In four seasons at Fordham, Light proved as tough as his task. He endured a 1-10 campaign as a freshman, his mother and father, also Dan, rehashing missed opportunities on three-hour rides back home to Sutton, Mass., a hilltop town outside Worcester and down the road from signs that point to “Purgatory.” They witnessed a resurrection in their son’s sophomore season as he developed into his role as “Gronk of the Bronx,” waiting until after Christmas to tell him that his father had been diagnosed with ALS, a crippling sickness without cure. They took a Disney cruise, and then Light flew back to LaGuardia, returned to campus and walked into the Dean’s office. He informed him that he needed the semester off. His mother called to ask how the book buying went for his new courses.
“I didn’t buy any books,” he said. “I’m coming home.”
His father, the well-liked, self-made owner of “D. Light,” a siding and roofing company in Millbury, Mass., disagreed with the move, but Moorhead kept his son on scholarship. For one last hurrah, father and son shipped their Harley Davidsons down to Daytona, Fla., and continued south 300 miles to the Keys, motoring to the southernmost point. Five others joined them, sunrises and sunsets coloring memories for all, but son helped sustain his father most.
Back home, mom reflected on the boy who followed his father around the house, carrying a plastic hammer and yelling, “I want to work, dad! I want to work!” His desire to get his hands dirty was passed down through genetics. When his mother was six months pregnant, the Lights received a phone call from a customer about a leaking roof. Dawn and Dan grabbed trash bags and a ladder. They climbed the roof, Dawn holding the flashlight as her husband hammered a cover to patch the hole.
“In those days, you did what you had to do," she says. “It wasn’t all success.”