“People identify with the movie. Nonbelievers started the whole thing, and there’s not one verse of scripture in it, yet it’s the number-one movie watched by Christians this year.”

How many inner city kids are falling through the cracks of a broken system? That’s the question that Sean Tuohy posed to his audience of more than 300 people at Regent University’s Executive Leadership Series on February 8.

Tuohy is the father portrayed in the Oscar-nominated film, The Blind Side, which tells the story of Michael Oher, a homeless teenager turned first-round NFL draft pick, with the support and love of an unlikely adoptive family: the Tuohys.

“There’s an easy lesson in the film: be careful how you value people in this world,” Tuohy said. “Society had deemed Michael—a homeless kid in Memphis—as valueless, but he was the most obvious success story waiting to happen.”

Tuohy related how his family met Michael. On their way out to Thanksgiving breakfast on a cold, snowy morning, he saw Michael walking down the street. Tuohy had recently met Michael while doing some volunteer coaching at his school and pointed him out to the family.

“My wife asked one question: ‘Why is he wearing shorts and a T-shirt?’ Then she said two words: ‘Turn around,'” Tuohy said. “I didn’t get breakfast that morning, but Michael got a new home.”

The Tuohys adopted Michael, who attended the same private Christian school as their daughter and son. Michael played basketball and football, and the family helped him to bring up his .6 grade point average to make the honor roll in high school and the Chancellor’s List in college. He quickly showed promise in football, attracting attention from college recruiters after being named as one of America’s top high school football recruits. He went on to play at the University of Mississippi and was picked by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft, where he started every game as an offensive tackle during the 2009 season.

Although the Tuohys were not involved in the making of The Blind Side, other than granting permission for their names to be used, they did come to know the film’s director John Lee Hancock, as well as actress Sandra Bullock, who plays mother Leigh Anne Tuohy. Tuohy talked and joked about the amount of time Bullock spent with his wife in preparation for taking on the role, learning all about her, even to copying her makeup routine precisely, down to specific products, amounts and application technique.

“The biggest thing that scared her was the faith-based part of our lives,” he said. “She told my wife, ‘You’re the first evangelical Christian I’ve ever met that didn’t tell me how to live my life, but you let me watch you live your life.'”

Tuohy had high praise for Hancock. He noted that 20th Century Fox had thrown the movie into the trash, but Hancock resurrected it into an Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros. film that has grossed $250 million to date and will likely gain more.

“People identify with the movie. Nonbelievers started the whole thing, and there’s not one verse of scripture in it, yet it’s the number-one movie watched by Christians this year,” Tuohy said. “You don’t leave the theater as the same person.”

Another lesson from the movie involves miracles. “If a miracle hits you in the face, don’t run from it,” Tuohy said. “My family believes in miracles because of the miracle that went on in our house these last seven years.”

Tuohy was a record-breaking basketball player before becoming a successful entrepreneur and NBA broadcaster.He knew what it meant to be the poor kid in a private school—he had been one. Raised in New Orleans, Tuohy’s father coached basketball at the prestigious Isidore Newman School. After his father suffered a massive stroke, Tuohy continued to attend the private school, where he found himself on his own more than he ever anticipated. He attended the University of Mississippi on a basketball scholarship, shattering every major SEC assists-related record and becoming a legend in the SEC hall of fame for leading the Ole Miss Rebels to their first and only championship.

Drafted by the NBA’s New Jersey Nets in 1982, he opted to continue his career overseas before returning to the U.S. to be with his father in his final days. Tuohy became a successful entrepreneur, building a company that now owns and operates 70 fast-food restaurants. He is also in his ninth season as an NBA broadcaster for the Memphis Grizzlies, after several years as an analyst for radio broadcasts at Ole Miss and national broadcasts for Westwood One and CBS Radio.

Besides helping to create one of the fastest-growing evangelical churches in Memphis, the Grace Evangelical Church, Tuohy is heavily involved in supporting several minority students at his children’s school, Briarcrest Christian School.

Regent’s Executive Leadership Series monthly luncheons provide an opportunity for local leaders to glean insight from the most innovative voices of leadership from the world of business, politics, academia, entertainment, government, the military and religion.

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