Francis Eduardo Curcio (25 November 1912 – 11 November 1988) was an

Australian rules Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

footballer who played his entire 249 game career for the

Fitzroy Lions The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the Vi ...

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL). He captained the club for four seasons, from 1938 until 1941.

Playing career

Recruited from the Christian Young Men's Society in 1931, Curcio was a tough, hard ruckman, who also played well in the back line. He was renowned for protecting his smaller teammates. A bass violinist, Curcio combined his musical talents with his football prowess, but stood out of the game in 1937 to concentrate on his music. Ever conscious of safeguarding his hands to work the strings of the bass violin, he once told

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...

's Fred Fairweather, ''Hit me as hard as you like, but don't hurt my fingers''.Italian Team of the Century (2007)
''Player details: Frank Curcio''
. Retrieved on 8 May 2008.

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

military service cost Curcio a place in Fitzroy's 1944 premiership team and three broken fingers sustained in a services match in 1945, effectively ended his musical career. Curcio played his best football in an era when Fitzroy's

best and fairest In Australian sport, the best and fairest award recognises the player(s) adjudged to have had the best performance in a game or over a season for a given sporting club or competition. The awards are sometimes dependent on not receiving a suspensi ...

records were either lost on not kept, arguably robbing him of an opportunity to be recorded and remembered as a great player in the record books.Brisbane Lions (2008)
''Fitzroy Football Club Honour Board 1897 – 1996''
. Retrieved on 6 May 2008. On 27 April 1946, Curcio became the first Fitzroy player to play 200 league games. Curcio retired in 1948, after 15 seasons and having played 249 VFL games, all with Fitzroy, collecting 27

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

votes. Curcio's club games record stood for 23 years at Fitzroy until surpassed by Kevin Murray. He also held the record for most VFL/AFL matches played in the number 18

guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

with 249 until Essendon's

Matthew Lloyd Matthew James Lloyd (born 16 April 1978) is a former professional Australian rules footballer, who played for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A highly decorated full-forward, Lloyd's AFL's honours include ...

surpassed that figure in 2008. With the club now defunct, he sits in fourth position in the record books for most games played for Fitzroy.

Career highlights

After Fitzroy and Brisbane combined their respective histories in 2001, the club unveiled a new 200 game honour board at the Gabba which included Fitzroy,

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, and Brisbane Lion players. The board was hung in the players' rooms with a replica for the members' area. The board itself was christened the 'Curcio-McIvor' board, in honour of past players Frank Curcio and

Scott McIvor Scott McIvor (born 9 August 1966) is a former Australian rules footballer. He made his V/AFL debut with Fitzroy in 1985 but played the majority of his career in his home state of Queensland with the Brisbane Bears/Lions. Born in Brisbane, Que ...

. Curcio was the first VFL player of Italian background to really emerge as a great footballer. In 2007, Curcio was named in the

VFL/AFL Italian Team of the Century The Victorian Football League-Australian Football League (VFL/AFL) Italian Team of the Century was announced in June 2007. It recognises the role of Italian Australian players in the sport. Players and/or at least one of the player's parents or ...

, in the back line. Also in 2007, the Lions recognised Curcio as one of the best 10 players from the era 1927 to 1956. He represented Victoria on 3 occasions. Curcio died on 11 November 1988, 14 days short of his 76th birthday. On 3 May 2001, Curcio was named in Fitzroy's

Team of the Century In team sport, team of the century and team of the decade are hypothetical best teams over a given time period. For the century team, it can be either 100 years, or for a century (always the 20th). Similarly the team of the decade can be for 10 ...

, in the

back pocket In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

position.Footy Stamps (2006)
''Fitzroy's Team of the Century''
Retrieved on 8 May 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curcio, Frank 1912 births 1988 deaths Fitzroy Football Club players Fitzroy Football Club coaches Australian people of Italian descent Australian rules footballers from Melbourne Royal Australian Air Force personnel of World War II

Playing career

Career highlights

See also

References