<font color="purple">AT RANDOM</font><br><br>Chuck Curtis relishes TCU's football revival

<b>By David May</b><br><a href="mailto:editor@mineralwellsindex.com">editor@mineralwellsindex.com</a>

Ranked third in the Associated Press poll and fourth in the Bowl Championship Series, the TCU Horned Frogs are enjoying their best season and highest ranking since Mineral Wells resident Chuck Curtis quarterbacked the mighty purples half a century ago.

But even as great as those mid-1950s teams were, Curtis and his cohorts, including two-time All-American running back and 1955 Heisman Trophy runner-up Jim Swink and All-American linemen Hugh Pitts and Norman Hamilton, didn’t manage to go undefeated like the 12-0 Frogs this season.

This season of gridiron greatness in Fort Worth is a pleasant sight for Frogs greats of decades past. It’s been a long time coming for those like the 74-year-old Curtis, who led the Frogs to a 21-11 record and two Cotton Bowls during his three varsity seasons.

“It brings back good memories,” Curtis said of the Frogs’ recent success.

Curtis said head coach Gary Patterson, who is 85-27 in his ninth season at the helm of the TCU program, deserves much of the credit for reviving a program that got so bad in the 1970s there was talk of going to a lower division to compete or disbanding the program altogether.

Arriving in Fort Worth 12 years ago as Dennis Franchione’s defensive coordinator, Patterson has his team heading to its first BCS game, squaring off against No. 6 Boise State (13-0) in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 4, the first January football game for the Frogs since the 1959 Cotton Bowl.

“He’s made them play so consistent, which is hard to do,” Curtis said of Patterson. “He’s done it with speed, with character, with attainable goals, stepping up the ladder in that fashion, playing a lot of kids. He’s not had any problems moving a running back to a defensive end.”

Curtis said he is glad to see Patterson sign an extension at TCU that now carries him through 2016 and increases his salary to a reported $2.5 million annually, and including raises for his assistant coaches and staff.

“With the improvement of facilities and this happening, I’d like to see him ride this crest he has achieved a few more years before he goes,” said Curtis. “He’s still a young man.”

As a former college assistant coach and head coach, Curtis said success at this level comes down to recruiting and finding the right young men for your program. He said Patterson goes even further in finding the right kinds of student-athletes to bring to TCU.

“Some of it’s a guess, but when you find out the character, and the family and the background … they can’t be selfish. They all want to achieve the same thing, just willing to be a team member. I think that’s where he’s done a good job. The academics are such that the kids are smart. They have to be to get in there.”

Curtis knows a lot about what it takes to be a great coach. He is considered a Texas high school coaching legend, winning three state championships then later resurrecting football at Cleburne. At TCU, Curtis played for one of the best in Abe Martin, who Patterson recently passed in career wins at TCU for second most all time. Martin tallied 79 victories. Patterson is now chasing the TCU wins record of Dutch Meyer, who recorded 109 victories at Frogland.

TCU was a football powerhouse in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. TCU won national championships in 1935 and 1938.

But Curtis saw TCU’s football fortunes begin to plummet in the early 1960s, along with many other private school powers of the time like SMU and Rice, with changes in the college game and expanded scholarships that gave already powerful big state schools even more power to stockpile talent. Curtis played in the days of single-platoon football, when players had to play both ways with limited substitutions. Curtis played safety on defense.

In Curtis’ first varsity season in 1954 as a sophomore (college football fielded freshmen teams then and Curtis played his first year on the TCU campus as a member of the Wogs – yes, the Wogs) the Horned Frogs went just 4-6, not exactly a great start for the Gainesville, Texas, native known as “Chuck-a-Luck.”

But among the four wins that season were two big ones against powers Southern California, with All-American running back Jon Arnett, and Penn State, with All-Americans Rosie Greer and Lenny Moore. That season also saw a 21-16 loss to Oklahoma in Norman that, if not for an amazing act of sportsmanship resulting leading an official to reverse a touchdown call, TCU would have won and halted early Sooners head coach Bud Wilkinson’s record 47-game win streak.

Curtis recalls throwing what was ruled a touchdown pass to end Johnny Crouch. However, Crouch got up, handed the ball to the referee and told the official that in fact did not score. The referee agreed and took the touchdown away. Oklahoma returned a punt for a touchdown late and won the game.

“(Crouch) got awards for the best sportsman and the dumbest player that year,” Curtis chuckled.

The next year, Curtis was named All-Southwest Conference after leading TCU to a 9-2 record, a conference crown and a trip to the Cotton Bowl (ah yes, the good old days when all good teams had fair and unfettered access to good bowl games) to play Mississippi. Unfortunately for the Frogs, Curtis was hurt on the game’s opening kickoff and was sidelined for the game.

Curtis was told by Martin not to handle the opening kickoff. But the ball was kicked to him, and he simply couldn’t help himself, scooping up the kick and returning it. He was unable to help his team that day after breaking a collarbone on the play. TCU lost, 14-13. Still, the Frogs ended the season ranked sixth in the nation in the final AP poll. They outscored their opponents that season 306-105.

