RIP Mike Curtis

[szstark]

Pam Matheson worked for many years at Duke with Mary Dinkins for the varsity club. She and Bob were high-school sweethearts from Boone. Two class acts.

Bob had the old wooden mailbox directly above mine in the Post Office next to the Dope Shop. I practically had to stand on tiptoes to see all the way into the box. Bob, on the other hand, had no trouble seeing into his. Footnote: I bought my box when they dismantled the Post Office.

[cspan37421]

Just wanted to chime in and say that, holey moley, those NFL Films* make Mike Curtis look like Richard Marvin Butkus**!

I suspect many of those tackles would be outside the bounds of today's NFL rules. He was wielding his arms like a couple medieval maces, aimed at the head and shoulders.


* I think for my own memorial service I want NFL Films to produce a clip of my workday. It'll give gravity and meaning to my life that is hard to sense otherwise.

** not going to test the DBR Wankerscope (tm) by using Butkus' common first name. Found his full name on Wikipedia. Hilarious how the photo of him they use looks like some random person took a snapshot of him on an airplane without his prior permission/knowledge. His expression is like, "huh?"

[Jedweb]

As a double Dukie whose time in Durham overlapped some of Mike's, as well as an intense Colts fan until the unlamented but lamentable Bob Irsay pulled his slink-out-town-in-the-dead-of-night stunt, I followed Mike's career in the pros. A really high activity level player, but off the field a really nice guy, apparently. At least that's what Ted Hendricks (the Mad Stork) who was on a couple of Colts teams with Mike told me when he showed up at my YMCA for basketball for awhile, many moons ago. (Hendricks, also, was a really nice person). I've thought it kind of a sad joke that Mike wasn't elected to the NFL Hall of Fame. I've always thought that his chances were hurt by the fact that he was playing at the same time as Dick Butkus and Tommy Nobis. Butkus was huge for a linebacker in that day (the first 250 pounder that i remember) and he had a well-marketed rep for being a nasty guy. Nobis was a bit bigger than Mike, but had the advantage of a huge amount of college publicity at a big football school (Texas) which ushered in his NFL career.

I believe that an earlier poster (or maybe some online bio) said the Curtis was an Academic All American. This rekindled some tangentially relevant speculation of mine whether, if all college scholarship football players were required to be at least competent academically at a mid-high school level, what the huge reduction in present college football teams would do to fan enthusiasm. As an example (hypothesizing - no inside info), last season's rosters at LSU, Mississippi State, and Missouri might be halved. Same for Boise State. Or Florida State. (Some of us recall the late Frank Howard who coached at Clemson referring to the SEC as the "Knucklehead League." In Frank's day, an ACC scholarship athlete had to get at least 800 [out of a possible 1600 as the test was then scored] on his SAT). So the level of athleticism would surely decline, but I think that stadiums would still be full of hollerin' likkered up fans, if they are today, and games would still be telecast. Moreover, I suspect that the drop off would be temporary, because once the reality that you have to be at least reasonable academically to play college football sank in at the high school and middle school levels, kids would get the job done - even those boys with backgrounds where learning is not valued. In any event, this is the idlest speculation because it won't ever happen - but, hey, a lot of us are finding ways to deal with Cabin Fever these days.

[sagegrouse]

Anyway, Mike Curtis was never an Academic All-American. He did, however, become Academic All-ACC in 1963 -- the only Duke player so honored that year.

[Jedweb]

Oh, well, doesn't interfere with my mind's idle meandering, but thank you for the correction.

[sagegrouse]

Oh, well, doesn't interfere with my mind's idle meandering, but thank you for the correction.

No problem, but his Wikipedia listing seems to be a tad inflated as well., Probably common among highly respected athletes.

For example, the Wikipedia entry for world-record holder Dave Sime, who ran for Duke in the 1950's and won silver in the 100m at the 1960 Rome Olympics while a Duke med student, at one time had a totally fanciful report on his heroics on the gridiron -- he was on the team for a few games, but didn't earn a letter. Fortunately, that's no longer there. Sime did play baseball one season and was All-ACC, so his athletic career was the stuff of legends. Plus, he is Christian McCaffrey's grandfather (mother's side), so if you wonder where the speed came from....

[peteandpete]

Jets, not Giants and Baltimore, not Dallas. Otherwise, nice read.

[jimsumner]

Jets, not Giants and Baltimore, not Dallas. Otherwise, nice read.

My mind is turning into mush. A few more weeks of this and I'll be speaking in tongues.

Thanks. I'll see if I can get this fixed.

[jv001]

My mind is turning into mush. A few more weeks of this and I'll be speaking in tongues.

Thanks. I'll see if I can get this fixed.

Still a great read on a former Duke great.

GoDuke!