UMS-Wright’s Terry Curtis to announce retirement Tuesday, sources say

 

 

 

By JIMMY WIGFIELD

Legendary UMS-Wright football coach Terry Curtis will announce his retirement Tuesday at a press conference, ending a career that took him to the pinnacle of the sport in Alabama, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

The school has called a 10 a.m. press conference in the Stimpson Foyer specifically pertaining to an athletics announcement.

“I ain’t got nothing but respect for him and I wouldn’t say that for every coach I coached against,” said Central Clay County’s Danny Horn, who supplanted Curtis as the state’s all-time winningest coach last season but lost their only meeting when the Bulldogs upset Horn’s undefeated, No. 3-ranked Volunteers 7-0 in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs on a rainy night in Lineville in 2023.

“I admire everything Terry’s done,” Horn said. “For somebody to stay that long, you’ve got to be in good health and obviously he is. He looks younger than me. Coaching is kind of like pastoring — it’s a calling. You don’t get in it for the money, you get in it because of the kids. He’s always done a really good job every year he’s been in it. He’s earned the right to retire whenever he wants to. I probably ain’t going to be too much longer behind him. Alabama high school football is definitely going to miss him, there’s no question about that.”

Curtis, 74, became the state’s all-time winningest coach in 2022 but since then has endured his two worst seasons at UMS-Wright, going 7-5 and 6-7. In fact, only his first two years as a head coach at Shaw in 1989 and 1990 were worse (11-9).

Curtis — who is now No. 2 all time behind Horn in career victories (363 to 361) — won eight state championships (as has Horn) and made 26 straight playoff appearances with the Bulldogs. Curtis is 361-105 in 36 seasons as a head coach, including 284-69 in 26 seasons at UMS-Wright.

“UMS has been good to me and my family,” Curtis said in December. “I want to do what they want. If they’re ready for a change or to move on, I’m ready. And maybe even if they’re not, they just don’t realize they’re not. I’m really not that worried about it.”

UMS-Wright has not reached the Super 7 since 2019, when it won its third straight Class 4A state championship. Curtis has won all eight of his Blue Maps in Class 4A and has a much higher winning percentage in Class 4A (214-35, .859) than in Class 5A (61-30, .670).

Curtis said in December he was still enjoying coaching but conceded the sport has changed and added he didn’t want to hang on just to build his record.

“It’s really not all about winning and losing,” Curtis said. “Guys are letting go for that reason and I do know it’s important but we’re losing sight of what is important. I’m still having fun with the kids, they’re still responding to me. It’s fun coming to work, it’s fun practicing with them, the parents are great. It’s just hard to give up something that, number one, it’s just so good and been so good to your family. If it wasn’t fun, I’d have been done.”

Theodore coach Steve Mask, who became close friends with Curtis when Mask coached at St. Paul’s, said Curtis’ retirement left him with mixed feelings.

“It’s a sad and emotional day for me,” Mask said. “I’m so happy for Terry and (his wife) Jeanie and the fact that he is going to be able to have some time to enjoy what he wants to do. He’s a legend and a pillar in our profession. I think he means a lot to a lot of people, especially to me personally. I didn’t talk to him before he made the final decision but we had some conversations that he was contemplating it. He probably said this for the last five years. That’s Terry being Terry. I knew it was getting close.”

Mask said people were surprised he and Curtis were friends. Curtis and Mask were 5-5 in the 10 rivalry games in which they faced each other from 2012 to 2021.

“I think it drove a lot of people crazy that we were good friends,” Mask said. “I recall one Saturday morning we were getting ready to go to Montgomery to a playoff meeting. We always rode together. Even later, we rode together. We played on Friday night and stopped at a convenience store and ran into a guy and he said, ‘Wait a minute, y’all are together? Y’all riding together?’ Prior to the game, we were friends and during the game, we didn’t like each other a whole lot, then after it was over, we went back to being who we were.”

Mask said loyalty was important to Curtis, a quality that was reinforced in their relationship.

“Once you were loyal to Terry and Terry was loyal to you, you knew where you stood and you didn’t have to worry about not knowing where you stood,” Mask said. “He taught me that no matter where you were or what’s going on in your life that if you needed him professionally and personally, he would be there and, to me, that’s the biggest trait that anybody could ask for in anybody. He’s been there for me through some really tough times and I’m very grateful for that.”

Horn and Curtis had similar philosophies and their teams rarely made enough mistakes for opponents to take advantage of.

“He believes in a lot of things that I’ve always believed in — discipline, running the football, stopping the run,” Horn said. “His teams were always tough. They’re always well coached. When you played his team, you know that they were smart and you were going to have to play well to beat him. They’re not going to beat themselves. That playoff game we had, we just didn’t play as well as we should have. In sports, especially football, it’s not who the best team is for the whole year, it’s the best team that night.”