by Roy Exum
posted June 12, 2008
 Roy Exum |
In one of the greatest hires ever in the South, Curry’s blend of competitive tenacity and unbridled compassion is the ideal answer to every question as Georgia State builds its new football program from the ground up. Only now there is no longer any doubt the Panthers will settle for anything but the very best because the sensational hire imbeds the foundation of the program, which won’t begin actual play until 2010, in the very best granite of the game.
Curry you know about. He’s been a winner, regardless of any won-lost records, everywhere he’s been. He forged a dying Georgia Tech into a thrilling powerhouse that won the national championship the year after he left for Alabama. What he and Homer Rice did while there is nothing short of legend.
At Alabama he was the national coach of the year in the very midst of an overall program gone madly awry and, although the Crimson Tide also won the national championship the year after he left after just three seasons, the stain of scandal and the stink of a rotten university president still has a lingering effect over arguably the greatest program in the nation.
So Curry then went to Kentucky, an unwise move where there are very few thoroughbreds who play football, and try as he did, it seemed his career as a coach was over when he finally left the Land of Bluegrass and settled in as an astute announcer for ESPN and, more recently, the head of Baylor’s Leadership program.
I was with him at Tech, at Alabama and Kentucky. I probably know him better as a friend than as a coach and, quite simply, of all the persons I have ever known in my life, Bill is in my “top 10” as a human being. We had lunch together maybe three weeks ago and both of us talked non-stop. He didn’t even mention Georgia State so this whole thing gelled pretty fast.
I was simply thrilled when word reached me late Wednesday afternoon that my buddy was going to not only get to coach again, but build an entire program from the ground up in a way, I will assure you, that will bear luscious fruit for the Atlanta school for years to come.
You’ll have to trust me on the fact I could write Bill Curry stories until sometime next week, but allow me only one as we study the fire where the iron has been placed before it has been pounded and reheated and pounded again to create GSU’s new coach because of all I can recall, this best illustrates why the geniuses at Georgia State just made such a brilliant decision.
When Bill was first at Georgia Tech as the head coach, the Yellow Jackets really had to struggle to overcome a lot of obstacles in the early going. Being in a pro city isn’t easy for a college and, to be frank, a wave of mediocrity had swept across “The Flats,” as the football practice fields are known.
This was in the early ‘80s and those first several teams were pretty lousy. One winter’s day the Board of Trustees sent for Bill and, just before going, he called his wonderful Carolyn and told his wife, “I’m getting ready to get fired … I’ll be home in just a little while.”
So he summoned up his moxie, tightened his tie, and stepped into a room where a mixture of the country’s biggest industrialists, famed engineers and most noble professors sat. They even had an astronaut in there.
One of the trustees, perhaps the chairman of the board, was over the Newport News Shipyard at the time, where some of the world’s biggest boats are built, and he said, “Bill, when people see all of our docks in the harbor they see a huge sign that states our company name, but, sadly, they never see what it written on the back of that sign. That is on purpose, but we want every employee to see it, each and every day.
“The back of the sign reads, ‘We build good ships. At a profit when we can, at a loss when we must, but – always – good ships.’ With that I would like to tell you that this board would have liked more victories, but we are far more impressed with the marvelous manner you exhibit the Georgia Tech way. May we offer you not only an extension of your contract but a healthy stipend as well?”
That tells you all you need to know about the guy Georgia State just got. And that’s why Bill Curry’s uncanny revival will go down as one of the great moments in the entire history of college football.
royexum@aol.com
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