As coach and conscience, Bill Curry will be greatly missed
Bill Curry at the podium Wednesday. (AJC photo by Jason Getz)
Bill Curry asked that Cheryl Levick, Georgia State’s athletic director, not refer to him Wednesday as a legend. Having played under Bobby Dodd, Vince Lombardi and Don Shula, Curry is sensitive about the word and its usage. And there is, ahem, the issue of whether it actually applies.
Bill Curry’s career record is 92-118-4. He has had seven winning seasons in the 19 he has worked at Georgia Tech, Alabama, Kentucky and now Georgia State. He announced Wednesday that the season ahead will be his last as a coach. It will not, he hopes, be his last as a person of influence, and that’s the good news. If there’s such a thing as a legendary voice of reason, Bill Curry is it.
This correspondent met Curry 28 years ago, just after he gave a speech to a Yellow Jacket booster club proclaiming that his Tech team “will drive the cheaters to their knees.” Fans of rival schools were outraged. The AJC columnist Lewis Grizzard, an admitted and ardent Georgia fan, demanded that Curry name names or hush his mouth.
On May 15, 1984, Curry spoke these words in defense of his oratory: “I’d like to see responsible people in all programs get involved and start asking questions. Are players being pushed to go to class in tough majors? Are they being recruited illegally? Are they being fed steroids? … There’s a vast silent majority out there on a lot of issues. We’ve all been guilty about watching something happen. That’s the power of inertia. We don’t want to rock the boat — maybe it’ll go away. But it’s a funny thing about bad things: They don’t seem to go away.”
On Aug. 15, 2012, the day he announced his impending retirement as coach, Curry spoke of the “incredible quandary” facing schools regarding the scope and place of collegiate football. He mentioned “dollars and foolishness.” He said: “I’d like to be part of the solution.”
There are those, it must be noted, who have long considered Curry a raging hypocrite. If he’d won as big at Alabama as the Bear had, they insist, he wouldn’t be complaining about systemic excesses. (For the record, three of Curry’s winning seasons were the years he spent coaching the Tide, and in 1989 he led Alabama to a share of the SEC title. Then, tired of fighting his own athletic department, he left for Kentucky.)
Asked Wednesday if we speak too little about those excesses and too much about winning games, Curry said: “Absolutely, and that’s a question you ought to ask every chance you get. If you complain about it [as a coach], it sounds like you’re making excuses. But somebody needs to address it. The college presidents really need to take a look at their value system.”
And there’s the reason it’s tempting to refer to a 69-year-old coach with a losing record as a legend. Curry has been good for college football because he has never been afraid to mention the bad. His teams have waxed and waned — the 1985 Tech team that finished 9-2-1 was expertly coached; the 1994 Kentucky team that went 1-10 was just wretched — but his principles have not.
Why is he retiring? In part because of his five grandchildren. “Of Super Bowl rings and jet airplanes and flying all over the place and honors and trophies,” Curry said, “the one thing that is highly touted but not overrated is grandchildren.”
Then this: “I thought it was the right thing to do [as a younger coach] to work 90 hours a week, and I missed my children growing up. I’m not going to do that again.”
Curry worked, and continues to work, the 80- and 90-hour weeks because it’s what football coaches do, but somebody needs to ask: Is working 80- and 90-hour weeks something anyone should do? Curry is one guy, maybe the only guy of such eminence, who’ll pose the question. As much as he has meant to his players at previous stops, as much as he has done from lifting Georgia State from a program without even a chinstrap to the Sun Belt and FBS status, his greatest purpose has been as a conscience.
He’s a smart man who’s not easily cowed, and sometimes that gets him into trouble. Take the 1984 speech. Curry revealed Wednesday that he took the podium that night having just read an impassioned letter from a Georgia fan saying that Tech would never ever beat the Bulldogs. “I turned into that offensive center who had to block Ray Nitschke by slamming into him,” he said. “Carolyn [his wife] tried to warn me, but I spoke in anger.”
