As an NFL running back, Latavius Murray has a particular knack for knowing when to charge full speed ahead and when to pivot to get the job done.
For the past few years, Murray has taken the skills and mindset he acquired on the gridiron and applied them to a passion project he’s been thinking about since he was a kid. “I had a dream to build a community center in my hometown of Nedrow, New York,” Murray told Entrepreneur. “And when my best friend passed away in 2016, I brought his legacy and that dream together by starting the Jon Diaz Community Center Foundation.”
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Murray, who earned his MBA at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management in 2020, says his plan is for the center to become “a hub of opportunity and community wellbeing” in his hometown and the surrounding areas. To date, he and the JDCCF team have secured land donations from Aldis Corporation and nearly $5 million from local and state government funding.
We spoke with Murray about everything from the details of his passion project to what drove him to get his master’s degree to his advice to other entrepreneurs who are daring to dream big.
What was the reason you wanted to build this community center in your hometown?
Growing up, I was lucky enough to go to a center a few towns over where little kids and teens could get together in one place. We had the game room, we had the basketball court, but I think what was also cool was that there was a computer lab and we did educational things like learning how to write a letter. That experience has always stuck with me and it was something that I wanted to reciprocate to my community, so we started the Jon Diaz Community Center Foundation.
And can you explain the foundation’s name?
Jon Diaz was my best friend. We met in kindergarten when were six years old. Our relationship grew and grew. We played football together in school. And when I was drafted, we hung out almost every day. He was just my right-hand man. In 2016, he was tragically killed downtown during an altercation with someone else. I got that news when I was in my last year at Oakland. It was a Thanksgiving Eve. It’s one of those moments you’ll never forget. It just shakes your world. And as life has gone on, I decided that I wanted to do something big and positive in his name.
Renderings of the Jon Diaz Community Center
A lot of athletes start to think about business opportunities after they retire. But you went to business school while playing. What drove that decision?
I’ve always been inspired by guys like Michael Strahan. He transitioned from playing to becoming one of the more prominent faces on TV and doing amazing things in business. And you think about Larry Fitzgerald — he’s part-owner of the Suns. I just respect and appreciate that he was able to take advantage of opportunities and network while he was playing. So in 2016, I had injuries and was looking back at previous ones and I thought, “Man, what if one of these injuries were to keep me out of football forever? What would I fall back on?”
I just breezed through college and high school, educationally. So this was an opportunity to not do that — it was a chance to take responsibility for myself. I decided to go to get my MBA at Syracuse in business administration with an entrepreneurial focus. I wanted to learn how these guys in the business world were making money versus how I was making mine. They’re using their minds to do these great things. I just thought that was really cool.
What did your classmates think when an NFL running back walked in?
Well some of them didn’t know a damn thing about football. [Laughs] And then for some others, when they realize who you are — boom — immediately wanting to chat offline about the NFL and stuff. But then that dies down and everyone gets to work. I’ve built a lot of relationships going through that program. I tell people all the time that one of the cooler things I got out of the program was the people I connected with.
How does that pro football star power translate to pitch meetings?
I think people assume that because I’m in the NFL, I have all of these relationships and these connections and it’s just easy. And maybe when I started this nonprofit, it was easier to get this meeting or get on the phone with this person — but then you still have to sell the vision. You still have to sell the product, you know? And so if I wasn’t prepared, being a professional athlete didn’t matter. It comes down to having a plan and being able to communicate it to get investors on board.
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What’s more nerve-wracking, stepping out of the tunnel on game day or stepping into a boardroom to pitch?
Definitely stepping into a room to pitch an investor. I’m used to playing on Sundays. It’s what I’ve been doing my whole life. I’m outside of my comfort zone in the business space. It’s a scary thing when you have something you believe in and you’re trying to convince somebody else to believe in it, too.
Any parallels between playing football and running the foundation?
There are a lot of things that carry over between sports and business, but the biggest is preparation. If I’m going into a meeting and I feel really prepared, I feel good regardless of the results. “Hey, we just came up short today, but we did our best.” You can hang your hat on that. But when you walk into a meeting or go into a game and feel like you could have done more or weren’t ready? I can’t live with those missed opportunities.
Do you remember the first “yes” you got?
That first one, I’ll never forget it. Aldis donated land. They were the first to believe in my dream, my vision. It felt like I truly did something outside of football for the first time. It felt really good.
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What’s the next stage in this?
I formed a foundation and we got a board and brought all the right people together. One of those partners is ICAN, an organization out of Utica, New York. I have a lot of respect for their CEO Steven Bulger. We haven’t broken ground yet, but Steve says that the rate we’ve been able to secure land and raise money is unprecedented in his 20-plus years of experience. So it’s like, man, there’s a future for this outside of Nedrow. Something we can replicate in other areas of the country. We’re not counting our chickens before the eggs hatch, but it’s exciting to think of the bigger possibilities.
And what is your advice for others looking to make their dream projects a reality?
The biggest thing is starting. One thing I learned getting my MBA is that a lot of people sit there trying to figure out when the perfect time to start is. And the answer is that it is never going to be perfect, you just have to start. I’ve had this dream since I was a kid. And it wasn’t until eight or so years in the NFL that I decided to go for it. But once I decided to start, we haven’t stopped. Just go ahead and dive, dive in.
