Craig Curry (born August 5, 1950) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. Curry grew up in

Coral Gables, Florida Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248. Coral Gables is known globally as home to the ...

, and attended

Coral Gables Senior High School Coral Gables Senior High School is a secondary school located at 450 Bird Road in Coral Gables, Florida. Coral Gables SHS opened its doors in 1950; its architectural design reflects a Spanish influence, with open courtyards adorned with water fo ...

. He was one of the most highly recruited high school quarterbacks in the country. He played for the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

from 1969 to 1971. He led the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

in 1971 with 2,071 yards of

total offense Total offense (or total offence) is a gridiron football statistic representing the total number of yards rushing and yards passing by a team or player. Total offense differs from yards from scrimmage, which gives credit for passing yardage to the ...

. He tried out with the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

in 1972.

History

Curry attended Carver High School until integration forced him to choose between all-black Mays High School or

. Curry chose to cross the color line and attend Gables, where he became known as "The Negro Quarterback". The team dominated the all-white competition, going 13-0, winning the state championship, and eventually being named "The Team of The Century" by the

Florida High School Athletic Association The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) is an organization whose purpose is to organize sports competition for high schools in Florida. It is a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Florida uses ...

. While at first white players refused to block for Curry, eventually they realized they could not succeed unless they worked together. The sport proved a great unifier, as black students initially were denied entrance to school activities, until the football coaches manned the doors in order to allow Curry and others to enter. Coach Nick Kotys endured much criticism for starting a black quarterback, as at the time they were not considered qualified for the position, but he started Curry because he deserved the position. After the team won the national championship in 1967, Kotys stated that "Craig does all the thinking. I only nod OK.". A Coral Gables High School guidance counselor advised him to drop science classes, because of the weakness of his math from Carver. Curry then devoted himself to football at the expense of academics, a decision he regretted later in life. He wanted to attend the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

, but because of death threats, chose to attend

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

instead. He earned a degree in Psychology, and was drafted by the

. After being cut, he considered suicide. He then went to work for IBM for the next 16 years. After that, he served as an academic advisor for athletes at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, then took a position as the director of the

Center for the African-American Male Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentric ...

Albany State University Albany State University is a public historically black university in Albany, Georgia. In 2017, Darton State College and Albany State University consolidated to become one university under the University System of Georgia (USG). Albany State Un ...

in Georgia. He later served as athletic director of the

University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) is a public historically black university in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Founded in 1873, it is the second oldest public college or university in the state of Arkansas. UAPB is part of the University of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curry, Craig 1950 births Living people Sportspeople from Coral Gables, Florida Players of American football from Miami-Dade County, Florida American football quarterbacks Minnesota Golden Gophers football players Miami Dolphins players IBM people George Washington Carver School (Coral Gables, Florida) alumni