Brian Griese - Personal

Personal

Brian Griese was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and received his bachelor's degree in an individualized concentration from Michigan in 1997.

Griese is founder and board president of Judi's House, a children's grief support center in Denver, Colorado. Brian's mother, Judi Griese, succumbed to breast cancer when Brian was 12. The grieving process was hard for Brian, and so he established Judi's House to serve grieving children in the Denver area. To date, Judi's House has helped more than 1,700 youth and their adult caregivers cope with overwhelming feelings of grief. He continues to maintain close ties with the facility, despite the frequent moves dictated by his professional football career. Some noteworthy major donors to Judi's House include Jackson National Life Insurance, Office Depot, Nouveau Riche University, Nike, Inc., and the Adolph Coors Family Foundation.

Brian Griese was awarded the 2011 Patterson Award for Excellence in Sports Philanthropy, presented each year by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The award celebrates and promotes the selfless service of people within the world of sports whose passionate efforts make a difference in the lives around them. Griese, who works as a broadcaster for ESPN and KOA-AM in Denver, was recognized for his work with Judi’s House, a comprehensive grief care center he founded in Denver for children dealing with the loss of a loved one.http://www.rwjf.org/patterson/product.jsp?id=72947&cid=XEM_205591

Griese founded Judi’s House in 2002 in memory of his mother who died when he was 12 years old. The center helps grieving children and families by offering grief counseling and peer support groups to share the experience of loss with others. Judi’s House increases awareness and knowledge of grieving children’s needs by extending grief support services to schools, community based organizations, faithbased groups, hospices, and other caregivers in the community. As of October 2011 Judi's House has served more than 4,000 children and their adult caregivers from the Denver area since opening.

“I’m honored to receive this recognition in memory of my late mother and on behalf of everyone who works so hard to make Judi’s House a place where no child has to feel alone in grief,” said Griese. “I am proud of the unique community we have created here. With the hard work of the staff at Judi’s House along with the amazing kids and caregivers that we work with, we are able to take a potentially devastating event in a child’s life and help give them a place where they can find support and solace.”

Brian and his father, Bob Griese wrote a book together, Undefeated (ISBN 0-7852-7021-3), published in 2000 about their lives through their undefeated seasons and living through the breast cancer illness and death of Brian's mother and Bob's first wife, Judi.

Griese married Brook McClintic, a clinical psychologist, in the Spring of 2004 on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The couple met while Griese was playing for the Denver Broncos. On April 6, 2006, Brian and Brook had their first child, a baby girl they named Annalia Rose.