In retirement, Rudy Kalis finds joy in mentoring inmates
Former WSMV4 Sports Director works with faith-based Men of Valor to visit prisoners at Riverbend Maximum Security Prison.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - When you job is such a large part of your life, figuring out what comes after retirement could be daunting.
For former WSMV4 Sports Director Rudy Kalis, who spent his career highlighting big moments in the lives of Nashville athletes, what came next was easy.
After 43 years of walking Nashvillians through the highlights and lowlights of local sports, Kalis now has a different walk … through the re-enforced steel gates of Riverbend Maximum Security Prison.
“I was retired, and people said what are you going to do,” Kalis told WSMV4 anchor Marius Payton.
The answer: helping inmates prepare to re-enter society through the faith-based organization Men of Valor. The goal is once a prisoner leaves, they never come back.
“I mentored a guy that was Mr. Football in Tennessee, played Big Ten football, got involved in some white-collar crime. Met him in here. He has now been out for three years. We talk every day,” Kalis said.
The recidivism rate in the United States hovers around 70%. For those enrolled in Men of Valor, that number drops to between 10 and 15 percent. We were not allowed to show the faces of the men Kalis works with, but we could hear their stories during their Tuesday night Bible study.
“I have grown more in Men of Valor in the last year and a half than I did in the first four years I was locked up, and that is thanks to Rudy,” said one of the inmates.
Kalis spends five nights a week at the prison, saying it’s time consuming, but worth it.
“They have had as much of an impact on me because I am determined to live up to what I tell them to live up to,” Kalis said.
On Monday Kalis hosts the Rudy Kalis Celebrity Golf Classic at Temple Hills Country Club in Franklin. Among those set to participate in the tournament at Vince Gill, Kix Brooks, Derrick Mason, Chris Sanders, Scott Hamilton, George Plaster, Mo Pitney, Jordan Lawhead and many more.
Click for information about the tournament.
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