Jerry "Cubby" Czubinski spent more than 25 years serving in the United States Navy and has spent a lifetime surrounded by family members serving in the Armed Forces.
Czubinski said his Navy career took him to various parts of the country and throughout the world, but when he and his wife were deciding on a place to settle and raise a family, the choice was clear – Houston was the best place for his family.
“We just found, and we gravitated to Texas, we had folks that were airline pilots, “Czubinski said. “It was a whirlwind, my wife and I came in on the weekend, looked at a bunch of houses, checked out a bunch of schools, talked to the police department about the crime rate and all this stuff. It was like ‘this is a no-brainer.’”
In the early 90s, Czubinski was working with the Blue Angels and traveled around the country for air shows. During that time, he said the crew always felt fond of Houston due to the way those in the community welcomed them to the city – which ultimately factored in his decision to move his family to the Bayou City.
When the Czubinski family first moved to Houston, Dynamo games were a part of their family bonding. Czubinski said in an effort to make sure the family spent quality time in between his deployments, they would spend what he lovingly called “forced family fun.”
“It was a big thing for us to keep the family together since I was gone pretty much all the time,” Czubinski said. “We would go to the Dynamo games, we met someone in the organization and they would take us out on the field with the flags. It was such an honor to take my whole family out there and to have these flags from the Dynamo and be part of that.”
In his free time, Czubinski gives back to the community and the veteran community in Houston by volunteering. During the holiday season Czubinski says he dresses up as Santa Claus to visit foster children and participate in holiday events around the city.
“It's something that's instilled in you, to always give back and always take care of your fellow brothers and sisters, in any community you have to be paying it forward,” Czubinski said. “It's very humbling and tear-jerking in a way to be involved. You're seeing a bunch of broken warriors, and some come back and they have nothing. So, it's nice to be able to just spend some time with them, one on one, tell some stories, bring back some memories and just make sure that they're in a good place.”
Even though his kids are now grown and living in other places around the United States, Czubinski is excited to return to a Dynamo game with his wife. Czubinski also returns to the field this weekend as the club honors him as the Hero of the game in Saturday’s match against C.F. Montreal.
