Curtis Lamont Conway Sr (born January 13, 1971) 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 ...

wide receiver in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He was drafted by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

in the first round of the

1993 NFL Draft The 1993 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 25–26, 1993, at the Marriot Ma ...

out of the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

(USC). Conway also played for the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

and

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

High school years

Conway attended Hawthorne High School in

Hawthorne, California Hawthorne is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. It is part of a seventeen-city region commonly called the South Bay. As of the 2020 US census, Hawthorne had a population of 88,0 ...

and was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and a

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

star. He won

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

honors as a senior

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 ...

. His high school quarterback coach was

Dave Keller Dave Keller (born September 28, 1959) is a former minor league baseball player, coach and manager and major league coach for the Cleveland Indians. He is currently the manager for the Chicago Cubs Single A affiliate Daytona Cubs. Keller attended t ...

. His high school track coach was legendary coach Kye Courtney. Even though he was an All-American quarterback, he was more known for his exploits on the track. During that era, Hawthorne was a regular contender at the

CIF California State Meet The CIF California State Meet is the annual championship track and field meet for the California Interscholastic Federation. The meet was started in 1915 for boys and 1974 for girls. Every athlete in every high school in California has a direc ...

. In 1987 as a

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

he was the anchor of the California State Record 4X100m relay team (40.24) set in the preliminaries, Hawthorne High School was DQ'd at the finals after initially finishing second. In 1988 as a junior he placed second in the 100m (10.85) and placed third 3rd in the 200m (21.30). In 1989 as a senior he won the 100m state title with the time of 10.23 and placed 2nd in the 200m (20.89).

College career

Prior to USC, Conway attended

El Camino Junior College El Camino College (Elco or ECC) is a two-year public community college located in the unincorporated area of Los Angeles County known as Alondra Park.Torrance, California Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the m ...

, but did not play. He went to USC as a QB but converted to WR in 1991. *1990: 26 kick returns for 555 yards. 12 punt returns for 161 yards and one touchdown. *1991: 21 catches for 240 yards and one touchdown. 18 carries for 29 yards and one touchdown. 20 kick returns for 493 yards. 24 punt returns for 172 yards. *1992: 49 catches for 764 yards and 5 TD. 6 carries for 37 yards and one touchdown. 27 kick returns for 675 yards and one touchdown. 31 punt returns for 346 yards and one touchdown.

Professional career

He had over 1,000 yards three times in his twelve-year NFL career, in which he played for the

, the

and the

. During his twelve years in the NFL, Conway threw for two touchdown passes, a rarity for the wide receiver position. The most notable of the two came during a game against 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 ...

on November 13, 1994. Conway lined up split off of and parallel to the holder, on a bizarre field goal formation. Rather than the snap being taken by

Erik Kramer William Erik Kramer (born November 6, 1964) is an American former football quarterback. He attended John Burroughs High School in Burbank, California. After attending Pierce College and playing as their quarterback, Kramer transferred to North Car ...

, Conway received it, and threw a pass which was tipped up into the air by a Dolphins' defender and caught by fellow Bears' teammate and tight end, Keith Jennings and run into the endzone for a touchdown. His 329 catches during his tenure with the Bears (1993-1999) place him 4th in franchise history on their all-time receptions list, and his 4,498 receiving yards rank him 6th on the Bears’ all-time yardage list. He also was the 1st

receiver to record back to back 1000 yard seasons.

NFL career statistics

Broadcasting

Beginning in 2009, Conway began working as a

color analyst A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...

on national NFL radio broadcasts by

Compass Media Networks Compass Media Networks is an American radio network. The company launched in January 2009. It is owned by former Westwood One CEO and former COO of Connoisseur Media, Peter Kosann. The company focuses on radio and offers representation and ma ...

. He teamed with Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton and Gregg "Free Beer" Daniels on play-by-play. He is currently a studio analyst for the

Pac-12 Network The Pac-12 Network (P12N; also sometimes referred to as Pac-12 Networks) is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Pac-12 Conference. The network's studio and production facilities are headquart ...

and a cohost of Total Access on the

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NFL ...

. He joined the

network for the 2015 season as a studio analyst.

Personal life

On July 23, 2007, Conway married female

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

champ

Laila Ali Laila Amaria Ali (born December 30, 1977) is an American television personality and retired professional boxer who competed from 1999 to 2007. During her career, from which she retired undefeated, she held the World Boxing Council, WBC, Women's I ...

, the daughter of

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...

. He has three children from a previous marriage: twins Cameron and Kelton Conway (b. 1995), and Leilani Conway (b. 1999). Conway and Ali welcomed their first child, Curtis Muhammad Conway, Jr. on August 26, 2008. On April 4, 2011, they welcomed their second child, a daughter, Sydney Jurldine Conway.

References

http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/hawthorne-coach-kye-courtney {{DEFAULTSORT:Conway, Curtis 1971 births Living people American football wide receivers Chicago Bears players National Football League announcers New York Jets players Players of American football from Los Angeles San Diego Chargers players San Francisco 49ers players USC Trojans football players Sportspeople from Hawthorne, California Track and field athletes from California Sportspeople from Los Angeles