UMS-Wright’s Terry Curtis announced his retirement to his boss with two words: ‘It’s time’

 

 

By JIMMY WIGFIELD

MOBILE — UMS-Wright coach Terry Curtis walked into the Stimpson Foyer on Tuesday morning, just up the hall from his darkened office, took one look at the crowd gathered to hear him actually say he was retiring and began to weep. The tears flowed unabated as he shook hands and hugged those who had come to pay him tribute.

Even his wife Jeanie worried that he wouldn’t get through the press conference without breaking down.

“I didn’t expect him to hold it together,” she said. “It’s kind of his life.”

She was concerned because she had seen her husband’s reaction when he had a few moments to comprehend the finality of his decision less than a week ago. He told her he wanted to call a few select people, so she walked outside their home for a few minutes.

“When I walked back in,” she said, “he was over at the bar sitting there just bawling.”

But when it came time for kickoff, as usual, Curtis showed the inner strength and example that made him one of the greatest high school coaches of all time in Alabama.

He was fully composed. He joked. He was firmly in command, as he has been for the last 26 seasons as the Bulldogs’ coach.

Somewhere in between all of that, Curtis made it official.

“There’s a statement the board wanted me to read but I’m not going to read it,” he said laughingly, “but after 26 years as head football coach and athletic director at UMS-Wright, I have decided to retire at the end of the school year.”

Curtis, 74, who became the state’s all-time winningest coach in 2022 but has since been passed by Central Clay County’s Danny Horn, said he would remain at UMS-Wright as an advisor and fundraiser and will serve out his term as president of the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s Central Board.

Curtis still has the satisfaction of beating Horn’s undefeated, No. 3-ranked Volunteers 7-0 in the first round of the 2023 Class 5A playoffs on a rainy night in Lineville in the only game ever played between the state’s two winningest coaches of all time. Curtis was on top that night and, as far as he is concerned, still is.

Curtis said he got a long note from Horn on Monday and Curtis replied: “I still want you to know I am 1-0 against you.”

But that was the highlight of the last two years and having avoided the subject as long as they both could, Curtis walked into the office of UMS-Wright Head of School Doug Barber on Thursday and said two words:

“It’s time.”

It stunned him to hear himself say it because Curtis said he still loves everything about coaching.

“I’ve been pretty sure since the last game but I didn’t want to say anything,” Curtis said later. “It was strictly my idea. Doug and I have avoided each other for the past month. He was afraid what I was gonna tell him and I was afraid what he was gonna tell me.”

Barber was adamant he did not want to decide Curtis’ future.

“I told him last November, ‘Terry, you’re not going to put this on me,’” Barber said. “He could have stayed in both positions as long as he wanted to.”

From November until a few days ago, Curtis struggled with what to do and asked other coaches what made them quit. The answers only added to his reticence.

“They said they were tired,” Curtis said. “I’d ask, ‘What made you get out?’ and they’d say, ‘Well, weekends. Man, I got where I hated Saturdays and Sundays. Practice. It was too hot. I got tired of practice.’ I got every kind of reason you could think of. But I wasn’t tired of any of that. I loved the scheming, I loved the game planning. I looked for reasons: Participation is going down, the kids are not responding to you, you’re just too old. He’s old-fashioned and I’m not listening to him. None of that ever happened. Participation’s up. We’ve got more players than we’ve ever had. They’re still responding to my speeches when I say something. I just kept praying that a reason would come. And these kids would not give it to me. The administration would not give it to me. I really thought Doug would come in one day and say, ‘Look, man, you’re old.’ But it never happened.”

Curtis said he retired largely for his family and especially for his wife.

“My family had a lot to do with it,” he said. “None of this would be possible without the support of my wife. She has let me for 52 years do what I wanted to do, how I wanted to do it, I’m gone a lot of the time and she stayed in the background.”

Curtis was 36 when he had a heart attack while an assistant coach at Murphy and Jeanie Curtis said she was always concerned about the stresses of coaching, especially in hot weather.

