Family Matters
Lundys Pull Through Together

August 11, 2002
By TERRY PRICE·Courant Staff Writer

STORRS - It is heartbreaking to think what happened to Jamal Lundy. His father died when he was 9. His mother died when he was 12.

Lundy's three bothers (one older, two younger) were also just kids.

Brian Lundy was 30 when he died in 1988 after a stroke. Joann Lundy was 33 when she died of pneumonia and cancer.

It is heartwarming to think what happened to the Lundy brothers since that time of pain and grief. Jamal Lundy, 22, is a starting linebacker at UConn. Mikal Lundy, 21, is expected to be a starting running back as a sophomore at Towson State. Wali Lundy, 18, is a highly touted freshman running back/wide receiver at Virginia. Shaheed Lundy, 26, isn't a football player, but he graduated from Rutgers in the spring.

The odds of three brothers playing college football at the same time have to be pretty long. The odds of three brothers without parents playing college football at the same time are almost unfathomable.

The Lundys were able to do it with tons of family support, generous community help, deep religious faith, nurtured natural talent and indomitable spirit.

"We all have that hard-working mentality," Jamal said.

The Lundys aren't angry or bitter. They don't see their lives as tragic or unfulfilled. It was as if they determined fairly early on that self-pity was a road that led nowhere.

"My whole family is based on what the Lord has in store for us," Jamal said. "It was [my parents'] time. God put them on earth for a certain amount of time, and he called them home at that point in time of their lives. You've just got to accept it and move on."

Jamal's brothers have the same serenity.

"We had a strong family," Mikal Lundy said. "Everybody was there for us. They were our support system. The Lord helped us out, too. Without him, we would have been in trouble."

Wali Lundy, a top 100 high school recruit this year, was 5 when his father died and 8 when his mother died.

"I was so young, I didn't know what was going on," Wali said. "I probably didn't realize I wasn't going to see them again. As I got older, I realized it. It hurts, but you've just got to deal with it. Life is full of adversity."

A Move For The Better

The Lundys have learned to count their blessings rather than worry about the crosses they have had to bear. When both their parents were alive, they lived in a tough section of New Brunswick, N.J. Crime and drugs were all around.

When Brian Lundy died, Joann took the boys to Willingboro, N.J., to be nearer relatives. It was a great move for the children.

"Out of the negative a lot of positives came out of it," Jamal said. "If my mother and father were alive, I probably wouldn't have moved to South Jersey. I don't know if I would have been as much into sports as I was. I didn't come from the best neighborhood, and I wasn't the best kid growing up. My chances would have been more likely going in a negative direction."

After Joann died, Jamal, Shaheed, Mikal and Wali were raised by their grandmother, Etta Davis, with the help of other family members. Davis became the touchstone for the Lundy brothers and, at 73, still is.

Spunky is probably the best way to describe Davis, who became cook, chauffeur, counselor, cheerleader, provider and comforter for her rambunctious, sports-minded grandsons.

Social Security money, odd jobs and church charity helped keep the Lundys afloat financially, and love was never in short supply.

"After the doctor talked with my daughter and said he couldn't help her, she said she wanted me to watch after her boys," Davis said. "Some people said I was too old to do it. A lot of young people don't know where their kids are. I always knew where they were. Someone was always home when they came home. There'd be food, fried chicken and Sunday picnics. They had lots of fun. I knew [my daughter] trusted me to have them and bring them up like I brought her up. She died peaceable, knowing I would do the best I could for them."

Extended Family

Joann and Shirline Davis married brothers, Brian and Peter Lundy. Shirline and Peter also had four boys (Khyree, Kareem, Najee and Rajee) about the same ages as Joann and Brian's sons. When Joann died, Etta Davis moved to nearby Florence, N.J., which brought the eight boys together.

From that point on, they were inseparable. It was Lundy cousins vs. Lundy cousins. Basketball games, mostly, because they all wanted to be basketball players.

"They were heated battles," Mikal said. "We would get in wars. Everybody was so competitive."

In Jamal's senior year at Florence Township Memorial High, Jamal, Wali, Mikal and Najee played football together. Jamal, a running back and linebacker, wore uniform No.1. Najee (now a fourth-string quarterback at Kent State) was the quarterback and wore No.2. Mikal, a running back, wore No.3, and Wali, a wide receiver, wore No.4.

That team lost in the state championship game.

"It was fun," Mikal said. "It was the best time of my life. We argued and bickered a lot. We'd get on each other if we messed up."

Mikal rushed for 1,522 yards and 20 touchdowns as a senior at Florence, setting the school single-season rushing record. He was recruited by UConn as a defensive back but chose Kent State because he wanted to play running back. After playing sparingly for two seasons, he transferred to Towson.