History records that Curry’s Jackets beat Georgia 35-18 in Sanford Stadium six months later, and by December the Bulldogs would be under NCAA investigation. (Curry insists he didn’t rat out his rival.) Even so, he still regrets the speech. “The last thing we need is some idiot saying we’re going to bring the cheaters to their knees,” he said.
Right about many things, he’s wrong about this. College football already has enough Nick Sabans and Urban Meyers and Lane Kiffins. Now more than ever, the sport needs Bill Currys.
By Mark Bradley
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94 comments Add your comment
Reading comprehension is dead
August 15th, 2012
10:03 pm
@TheTechie: Reread the FIRST line of Mark’s piece, troll. Then stop for a moment and reflect on what you’ve done to impact the world around you, other than show readers of this blog what an oaf you are. Enjoy your retirement, CBC, and treasure the moments to come.
LongBeachJacket
August 15th, 2012
10:08 pm
Nice article Mark. I’d put Coach Curry in the Legend category, all things considered. For all his breadth of experience and accomplishments as player and coach, how he’s used the platform of coaching to raise sometimes “inconvenient” questions, and the successes he’s had on and off the field — a simple W-L analysis doesn’t do justice to the evaluation of his body of work. Thanks Coach Curry. The sport of college football and football in general is far better because you have been and still are a part of it…
BariBlue
August 15th, 2012
10:11 pm
Bill Curry brought so much to Georgia State… it completely blows my mind. GSU is not the same school and I can’t believe how far we have come… CBC played a huge role in our transformation. We have a very long way to go, and the road will only get tougher with our transition to FBS. GSU fans are truly appreciative of Coach Curry’s hard work and dedication… love and wish you well, Coach. Go Panthers!
bubba4dawgs
August 15th, 2012
10:14 pm
I have the utmost respect for Bill Curry!! I remember him best at his playing years at Ga. Tech! He is among the best who ever played the game!! Good luck, Bill!! You’re a true champion!!
Hillbilly D
August 15th, 2012
10:16 pm
The man was part of a very good OL at Green Bay.
SEC Watch
August 15th, 2012
10:33 pm
Always integrity before winning.
True Dodd man.
Exemplified by suspending quarterback John Dewberry for the All America Bowl (teaching him valuable character lessons about life – leading him to his successes today) and still winning.the bowl.
dragon
August 15th, 2012
10:36 pm
One of the most honest and candid people in coaching…..his players actually went to class.
we steal ruin this state
August 15th, 2012
10:52 pm
Bill Curry=Integrity
Simon Bar Sinister
August 16th, 2012
4:27 am
Sure, he’s a great guy, but he was a terrible head football coach. Either most of you didn’t sit in the stands during those horrible years or you have suppressed the memories. Sure, there were highlights, but they seem so bright because they were so isolated.
During Curry’s tenure people started to accept failure and assume that Tech could never compete in football. Two one-win seasons? Only one other coach in Tech history has had a one-win season, and he was fired before that season was over. The south end of Grant Field was torn down during Curry’s tenure, substantially reducing the capacity. And it didn’t matter, because no one wanted to go, anyway.
It wasn’t a pep rally, because there was nothing to cheer about, but I remember a rally held at the old Navy gym after a particularly horrible game. Bobby Dodd spoke, and you could tell that he was in pain. He told us that all was not lost, and that things would get better again. He was almost in tears. This is what Curry did to the program.
The fact that he was “such a great guy” allowed him to outstay his welcome at both Tech and Kentucky.
Thank God for Alabama, who hired him away, and Bobby Ross, who reminded us that Tech could, in fact, have a successful football team. If that hadn’t happened I believe he’d be retiring now as head coach of Tech’s I-AA team, assuming the program hadn’t completely shut down twenty years ago.
Chan Gailey got fired, and he was a much more successful coach than Curry. Heck, Bill Lewis may have been a better coach than Curry if he’d been given as many chances.
