Tony Jordan is one of a very few athletes from Rochester, New York to play in the National Football League (NFL; Arizona Cardinals, Houston Oilers and Dallas Cowboys) and is the only football player from the City of Rochester to earn the prestigious award of High School All American given each year by the National High School Football Coaches Association. Tony began playing football with the Rochester Rams at age 11. He became a stand-out running back at East High School and from there was accepted on a full athletic scholarship to Kansas State University. Tony earned All Conference Honors with the KSU Wildcats and after graduating with a Bachelor Degree in Social Science with a Minor in Counseling, Tony was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals. The rest is NFL Football history!

Tony eventually returned to Rochester to accept a position at East High School as a track and football coach. Currently, Tony is a manager for the City of Rochester Department of Recreation and Youth Services. An inspirational public orator, Tony is in demand as a national guest speaker who can address issues of cultural competency, motivation and leadership and is working on earning his masters degree in athletic administration. Throughout his career, Tony has never forgotten the value he received from participating in youth sports. The athletic, personal ethics and character building opportunities he was given as a boy helped to develop the successful man. With deepest regard to all of those who have touched his life and mentored him along the way and with a heart felt desire to see that all children have a positive life experience, Tony launched the Tony Jordan Youth Sports Foundation in January of 2007.

The Foundation’s mission is to “support youth sports… done right”, which means providing the opportunity for youth to engage with positive adults, build character through their participation in sports and to have adequate equipment and facilities. Our vision is that all youth in Rochester, New York have the opportunity to have a positive, life impacting youth sports experience which leads to good health and the belief in the benefits of education.

Each year, approximately 4000 youth participate in organized, non-scholastic, volunteer led, sports activities in the City of Rochester, ranging from football to baseball, cheerleading, soccer, step teams, boxing and more. Youth from age 5 to 15 are actively engaged in productive, leisure time pursuits that for many provide the primary source of structure and exposure to positive adult role models in their lives.

In the summer of 2006 one such program, the Rochester Rams football team, experienced a tremendous loss when their playing equipment was stolen. If not for the commitment of several community members who took on the task of raising funds to replace the equipment, this one senseless act could have ended the team's season before it began.
Unfortunately in some cases, the lack of access to a few hundred dollars may keep a program serving hundreds of youth from being successful. Few, if any, of Rochester's youth sports organizations have the resources to independently respond to a loss such as the Rams suffered. Vision rich, but resource dry, many of the City youth sports organizations have the heart, the passion and the energy critical to providing positive sports opportunities, but they lack the organizational skills and business acumen to make the programs sustainable or simply don't have the time to focus on fundraising and training of staff and volunteers. Many of these organizations don't have the capacity to respond to adversity and are not able to take advantage of opportunities, e.g. trips, tournaments etc., again, due to lack of funding.

Additionally many urban teams are forced to play at inadequate, overused or under maintained facilities. Often they are outfitted in ill-fitting, outdated equipment and uniforms. The result is a negative impact on the quality of programs and an adverse effect on the pride and psyche of the participants.

The Rams incident illustrated to Tony Jordan just how fragile and vulnerable this invaluable community resource is and prompted him to call together a diverse group of individuals who understand the value organized sports play in the lives of many of our urban youth. This core group became the nucleus of a grassroots, community based effort to establish the Tony Jordan Youth Sports Foundation.