Curtis likes to tell people not to remember that Cotton Bowl game, but instead remember what happened in the Cotton Bowl the following year.

Curtis guided TCU to a 1956 regular-season record of 7-3 and was again named All-SWC. There were some big wins, including one over Bart Starr-led Alabama in which TCU entered the game ranked fourth in the nation. The Frogs lost to Texas A&M; in the controversial “Hurricane Game” but steam rolled Texas, 46-0, and beat Rice and SMU to end the season. They received a return trip to the Cotton Bowl to face Syracuse and their great running back, Jim Brown.

All Curtis did was throw two touchdown passes and run for another as the Frogs beat Brown and Syracuse, 28-27, to finish ranked 14th in the nation.

Oklahoma almost was the beneficiary of Curtis’ talents. He had initially committed to play for the Frogs, but had changed his mind and switched his commitment to play for the Sooners.

Martin wouldn’t have it. He called Curtis and told him he was on his way to his house.

“He said, ‘Don’t say anything further, I’m getting in my old Ford and coming to talk to you on that old front porch swing like we did last time,’” Curtis said.

Curtis said when Martin arrived at his home, they sat in that porch swing and Martin said, ‘“Chuck-a-Luck, what did you tell me last time we were here’ and he slapped me on my knee. I said, ‘Coach I’m going to TCU.’ He said, ‘That’s good enough for me,’ and he got in the car and drove off. I stuck to my bargain and went to TCU and very glad that I did.”

After the 1957 Cotton Bowl game, Curtis was drafted by the defending NFL champs the New York Giants. He played one professional season as a back-up quarterback then returned to Texas to begin a coaching career. That proved to be a good decision as Curtis quickly became a high school coaching legend. He led Jacksboro to a state title in 1962, then went to Garland and recorded back-to-back state championships in 1963 and 1964. Those three teams went a combined 26-1-1.

Curtis would go on to take an assistant coaching job at Southern Methodist University, then in 1968 returned to the high school ranks, taking over at Grand Prairie. He would later return to coach at Jacksboro before going to Cleburne. He received his first collegiate head coaching job at the University of Texas-Arlington in 1984, where he coached two seasons before the school shuttered its football program.

Curtis then went to Aledo where he coached two seasons before retiring from the sidelines. He would later become the first athletic director for Mineral Wells ISD, serving in that capacity throughout the 1990s.

Curtis says the biggest difference in today’s game is the specialization of players and positions.

“I think that’s where it passed us oldies is the specialization and substitution,” he said. “We had to be pretty dang good at everything back then. Once we started that quarter we came out once and could go back in once. If you weren’t in when the quarter started you had to sit out the whole quarter. I called every offensive play during my career. You had to spend all week with the coaches in meetings.”

Another big difference is the showboating of some players today compared to his days of playing and coaching. He said some of the antics permitted in today’s game would not have been thought of or tolerated in his day.

“When you cross that goal line act like you’ve been there,” he said.

Asked to compare Martin with Patterson, Curtis said the two are “very different. I would say Patterson is more like Vince Lombardy and Abe Martin was more like a country Tom Landry. (Patterson) is more vocal. He doesn’t mind chewing butts. Abe would put his arm around you and talk quietly to you. Abe had a good instinct. We had several guys on our teams that came from small schools, and we had some six-man guys. They hauled hay in the summer and worked in the oil fields.”

Curtis has ranched and been involved in the Mineral Wells community, including his time leading Texas Frontier Trails in its efforts to raise monies to build an amphitheater to tell the local cattle driving story of Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving – of which the book and movie “Lonesome Dove” were based.

Today, he enjoys playing upright bass in country swing bands at events and is working as a sales representative for Gorman Milling Company. He stays close to the TCU program, enjoying its revival while reuniting with former teammates through Letterman’s Club and TCU Hall of Fame events.

Curtis will be performing with the “Chuck Curtis and the Palo Pinto All-Star Band” country and swing band on Dec. 19 at the Palo Pinto County Sheriff’s Posse building for its annual Christmas party.

He said he began playing bass during his college days.

“We had a pretty good little band amongst us,” he said. “We had a couple of guitars, a mandolin. Oday Williams was a good guitar player. We did jam sessions. We called ourselves Abe’s Aces, just like our softball team. (Martin) said, ‘I want to see you play before I let you use my name.’ I think he said, ‘You all need to call yourselves something else.’”

Curtis and the 10-piece band plays regularly at Palo Pinto County Cowboy Church, located near Interstate 20.

“We don’t take night clubs or honky-tonks, but we do take special events,” he said.

He enjoys the annual “Bob Wills Day” event in Turkey, Texas, and gets together and plays with some of the former members of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys at dances at the local country club and other venues.

As for his sales job with Gorman Milling, Curtis sells Red Chain feed for cattle and horses with a territory covering much of North Central Texas.

“I got the cutting horse people, then I get to make the run out to the big ranches in Albany and Lampasas,” he said. “I flunked the retirement business. This is fun. I get paid to go see my friends. I still ride some.”

Curtis said he and his wife, Carole, will be going to the Fiesta Bowl game.

“We are ready,” he said. “I’m more like a fan these days. I take it a little more seriously.”

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