Who will be Georgia State’s next coach? | Georgia State Sports
August 16th, 2012
5:14 am
[...] Levick knows what she wants: someone who “is a teacher, a leader, a motivator, a recruiter, and a winner.” [...]
john
August 16th, 2012
5:55 am
You mentioned Lewis Grizzard. I hate to say it, but Grizzard was a massive A-hole. After Curry beat UGA 35-18 in Athens, Grizzard was so POed, he left his column blank with the exception of “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Coach Curry got his satisfaction from his comment (which was true) and his team got redemption that year and the next beating a true cheater twice in a row.
TheTechie
August 16th, 2012
6:10 am
@Reading comprehension is dead –
Fine. Throw praise around a sub .500 coach- Something Mark has not done, but their fan base has done. Once his season is over, he will be forgotten.
God's Word says
August 16th, 2012
6:14 am
Having moved here in the ’80’s from a city having no Division I school and having a pro team, I was not aware of the fervent fan base for college football.
Having coached in public schools I have seen how winning is preeminent and some of the finer points of character and integrity are lost on athletes. Our society is obsessed with winning almost at any cost.
I can only imagine the pressures a Div I coach must be under to produce winners.
Sure there are coaches who excel at coaching the game’s technical points and produce winners, but what is instilled when integrity is thrown out the window and young men are given special treatment in the classroom and the bar is lowered academically so the revered football team continues winning.
Perhaps Curry wasn’t in the league of the Sabans or the Meyers or Bryannts, and a better fit for him would have been a school where producing a winning program was nothing more than a football factory. Perhaps Curry’s role was more about stirring conscience in a sport where it definitely needed stirring.
I am a contractor and had a unique insight into the Curry move from Ga. Tech to Bama. I was working in the home he had just sold, but he had left a poem whether by accident or intentionally I do not know. On it was a poem that made reference to the fact that he must obey God and go to somewhere that he preferred not to go, but God seemed to have a purpose in it. Perhaps only now can we realize that mission God had for him…stirring the conscience of a school which had elevated a man above God and a program where any new hire had nowhere to go but down in the eyes of the fans.
I enjoy following a winning team as much as anyone and at the pro level that is what it is all about. However, at a college level ideally it should still be about molding young men. I love coach John Wooden’s philosophy on winning and performance. He said that there were games where UCLA had won the national championship that he was not as pleased with his team as games he had lost, but his team gave its all.
In real life we are not all gifted the same by our Creator, so to expect similar results from each athlete is unrealistic, but we can all strive to do our best. That was coach Wooden’s philosophy, do your best and leave everything on the court. Character and integrity still matter and student athletes should make that their highest goal.
Yes, this is probably fantasy considering the state of Div I football and the fact that it is the highest money maker for the college. Money unfortunately still reigns as god on hundreds of campuses.
What did Scripture say? “The LOVE of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”
Too bad so many fine young men have innocently been a part of a system that saw them as nothing more than a commodity to be used up. Coach Curry was definitely swimming upstream against a mighty current. Who knows how others in his situation would have fared if integrity and character still were the main points of his program.
Whatever....
August 16th, 2012
7:26 am
I don’t consider Curry a “raging hypocrite”, but he did have a tendency to come off as sanctimonious and one with situational ethics (flipping jobs, his own steroid use, decrying the gamesmanship of other programs, etc). As coaches go, he’s not among the worst in that regard.
However, the fact that he helped enable the creation of an unwanted and unsustainable football program at Georgia State will be his real legacy that no one will talk about in twenty years. The only people who wanted Division I football at GSU were a few connected alumni and a college president who cynically thought the only way to get attention/cash from the Board of Regents was to create a program. As a result, student fees went through the roof for a commuter college whose main benefit and role was to provide a cheap, quality education for local residents. The support for the program is not there, was never there, and will end up costing the school more money and the loss of potential students for years.
Good job, Bill.
B'more Jacket
August 16th, 2012
7:31 am
As a walk-on offensive lineman at Tech in 1976, Coach Curry was my O-line coach. He treated me with respect unlike many of the other Tech coaches on the team. Coach Curry is one fine leader and person. Thank you Coach Curry.
All the best to Coach Curry as he moves to semi-retirement!
