Dat Nguyen was born in a refugee center at Fort Chaffee in Fort Smith, Arkansas after his family left South Vietnam during the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.
While attending Rockport Fulton High School in Texas, Nguyen dominated the gridiron and excelled on both sides of the ball, as a middle linebacker, running back and even all-state punter.
The do-it-all high school player chose to attend Texas A&M University, where he went on to become one of the greatest defensive players in school history. The full time linebacker left A&M has the Aggie’s all time leader with over 500 career tackles and 51 consecutive starts on the defensive side of the ball.
The leader of the Aggies Wrecking Crew defense, Nguyen was a consensus all-American in 1998, the same year he won the prestigious Bednarik Award as college football’s defensive player of the year and the Lombardi Award given to the outstanding college lineman of the year. He also took home the Lambert Award to completely fill his trophy case. Nguyen was also named Defensive Player of the Game at the Cotton Bowl that same season. His performance was one for the books, which included a bowl record 12 tackles and an interception. In 2017 Nguyen was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.
The highly decorated linebacker was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the third round of the 1999 NFL Draft. After leading the team in special teams tackles his rookie year, he became the Cowboys starting with a linebacker in year two and never looked back.
The undersized linebacker spent his career proving his doubters wrong and during his seven seasons in Dallas, was a key contributor to the Dallas defense. He battled various injuries throughout his career and retired after the 2005 season. Nguyen currently ranks in the top 10 all time in tackles in Cowboys team history.
He later spent time in coaching roles for both of his former teams, the Cowboys and the Aggies.
In this interview with Tony, he talks about practicing his autograph in high school, his rookie cards and the number swapping his rookie year, his admiration for Chicago Bears icon Walter Payton and much more.