“There’s not been anything as close to his heart as UMS and the football players and the ones he works with,” she said. “He’s carried on about as long as he possibly could. It was a tough decision but he probably needed to give it up. I guess the thing that worried me so much was the heat, so much heat for spring practice and then during the summer. I’ve kind of mentioned that the last couple of years. I think it’s time but I could never push him too hard on it. I knew he loved it so much and it was going to be tough and it has been.”

Curtis said he still doesn’t know how he managed to tell Barber he was retiring.

“I don’t know what made me do it because the hardest part was actually saying it,” he said. “I walked in and I sat at one end and he was on the other end. He looked at me, I looked at him and I said, ‘It’s time.’ And I think by the way I said it, he knew. He didn’t try to talk me out of it and none of the board members did. They all said, ‘Hey, I get it, I understand.’”

Curtis went on to tell Barber of the certainties of mortality — despite his eight state championships and 361 career victories — but kidded about leaving the doors unbolted.

“I said, ‘I’ve done this for 52 years. I’m 74 years old. I don’t know how much longer I have on this earth but it’s time I let some other people tell me what to do instead of me telling them what to do,’” Curtis said. “Now that’s good and bad. I told Jeanie the other day we’re getting ready to find out if we even like each other. So, I might be coming back.”

Barber said the school will take its time finding a successor and would not rule out a nationwide search, although it’s more likely the new coach will be familiar with the demands and traditions of the school and football program.

“The idea of spring football is not as pressing maybe as it once was,” Barber said. “That creates a little leverage for us. And we’ve talked about that with the (search) committee. It didn’t completely surprise us. We’ve got to be very diligent about finding who fits in the culture of UMS-Wright. We don’t want to limit ourselves on anything. UMS-Wright is unique, so there is a degree of maybe we need to hire someone that has a cultural understanding of who we are.”

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 was 361-105 in 36 seasons as a head coach, including 284-69 in 26 seasons at UMS-Wright.

Curtis’ last two have been his worst with the Bulldogs, going 7-5 and 6-7, but he didn’t characterize them as down years, saying he got the maximum out of his players.

“I told the team at the banquet, this year’s team was 6-7, not one of my best years, but I was as proud of this team as any team I’ve ever coached because we got everything that was possible out of those guys,” Curtis said. “And that’s what this place is about. That makes it hard to quit because of what we deal with every day. And I guarantee all my coaches are saying the same thing and my administrators and everybody else. I get passionate about that. They say you had an off year. Well, no, we didn’t. Those guys did as well as they could do. And I was as proud of them as any state championship we ever won.”

UMS-Wright has not reached the Super 7 since 2019, when it won its third straight Class 4A state championship. The Bulldogs have struggled since being moved to Class 5A because of the competitive balance rule. 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).

“Like I told my players after the last game, Dr. Seuss said it: ‘Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened,’” Curtis said. “And that is something I firmly believe in. What a lucky guy I am. To stand before you today is an honor. And I just hope I have made you half as proud as you have made me.”

As Curtis stepped off the stage, he received a standing ovation from the packed hall, which included Mobile Mayor and longtime friend Sandy Stimpson, who was instrumental in hiring Curtis in 1999.

“Twenty-six years and it seems like yesterday,” Curtis said. “I’ve been in this for 52 years and I have never worked for a bad board member, a bad principal or a bad headmaster or a bad chairman of the board.”

Curtis informed his coaches of his decision Monday morning, then the players.

“You know the day was coming,” assistant coach Gerald “Bullit” Jones said. “You just didn’t know what year. It was real quick and emotional. The players were the same as the staff, some emotional. It’s a tradition, a mission, a thing that they started at this school that these kids have played from the third grade on and they look to play for him. But they’ll keep right on grinding. We have 90 kids out for football, the ninth through 12th grade, the most we’ve ever had. There will be a lot of pressure on the new coach but coach Curtis will come talk to them and he’ll be an advisor for them. I’m sure they’ll have a plan that will work and that people believe in and it’ll keep being successful.”