SL
UAGrad
August 16th, 2012
7:47 am
I think he is a man of integrity. Good luck!
Hal
August 16th, 2012
7:56 am
Coach Curry has always been a good guy. We were in awe of his 3 Super Bowl rings. I think he was the first to get 3. At Tech he looked as if he stepped out of “central casting ” for a movie. When he went to Alabama I was very disappointed . I wrote and told him “Win or loose Techmen do not stay long in Alabama” I was right. After all if the “Bear” could walk on water it was only because he knew where all the stumps were. Curry would noy play that game. That’s why Tech left the SEC. Tech can sleep at night. Players today look at college as a hinderence that interferes with them getting to the NFL. That’s why they get into trouble. Many had no respect for eduation High School and it continues on in college. Coach Curry and coaches like him can change that.
DP
August 16th, 2012
8:03 am
And when I say what Saban is doing at Alabama, I don’t just mean championships. I mean boosting graduation rates to near the top of the SEC, having players that generally conduct themselves well on and off the field (certainly much better than Bradley’s beloved Mark Richt’s players do), donating a million dollars to the University of Alabama to fund scholarships for non athletes who are the first in their family to attend college, etc.
But what else would one expect from Mark Bradley, who apparently is picking up Furman Bisher’s role as the Alabama hater on the AJC sports staff? He’s the same hack who said Alabama didn’t deserve to be in the BCS championship game last year and then didn’t write a word about the game after Alabama steamrolled LSU, who many had been calling one of the greatest teams of all time.
Who will be Georgia State’s next coach? | News-ON Atlanta
August 16th, 2012
8:05 am
[...] Levick knows what she wants: someone who “is a teacher, a leader, a motivator, a recruiter, and a winner.” [...]
DP
August 16th, 2012
8:05 am
And as far as Saint Bill Curry goes, when did being a nice guy start weighing being incompetent at your job? Sports Illustrated ran an article near the end of his tenure at Kentucky that persuasively argued he had done the worst job of any football coach in SEC history.
Sad to Hear
August 16th, 2012
8:07 am
Cannot thank you enough for what you have done for the program coach.! I can honestly say that what you have done has been one of the greatest sources of pride in my life. The GSU Alumni are deeply indebted to you and only wish you the best on the season and your retirement. You and your family should be extremely proud for what you have built in such a short time. We could not have asked for a better representative for our school. Good Luck this year and thank you!!!
GO PANTHERS
Really?
August 16th, 2012
8:19 am
What a sad bunch of loser bloggers who appear to have to tear someone else down to make them feel better or to make them feel better about their own institution. Pathetic…. you are exactly what Curry was not. Make a positive difference to the development of our youth rather than spending your time bashing those that do. You should be ashamed!
PreyDawg
August 16th, 2012
9:03 am
I think Curry is a good man overall. But the Cheaters speech is far from the only example where he shot his mouth off. He said some things that were downright irresponsible. Example:
On Mike and Mike in the morning a few years ago, after a bench clearing brawl in a college game, Curry stupidly blamed George Bush. He said that Bush sat the example for the players behavior by unilaterally going into Iraq.
This was not a rare thing for Curry. He routinely pops off in the announcers booth and he is almost always wrong. What’s more, is partisan HATRED of everything Red and Black knows now bounds and has not wanned. I sincerely hope he really retires and spends time with thos grandchildren. If he shows up in the booth I will use the Mute button.
Dawg Tired
August 16th, 2012
10:02 am
As a life long Dawg fan, I must say that the old Techster Bill Curry is indeed a good man.He has always told it like he sees it. He is a straight shooter. College football will be worse off without him.
Taxi Smith
August 16th, 2012
10:14 am
As a former high school coach and administrator I had the opportunity to interact with Coach Curry on several occasions. I never met a finer man. He was ALWAYS interested in what was best for the young person involved. We shall miss him greatly!
Linda Moore
August 16th, 2012
12:08 pm
One of my favorite people. Enjoy you life sir!! You will be missed.
STATEment
August 16th, 2012
12:18 pm
Great piece! Thanks! And the best of luck to Curry and the Panthers in the future! Go State!