Wali was a two-time all-state performer at Holy Cross High in Delran, N.J., where he transferred after his freshman year. He was all-state at wide receiver as a junior and as a running back as a senior.

UConn also recruited Wali, who rushed for 2,030 yards and 30 touchdowns - a South Jersey record - as a senior, but his sights were set on established major programs. Wali Lundy was rated a five-star high school player by ESPN recruiting expert Tom Lemming, who ranked Lundy as the 19th best running back in the country.

Jamal Lundy set the Florence High record for career tackles with more than 160 in each his junior and senior years. He also ran for more than 500 yards and nine touchdowns as a fullback.

Cousin Najee Lundy was the quarterback the one season four Lundys played together in high school. He went to Rowan College, before transferring to Kent State.

Talent And Class

Florence coach Joe Frappolli, who has been coaching for 30 years, has a special fondness for the Lundys. He uses terms such as "a super group of young men" and "class individuals" and "super talented" in discussing them.

"They rank up there with the best of the best," Frappolli said. "And not just as athletes. They had the persona, too."

Frappolli said he marveled at the way the Lundy brothers never used the death of their parents as an excuse.

"They could have drifted off and made excuses and felt sorry for themselves," Frappolli said. "You didn't notice that they were looking for any sort of special treatment. The community took them under their wing, and I think a lot of that was because they were such good kids. They weren't into tattoos or any of that stuff. They were clean-cut kids. Not only could they play, they were good all-around citizens."

Jamal played only two years of high school football. He went to a private school as a freshman before enrolling at Florence. As a sophomore, he sustained a bruised lung that became infected and required hospitalization. He missed the season.

"When Jamal first came here, you could tell he was an athlete," Frappolli said. "His work ethic was tremendous. As a senior, he called all the defensive signals. He was one of the classiest kids I've been associated with."

UConn coach Randy Edsall became aware early in recruiting Jamal Lundy that he had lost both parents at an early age.

Edsall has encountered a lot of tough family situations in his many years of recruiting, but few tougher than the Lundys'. For all the kids to have emerged emotionally intact and to have gone on to college represents a triumph of body and spirit.

"In that situation - I wouldn't really know because I've never been in that situation - you can be very bitter and blame everybody else for what happened," Edsall said. "Or you can go back to the strength and structure and the belief in God and the values their grandmother instilled in them. They went the so-called right way."

Joann Lundy was very involved in the church during her short life, and she made sure her children were, too.

"My mother dragged us to church," Jamal said. "We were in church Monday through Friday."

Jamal belongs to the non-denom- inational Life Giving Word church in Delran, N.J. He also has become the leader of a Bible study group at UConn. Teammates Ken Wilson and Mike McIntosh are members of the group that has grown from the three of them to more than 20.


Tough On The Field

Jamal Lundy is a two-time captain at UConn. He has started 27 consecutive games. He played safety his first two seasons, leading the team in tackles as a sophomore, before being switched to linebacker last season. He was second in tackles in 2001 with 88 and was second on the team with three sacks.

Jamal has acquired a reputation as a hard hitter. He made ESPN's top hits of 2000 with a huge hit against Louisville. He once dislocated an elbow of a teammate who started a shoving match because he felt Lundy had been overly rough on a play.

"When I'm out on the field, I try to do whatever it takes to bring the guy down," Lundy said. "I'm a totally different person on the field. I know you're trying to hurt me, so I'm going to try to hurt you. If that's vicious, then I am. I try to play hard."

Wali Lundy puts it another way.

"Jamal's an animal," he said. "He's fearless. I think he plays every position on the field. He's always in on the tackle, always making plays."

Cellphones are wonderful umbilical cords, and the Lundy brothers keep in close contact that way. They'll be keeping tabs and comparing notes as the season progresses. Jamal will play against his cousin Najee when UConn plays Kent State on Nov. 9.

Dealing With It

Jamal, engaged to be married, has rarely allowed himself to become maudlin over the loss of his parents. He did not cry at their funerals.

"Of course we were sad," he said. "Every time I go somewhere, when I'm playing a game, I think, `How would it be to have my mother and father here?'"

That thought is as much curiosity as it is a craving, a natural outgrowth of observing other players' parents chatting with their sons outside the locker room after games.

"I have my grandmother. I have my fiancée now," Jamal said. "I have a lot of things not to take their place but to fill in and make it easier. My grand- mother is my mother. My future mother-in-law, she's like a mother to me, too. The Lord took the void and filled it with other people and made it a little easier."

When Jamal Lundy turned 21, he went out with some of the guys and got a little tipsy.

"Some stuff that had built up in me started to finally come out," he said. "I started crying. I never dealt with it before. I started talking about how much I missed my mother and father. I finally got it out."

Lundy is on schedule to graduate in May with a degree in human development and family studies, of all things. He could teach a course in it.