportingnews.com.