Roy Curry may be 78 years old, but there are still people who do not know about the legendary Jackson State University football player.
Freelance writer Seth Schwartz is doing his best to change that by putting together a documentary about Curry’s life. Curry, who played for Higgins High School and the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1963 after being drafted and now lives in Chicago, was inducted in the Clarksdale-Coahoma County Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
Schwartz began taking photos of Curry at the Hall of Fame induction, but recently came back to Clarksdale with producer J.D. Oliva to interview, teammates, classmates and take more film and photo. Schwartz plans to send the footage to PBS in Chicago and Jackson.
Even if it is not aired on PBS, people will be able to learn about the documentary.
“We’ll have something,” Schwartz said. “There’s different ways to get stuff out there. Somehow, someway, we’ll get it out. It’s just one step at a time.”
Schwartz said the documentary should be in PBS’s hands within the next six weeks and an answer should come shortly. He said it would likely be at least three months until it could be aired.
“When you look at the documentaries being shown on ESPN or the NFL channel, there’s a lot of different things on the black quarterback subject and then historic black college football players,” Schwartz, who has written about Curry before, said of his interest. “There’s a bunch of different story legs on there. There’s been stuff on PBS on the Great Migration, which he’s also part of that. You talk to people and there’s so many different details come out.”
Schwartz said many documentaries are about black quarterbacks such as Warren Moon and Doug Williams. Curry gives perspective on a black football player from an earlier generation.
Curry met with Jackson State University alumni and other friends at the Hampton Inn Monday night where they told stories.
Curry started off as a guard on the basketball team at Higgins High School where only black students attended. They were runners-up to Lanier out of Jackson for the state championship.
“We had one of the great basketball teams,” he said. “We used to play Booker T. Washington out of Memphis. Teams used to come down and play us out of Memphis, but we beat them.”
Curry was a water boy on the football team, but the quarterback broke his leg and the second string quarterback was not working out.
“The coach came in there and got me because he had seen me throw footballs,” he said.
Curry’s first pass was a 40-yard touchdown in a win at Eliza Miller High School in Helena-West Helena, Ark.
“We ended up being such a great team that particular year,” Curry said.
Curry recalled playing in the Nursery Bowl at Melrose High School in Memphis in 1957 where Higgins lost 13-12. He thought his team had the winning touchdown, but the official said the ball carrier’s knee touched the ground.
While a lot has changed, some things are still the same.
“Clarksdale is a great football town,” Curry said.
Integration has been one change for football.
“The game changed because No. 1, you’re using a lot of Afro-Americans in the game now,” Curry said. “Everybody is bigger, stronger and faster. When I came along, the league was predominantly Caucasian.”
Curry said it was tougher to get exposure playing against historically black colleges, but Jackson State was successful and made the playoffs in 1961 and 1962, which helped him get drafted.
Coahoma Community College football coach Steven Miller, who played for Northwest Community College and Northwestern State in Louisiana, was present for the meeting Monday night.
“He took his opportunities, what God gave him and got a chance to play in the league. He was humble enough to change position,” Miller said. “I found that very unique to change positions in the NFL.”
Curry switched from running back to defensive back in the NFL.
“Once the story comes out, we’ll be able to, hopefully, get Mr. Roy back down to speak to our football players,” Miller said. “During the season, it would be a great inspiration.
“He’s determined, a hard worker, played anything you asked him to play. He played quarterback throughout high school. He was very talented. One of the top two quarterbacks coming out.”
Curry’s time in the NFL was spent dealing with much racial tension. He called the Steelers playing a road game against the Cleveland Browns when Jim Brown was the running back.
Brown broke loose on the first series and stepped on a teammate’s chest. He recalled the phrase “n boy” being used to describe that play. He also recalled coach Buddy Parker using racial terms walking through the aisle on the bus after the game.
“That was the worst thing that happened,” Curry said. “There weren’t, but two black guys on the bus.”
Curry had several similar stories dealing his playing days.
While 80 percent of the NFL players today are black, Curry said they still are treated unfairly. He gave his thoughts on former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who is no longer in the NFL, kneeling during the National Anthem.
“My thought was he’s just tired of seeing people being treated the way they’re treated nowadays,” Curry said, adding Kaepernick was blackballed.
“He wasn’t protesting the National Anthem. He was protesting the way we’re being treated. The President did that (made it about the National Anthem). We’re going backwards now because of whom we have in office. We had gone a long ways. We had Obama in there, did an adequate job. You know who we’ve got in there now and we’re going backwards.”
Curry strongly encouraged the African-American population to register and vote.
