UMS-Wright’s Terry Curtis, who won eight Blue Maps at UMS-Wright, is recovering at home from open-heart surgery. He is the state’s third-winningest football coach with 361 victories all time. (John O’Dell/Call News)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
Former UMS-Wright coach Terry Curtis is recuperating at home from open-heart surgery after an 11-day hospital stay, most of it in intensive care.
Curtis, 75, experienced trouble with his defibrillator on Feb. 9 and was immediately seen by his doctor, who performed a cardiac catheterization that revealed a blockage which was removed the next day. Scar tissue from a serious heart attack nearly 40 years ago was also discovered and ablations were performed to form precise scarring and regulate his heart rhythm.
Curtis was released from the hospital on Thursday and has been sitting up but said his treatment is far from finished.
“I’m not out of the woods,” he said. “(The doctor) is still trying to get my heart rhythm right and stay right. There’s still a lot going on. I was in there 11 days and it was time to come home a few. They put me out five times in 10 days. You take it one day at a time. Hopefully, it’ll get a little easier here in the next few weeks.”
Curtis said he was treated by Drs. Gerry Phillips, Andin Mullis, Wail Hashimi and Trey Pluscht.
“I had a great group of doctors,” he said. “They were unbelievable. They’re trying to get it right. I trust what they’re doing. I would recommend those guys to anybody.”
Curtis — who retired last February and is the third-winningest high school coach in state history with a 361-105 record and eight state championships — also serves as president of the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s Central Board and has been a pivotal figure in the debate which eventually resulted in the separation of public and private schools for the playoffs. Despite his opposition, the board voted 13-2 for it.
On Jan. 31, Curtis received a lifetime achievement award from the Alabama Football Coaches Association.
Curtis had a near-fatal heart attack when he was 36 while serving as the offensive coordinator at Murphy. He felt ill, went into his bathroom at home, then told his wife to take him to the hospital.
“I found out later he had taken two aspirin and I heard a doctor say that was somewhat of a factor in saving his life because it thinned his blood,” Jeanie Curtis said in a 2023 Call News story. “I drove him to Knollwood and he wouldn’t let me park. He got out at the emergency entrance and took himself straight back. He didn’t even check in.”
