By HARRIET PROTHRO PENROD
Pastor, coach, entrepreneur, inventor, educator, author, and musical composer. While Denny Duron is all of those things, he does not want to be defined by what he has done – and he has done quite a lot.
He invented the FungoMan baseball fielding machine, has recorded albums and written musicals and screenplays. He won two national championships as quarterback at Louisiana Tech and played professional football. Those things don’t matter, however.
“Accomplishments mean nothing to me,” he says over a recent lunch at Julie Anne’s Bakery & Café. “What’s important is doing what’s next and understanding that the most important moment of my life is now.”
At 70 years of age, Denny Duron is having the time of his life.
The hall at the Shreveport Convention Center was packed on the last Saturday of December for the inauguration of Mayor Tom Arceneaux. When Denny Duron stepped to the podium to lead the Unity Prayer, the pastor of Shreveport Community Church asked those in attendance to stand and hold hands during the prayer.
It was a very powerful moment.
Days later, Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest after making a tackle during the Bills’ Monday night football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Time seemed to stand still while Hamlin was administered CPR on the field and the world watched as players took to their knees in prayer. That’s all anyone knew to do.
ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky prayed on live television. Before kickoff of the following NFL games, players from both teams met at midfield and prayed.
These were powerful moments.
“God amazes me,” says Duron. “He takes a tragic moment and brings, not just CNN and ESPN, but millions to prayer. It was so moving seeing it demonstrated. Seeing those guys start the games with prayer, I choked up. In that moment, every barrier was gone.”
In these times — when there seems to be a hostile environment for faith — the world has turned to prayer.
Duron thinks what has transpired could be “revolutionary.”
Prayer and football.
He knows a thing or two about both of those.
As quarterback for Louisiana Tech during the 1972 and 1973 seasons, Duron led the Bulldogs to two national championships and a 24-1 record. He signed with the Washington Redskins in 1976 but soon left after hearing the call of God to take his life in a spiritual direction.
Duron traveled the world as an evangelist and returned to Shreveport in 1984. His parents – Rodney and Frances Duron – were the pastors of Shreveport Community Church (which they turned over to Denny and wife DeAnza in 1998) and founded Evangel Christian Academy in 1980.
In 1989, Frances Duron told her son she wanted him to give the kids at Evangel a football experience – not to win championships, but to pastor the young men. So, in 1989, that’s what Denny Duron, John Booty, and Ricky Berlin did – they started pastoring and coaching at Evangel.
From 1993 to 2016, the Eagles – with head coaches including Dennis Dunn, John Bachman, Sr., Ronnie Alexander, Phillip Deas, and Byron Dawson — won 14 state championships, one national championship, and 23 district titles.
“The success of Evangel (football) was the biggest surprise to all of us,” says Duron, chancellor of the school and offensive coordinator during those years.
But the success wasn’t just on the football field.
“I was sad when I saw the state of football in our city (back in 1984),” explains Duron. “It was like everyone had stopped trying. They had stopped doing the extra stuff – there were no decals on the helmets, the fields weren’t painted.
“Teenage gang activity was at an all-time high. There were only 40 kids – maybe 35 – on the 5A teams. We decided we were going to help the city. We said, ‘We’re probably not going to be good enough to really win a championship, but we’re gonna make them chase us.’”
What followed was a resurgence in local high school football.
“Now, there are great coaches with fundamentally sound teams that go deep in the playoffs,” continues Duron. “I’m so proud of the product they’re putting on the field.”
When Denny and DeAnza passed the mantle of Shreveport Community Church to their son Denny Rodney (one of their seven children) four years ago, that opened up an opportunity.
“I thought it would be fun to do it again,” Duron says of coaching football. “I was at the place where I turned the church over to my son, so I had the time.”
And he’s having the time of his life.
After going 0-8 in 2020 and 3-8 in 2021, the Eagles finished the 2022 season with a 7-5 overall record, 5-2 in District 1-4A and made it to the second round of the Division II Select playoffs.
But it’s not about wins and losses on the football field. There’s much more to it than that.
There are the early-morning meetings — led by a spiritual coach and Bible scholar — that begin with meditation and worship.
“I bought each one of them a leather-bound Bible with their name on it,” Duron says of his players. “With wide margins so they can take notes. It has changed them from the inside out. Many of them had never read the Bible. Lives and attitudes have changed.
“I do football so I can do this.”
Duron is right – something revolutionary is transpiring.
Contact Harriet at sbjharriet@gmail.com
