On an August day in 1973, a boy with Down syndrome playfully swiped Tony Glenn’s helmet during a DFRC Blue-Gold All-Star Football Game gathering.
Glenn, who’d begun the day mortified at the prospect of mingling with children who had intellectual disabilities, which was not the term used then, gave chase.
When it was over, he’d obtained a sense of enlightenment that, though he didn’t know it then, would permanently shape his life.
“It wasn’t like I got hit by lightning,” Glenn said this week, “but I did go through a period, that same day, of ‘What was I afraid of?’ We just had a great time, and I felt a little shameful about being afraid of something I didn’t know anything about.
“By then going to the University of Delaware and joining the DFRC community right away, I just wanted to figure out what that did to me. Something hit me.”
Now in its 67th year, DFRC – the Delaware Foundation Reaching Citizens – has distributed $6.3 million to programs benefitting Delawareans with intellectual disabilities after raising money through various events, most prominently the annual Blue-Gold game.
About $3 million has been dispersed since Glenn became executive director in 2001, though his association with the organization dates to his 1973 experience as a player.
Glenn has recently retired from that executive director’s position. He remains a member of DFRC’s board of trustees and still, board president Martha McDonough said, is the leading figure in preparation for the 2022 Blue-Gold game June 17 at Delaware Stadium and other events.
PERMANENT BOND: Blue-Gold player, buddy’s friendship has endured
Jada Little has replaced Glenn as executive director. Little became involved in Blue-Gold when older brother Jordan was among the cognitively disabled children, called “buddies,” who are matched with players and other game participants in the Blue-Gold Hand-in-Hand program. She later became a Blue-Gold band member.
On Feb. 21, Glenn will receive the annual Herm Reitzes Award for community service from the Delaware Sportswriters & Broadcasters Association at its awards luncheon at Du Pont Country Club. It will feature the announcement of the 73rd annual John J. Brady Award winner as Delaware’s 2021 Athlete of the Year.
Glenn will be honored along with former Caesar Rodney High and Wesley College athlete Alexis Howerin, a breast cancer survivor who will receive the Buddy Hurlock Unsung Hero Award; the Delmar High field hockey 2021 state Team of the Year; and the Tubby Raymond Award winner as Delaware 2021 Coach of the Year Nancy Griskowitz from St. Mark’s volleyball.
McDonough said there couldn’t be a more deserving recipient than Glenn. She first met him in the 1990s when her three daughters got involved with Blue-Gold activities at St. Mark’s High, where Glenn taught.
“He was just this wonderful man who cared about every single person on the Earth,” she said. “I realized the impact he was having on thousands of people.”
That was particularly evident, she added, when DFRC was floundering but soon flourished after Glenn became executive director in 2001.
“I’ve never seen anyone as innovative or insightful,” said McDonough, adding that was particularly critical when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, forcing cancellation of the 2020 football game, and Glenn quickly adjusted to virtual activities.
The annual north-south all-star football game, which debuted in 1956, brings together the state’s best high school players from the recently graduated class.
More importantly, it has served to raise awareness and funds to benefit children with disabilities, and educate the game’s participants through interaction with those kids. The game’s co-founders, Wilmington sportsmen Jim Williams and Bob Carpenter, each were the father of such a child.
“It’s still here,” Glenn said, the pride in his voice quite clear.
“Looking at the minutes from those initial meetings, they were trying to raise money to help parents at the time be able to do things for their children. I don’t think in the beginning days they fully understood what this would become. But they knew they had to do this. They knew they had to bring light onto the subject, a subject that nobody wanted to talk about. We’ve come so far and we continue to try to put the funds together to help the organizations that are in the trenches every day.”
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Glenn graduated from Conrad High in 1973. The Blue-Gold game was then held in August with two weeks of camp.
One afternoon leading up to the game, coaches informed Glenn and his teammates that children from a Wilmington facility that served intellectually disabled kids would be visiting. Glenn had no experience with such children and was nervous.
As soon as the bus pulled up and the kids poured out, the boy snatched Glenn’s helmet and ran.
“He said ‘Catch me’ with the biggest smile on his face I ever saw,” Glenn recalled.
This was several years before the DFRC’s Hand-in-Hand activities commenced. But the interaction accomplished what that program does in breaking down barriers.
Several of the other visiting children joined the fray with Glenn and his teammates. An impromptu football game started. The boy eventually boarded his school bus still clutching Glenn’s helmet, which he had to go retrieve.
Glenn received both his helmet and a hug in what would turn out to be a life-altering experience.
Glenn played in the game and then entered the University of Delaware, where he was an offensive lineman on the football team. Glenn later earned a doctorate in education administration at Wilmington University while teaching and serving as assistant athletic director at St. Mark’s. He also had a long stint on the UD football coaching staff.
He became a Blue-Gold game volunteer in 1974 and would go on to serve as camp director, athletic chairman, coached in the 1984 game, chaired the 1988 game and was elected to board of trustees in 1991. Ten years later, he became DFRC’s executive director.
Along the way, he has frequently – and joyfully – witnessed others having illuminating experiences identical to his.
“I came in here thinking I was gonna help my buddy and, oh my word, my buddy did so much for me,” Glenn said. “I’ve heard that so many times, over and over and over again. There’s something really special about that.”
Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com.
