Bill Curry isn’t crazy, he’s a coach
It was 8 o’clock Thursday night when the phone rang. Bill Curry apologized for not calling back sooner.
“First time I’ve had a chance to come up for air,” he said.
Understandable.
All he did earlier in the day was get introduced as the first head football coach in history at the second largest university in the state of Georgia.
Georgia State is starting football and plans to play its first season as a I-AA program in 2010. Curry, who hasn’t coached since 1996 at Kentucky, is starting over at age 65, when a lot of sensible people retire.
First question.
Is he crazy?
“It’s a good question,” he said.
Through the years, he said, he’s had “feelers” from other schools, not job offers, but always away from his Atlanta home. Every time he mentioned a job to his wife, Carolyn, she’d say, “Wonderful. I’ll miss you.”
Three weeks ago, he was having a conversation with another strong woman, Georgia State AD Mary McElroy, when his life changed. She’d worked at Curry’s alma mater, Georgia Tech, and they’d discussed the idea of Georgia State football before.
al.com
6/13/08