Former football coach finds success after leaving Tech
In this past spring, Bill Curry's name came up as one of the top candidates for the vacated Director of Athletics job that had belonged to Dave Braine. While Curry did not receive the job, his appearance in the spotlight shows that he is still very much an important part of the Tech family.
He was the head football coach for Tech for seven seasons, from 1980 to 1986. He was assistant coach before then starting in 1976. He graduated from Tech in 1965 with a bachelor's degree in Industrial Management. While here as a student, he was a center for the football team. He lettered three out of four years, and earned his first start in his fourth game as a senior. Curry learned a lot from his time at Tech including the level of expectation that the school expected, and what would not be tolerated.
"At Georgia Tech, we will not tolerate losing, we have the attitude that we are expected to win. That means that we have to win at the highest level. It doesn't mean that we will always win, but we are going to win more than our share if we just stick to our ideals. Everyone who has walked up that [freshman] hill knows exactly what I'm talking about because it starts in the classroom. This is just the way that we are supposed to be," Curry said.
After that, Curry was picked by the Green Bay Packers in the last pick of the next year's NFL draft. He would go on to make the team, and continue to play in the NFL for nine more seasons.
After getting into coaching at Tech, he started to develop a name for himself. While his win and loss record was not spectacular, it was not a true reflection of Curry's ability to coach. He and athletic director of the time, Homer Rice, helped Tech to rebuild the athletics programs at Tech that were in a state of disrepair.
"It only took a few years to get us going. The facilities improved, and we were better able to recruit in-state and out-of-state. The football, basketball and baseball teams all got better. The energy of a bunch of us that were working our heads off helped. We gave our hearts and our souls into it, and so did the players. We were headed in the right direction," Curry said.
After helping Tech resurrect itself from the flames of disaster that were there before he had arrived, Curry was offered a job at the University of Alabama. He took that job and coached for the Crimson Tide from 1986 to 1989. After abruptly leaving Alabama, he was hired by the University of Kentucky in 1990. He went on to coach there until 1996. His coaching career has since ended, but he has continued to be a part of college football.
He is currently serving as a college football game analyst for ESPN. He has been working there since 1997. While Curry's career is well-documented, it doesn't tell the full story of the type of person that he is. Former football coaching legend Bobby Dodd may have summed up Curry's character best in a quote from his biography "Dodd's Luck".
"He hadn't had much [coaching] experience, but he had played football - high school, college, and pro - and been around football enough. But he had what I thought we needed: a dominating Georgia Tech man with a lot of personality who could bring the Tech people back with his charisma. And he had it, he had it. If you ever saw a guy who was endowed with all the talents that one man ought to have, Bill Curry did."