Ken Perkins
August 16th, 2012
12:24 pm
Curry is an egomanical never was. In a word, a complete dickhead. It sure is easy to buffalo the sports writers in Atlanta.
P B Orr
August 16th, 2012
12:43 pm
Donnan ran a Ponzi scheme! He Sanduskyed his clients! HAHAHA!!!
Cameron Frey
August 16th, 2012
12:44 pm
A class act. Never forget him getting onto an airport elevator with my two kids and me when they were maybe 7 and 5. They had no idea who he was, but he offered a warm greeting and smile and several questions about where they were going, how they liked school, etc. His grandchildren are lucky and will be well tended to……………..
William Casey
August 16th, 2012
1:15 pm
Coaching football is a much more complex proposition than any non-coach will ever realize. And, I’m NOT speaking of X’s and O’s.
Hjacket
August 16th, 2012
1:19 pm
Amazing Bradley can write a column that’s respectful and worth something. And his 84 speech was spot on!
PantherCuts: Why Bill Curry Will Always Be My Coach | Panther Talk
August 16th, 2012
2:16 pm
[...] detractors focus on his record and even local scribes debate his legend in the world of college football. Honestly, for me, that stuff is not relevant. Today, college football coaches are in charge of [...]
Janet
August 16th, 2012
4:49 pm
Coach Curry will truely be missed as a coach and mentor. I heard him speak on several occasions and met him. He is truely a class act in all catagories. Enjoy your time with your family, Coach; you have earned it!
Score Check
August 16th, 2012
11:25 pm
Truly a legend…. in his own mind.
Wild Dog
August 17th, 2012
1:07 am
Bill Curry is a great man. Nck Saban will never be the man Bill is. Tshere is ;more to life than football and Bill Curry has that
Wild Dog
August 17th, 2012
1:22 am
Bill Curry is a great man and Nick Saban will never be the man Coach Curry is. Bill Curry has a Heart and his maker is proud of men like Bill.God give your richest blessings to Bill Curry.
Panther Roundup -- 8.16.2012 | Panther Talk
August 17th, 2012
1:38 am
[...] If you are interested, you can learn more about the requirements and qualifications desired in Curry’s replacement and begin the speculation. Before you get too ahead of yourself though, read Mark Bradley’s piece about CBC’s impact on the game. [...]
Producer
August 17th, 2012
11:39 am
Yawn….A legend? With a horrible win-loss record like that? Please…..
ugaclassof2004
August 17th, 2012
10:22 pm
Folks forget that Curry had a great NFL career as well. Was a part of two Super Bowl teams, and played for legendary coaches like Bobby Dodd and Vince Lombardi.
Great guy, mediocre coach. See the problem with guys like Curry and Mark Richt is they lack that edge that great coaches have. Curry himself said that he hated playing for Vince Lombardi, but Lombardi was greatness. And men of greatness have an edge, are intense, and demand a ton from themselves and others. I think Curry wanted to win, but he never wanted to have that “win at all costs” mentality that guys like Lombardi had. That’s great when it comes to developing players as people, but the flipside to that is you’re not likely to achieve greatness on the field either. Greatness requires having an edge, even if it is just a little one. It just does.
Curry’s a good guy though, even if he is a douche bag Techie.
FRED
August 18th, 2012
10:50 am
football needs more Bill Curry’s
If everyone else had to follow the rules...
August 19th, 2012
8:07 am
I wonder what would have been the record of this “Great Man/Bad Coach” if other coaches and schools had been forced to follow the rules…??
You can’t disconnect his results from the preponderance of corruption that filled the sport in those days (and still now)… especially when you consider that he coached many years in the highly competitive (and extremely corrupt) SEC. It was always going to be an uphill battle… but people of character don’t let that deter them…
Boobie Bowden
August 19th, 2012
12:24 pm
UGAClass of 2004 – did you learn anything else during your 10 years in Athens besides how to spell douche by trolling the feminine hygiene aisles?
m
August 19th, 2012
9:56 pm
good riddance