On the 27th of last month, stage IV pancreatic cancer did what no offensive line, be it in the AFL, or the NFL, ever could… stop Curly Culp. Cancer stopped the greatest nose tackle to ever grace the gridiron. It stopped Hall of Famer Curley Culp a mere eleven days after announcing his cancer diagnosis. His passing was without much fanfare or ruckus. Fittingly so, as Curley Culp, the man, was as humble as he was courteous. Except, of course, when he was on the football field. Or the wrestling mat.
Were the bruising Culp not such a humble gent, he could have told you some things about himself. He no longer could, nor would he even if he could. Leave it to me. Curley Culp was an All-American heavyweight wrestler and lineman at Arizona State, near his hometown of Yuma, where he held two Arizona high school state championships in wrestling.
As a three-time college wrestling champion, winning 84 of 96 matches, advancing to the 1967 NCAA national tournament where he captured the title (shown above), pinning three of his four opponents, and beating the other 15-5.
After college, Culp passed on the opportunity to be a wrestler on the USA’s 1968 Olympic Team, opting instead to enter the AFL-NFL draft where we was picked at 31st by the Denver Broncos. Foolishly, the Broncos tried to make the 6-foot-2, 260-pound Culp into an offensive guard. It didn’t work, and the Broncos shuttled him off to the Kansas City Chiefs. Chiefs Hall of Fame head coach Hank Stram quickly integrated Culp into his famed “stack” formation.
For fourteen years, from 1968-to-1981, Curley Culp played for three separate teams besides the Denver Broncos: Kansas City Chiefs, Houston, Oilers, and the Detroit Lions. During that fourteen-year period, Culp accumulated many honors:
- Super Bowl IV Champion
- AFL champion (1969)
- First-team All-Pro (1975)
- 4× Second-team All-Pro (1971, 1977–1979)
- 6× Pro Bowl (1969, 1971, 1975–1978)
- NFL Defensive Player of the Year (1975)
- Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame
- First-team All-American (1967)
In an honor far overdue, Culp was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013.
Culp was not about braggadocio, nor bravado. On the football field, however, his athleticism, competitiveness, and talent shone through any blanket of humility he might have tried to cover it with. Just ask Oakland Raiders Hall of Fame center Jim Otto, who called Culp,
“Perhaps the strongest man I
ever lined up against.” -Jim Otto
The one time Chiefs defensive backs coach, Emmitt Thomas, also a teammate of Culp’s in Kansas City back in he 1960s, said “Curley was very smart and strong – and a great racquetball player despite his size.” It’s hard for us to lose our football heroes. Perhaps it’s because we’d’ much rather remember them as the gridiron legends whom we aspired to be when we were younger. Perhaps it’s because their passing reminds us all too much of our own mortality. I tend to think it’s a little bit of both. While the ever-so-humble Hall of Famer, Curley Culp, no longer walks among us, make no mistake… he is still the greatest nose tackle to ever play professional football.
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Michael Travis Rose – ArrowheadOne
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