Vietnam refugee Dat Nguyen finds American Dream on the gridiron; with family
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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (KRIS) — In the early 90s the Rockport-Fulton Pirate football program turned the tide from bottom of the barrel (1-9 in 1990) to back-to-back district champions (9-1-2 in 1992 and 8-3 in 1993). Now nearly 30 years later, jersey No. 7, which was recently donated by Doctor Stan Haun, returned to the school. It was worn by inside linebacker Dat Nguyen.
“When we started it was a group of scrappy little kids. Young men playing,” Rockport-Fulton 1993 grad Jeffery Aguilar said. “There was Hispanics, Blacks, Whites and Vietnamese. The coach (Bob Pyssen) pulled us together and said ‘Hey I don’t see no skin tone here. We’re one unit. We’re one brothers. This is who you defend Friday night.”
Dat’s former Rockport-Fulton teammate Jeffery Aguilar holds up Nguyen’s signed No. 7 jersey that is being donated to the school by Doctor Stan Haun. Aguilar, of Hispanic decent, grew up playing football with Vietnamese linebacker Dat Nguyen. The future star never played sports until seventh grade after Cliff Davis, a persistent coach, convinced the 5 foot 9 inch, 170 pound kid to join the team.
“We were never introduced to sports early on, meaning in our culture,” Dat Nguyen said. “It’s all about work, school and have a living because nobody really played sports in Vietnam.”
Dat Nguyen, No. 7, with Rockport-Fulton varsity football team in the 90’s Rockport-Fulton yearbook He got to live the American Dream, and he did it well. Dat ended his senior season at Rockport-Fulton with 188 tackles. He was the District 30-3A Defensive Player of the Year and the 30th best prospect in Texas.
“You know it did bring the community together because everyone wanted to come see this kid play,” Aguilar said.
It was not always a win for the Nguyen family. Dat’s parents were refugees from Ben Da, Vietnam. His father Ho and mother Tam took their family and fled their home April 25, 1975.
“I just remember my parents packing us up in the middle of the night,” Lyly Nguyen Le, Dat’s sister and Jake Le’s mother, said. “There’s five of us. Mom was pregnant, and as we were leaving we saw some light come to the boat.”
A photo of Dat Nguyen’s parents from his book, ‘Dat: Tackling Live and the NFL’. Written with Rusty Burson. Tam was pregnant with Dat, as they barely escaped from North Vietnamese troops before the Fall of Saigon.
“It was actually the bombs chasing us” Lyly Nguyen Le said. “They were shooting bombs at our boats, and that was the most scariest.”
His family survived, arriving at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas’ refugee center where Dat was born. After being sent to other locations like Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Nguyen family soon settled in Rockport. Ironically their home in Vietnam, Ben Da, translates to ‘port of rocks’.
“There are 100’s of thousands, millions of Vietnamese American kids that came over during the war,” Dat said. “The 21 years of a war. Why did God choose me to do what I did? To come to America to play the American sport to play for American’s team you know what I mean? I played for Texas A&M. I run a Chic-fil-A. What in the world? You know what I mean. The kind of life you got here.”
Unlike most in his family, Dat did not want to be a shrimper. He found his passion on the football field. Paving the way for generations to come, including his nephew Jake Le who is graduating from London and plans to receive his bachelor’s degree at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
“I just started whenever I first played in seventh grade I just fell in love with the game,” Jake Le said. “Then I just started putting in the work everyday after school.”
Le never missed a summer workout at London. That’s the same work ethic his uncle Dat developed in high school and perfected at the college level.
Even 26 years later, Nguyen remains Texas A&M’s all-time leading tackler with 517. He finished his career as a unanimous All-American, Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and the recipient of the Chuck Bednarik award and Lombardi award in 1998.
After graduating from Aggieland, he was selected 85th overall in the 1999 NFL draft by Dallas.
“It was amazing because to see your little brother on the field in a pro game,” Lyly Nguyen Le said. “You know, the feeling is fantastic. You’re just like wow!”
Dat’s sister Lyly currently owns a Corpus Christi restaurant called Hu-Dat Noodle House, named after two of her brothers, Hung and Dat. In the restaurant fans can find pictures and jerseys of Dat on the wall, which have been there since the restaurant opened over 19 years ago.
Nguyen, drafted at 5 feet 11 inches, led the Cowboys in tackles three of his seven seasons before retiring in 2006 from injuries.
“Everybody has embraced us and that’s what’s so nice I guess about living in America,” Dat Nguyen said. “I feel like you work hard, you do good, you help people and you build a community. You help a community and everybody is just a family.”
Since retiring from football, Nguyen has received many accolades like being named to the Rockport-Fulton Sports Hall of Fame, Texas High School Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame. As of 2024, Nguyen is the only full Vietnamese athlete to play in the NFL. He will also be remembered as the first Vietnamese-American to be drafted, play and receive All-Pro honors in the NFL.
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