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BERWICK — Upon returning to his hometown immediately following his first season as Berwick’s first NFL player, Bo Orlando drove straight to the home of his old high school coach.

George Curry was waiting for him.

“I figured he was going to be proud,” said Orlando, who left West Virginia to play in the pros before graduating college. “So I pulled up on front of his house, got out of the car and he was already on his porch.

“First thing he says to me is, ‘You get that goddam degree yet?’ “

That was Curry.

Always firm and direct yet filled with so much caring and concern that stories of his 46-year coaching career flooded St. Mary’s Church in Berwick, where thousands of former players, coaches and friends paid their respects to Curry during his funeral procession that lasted more than five hours.

And most of those memories had little to do with the football field.

“Grades, how you were doing in general,” Chase Strother, an offensive lineman who played during Curry’s final season in 2015, said of his coach’s main interests. “It was a lot more than football. He was like a father figure to me.

“That meant so much.”

Make no mistake, Curry didn’t take lightly the path to Berwick’s football success. And he didn’t get to 455 coaching victories — the all-time Pennsylvania high school coaching record and the fourth-most in the country — along with six state championships and three USA Today mythical national titles through his career by accident.

“He worked you hard,” said Gus Felder, a former Penn State offensive lineman who played on Berwick’s last state championship team in 1997 who recently accepted a job as director of strength and conditioning at the University of Miami. “Anything that made you better. He always said when you work hard, great things happen. He was a motivator. He made us play better.

“But he wanted you to succeed off the field.”

The seeds for such accomplishments were certainly planted through the game of football, which Curry often called a tool to prosperity.

And his unique style that commanded immediate respect from and captivated many of his former players was legendary.

“He always had that vision of getting through to us,” said Orlando, who quarterbacked Berwick’s first unbeaten national title team in 1983 and went on to play more than nine seasons as a defensive back in the NFL. “He always had that view and he tried to pass it on.”

People all over the country listened.

Famous people.

Charlie Fedorco can attest.

He followed Orlando as a Berwick star quarterback in the mid 1980s and then to West Virginia as a wide receiver, where he found out his old high school coach had quite the following.

“Before the West Virginia-Pitt game, I wanted to meet Mike Ditka,” Fedorco said. “So I went up to Mike Ditka and told him I was from Berwick. First thing he said to me was, ‘How is George Curry?’ (Former Florida coach) Bobby Bowden, same thing. When I told him I was from Berwick, he said, “So how is my old friend George Curry?’ You’re talking about people who are legendary (coaching) figures who have this kind of relationship with him.

“It was incredible.”

Equally amazing was the way Curry developed unquestioned leadership among the players he coached, and the way they’d follow his direction without hesitation.

Felder laughingly remembers the way Curry guided him into the Nittany Lions’ starting lineup.

“People always ask me how I ended up at Penn State,” said Felder, who was an All-American at Berwick, All-Big Ten at Penn State and played briefly in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns. “George took me up to Penn State. We were driving in the car, and George said to me, ‘Now, you’re going to Penn State, you’re going to meet the top football coach and you’re going to commit to him.’

“So I met Joe Paterno,” Felder continued, “and I said, ‘Joe, I commit to you.’

“And when we were going home, I said to George, “Coach, what do you mean by commit?’ “

It was Curry’s unbreakable commitment to his faith, family, friends and players that brought together a whole sea of people honoring the man who will forever be much more than their coach.

“He cared about the little things,” Orlando said. “He took so many young students and made them into young men. My God, George started as a coach, turned into a teacher, then into a father figure.

“Most of all, he was a friend.”

Former Berwick football player, Gus Felder walks out of the funeral for George Curry with Berwick assistant football coach Carl Majer on Monday.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_TTL040516Curry3.jpg.optimal.jpgFormer Berwick football player, Gus Felder walks out of the funeral for George Curry with Berwick assistant football coach Carl Majer on Monday. Aimee Dilger|Times Leader

A line of mourners wait to pay their respects to the family of George Curry on Monday.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_TTL040516Curry6-4.jpg.optimal.jpgA line of mourners wait to pay their respects to the family of George Curry on Monday. Aimee Dilger|Times Leader

A shrine to former Berwick football coach George Curry outside of Crispin field in Berwick.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/web1_TTL040516Curry7.jpg.optimal.jpgA shrine to former Berwick football coach George Curry outside of Crispin field in Berwick. Aimee Dilger|Times Leader
Former players share favorite Curry memories during funeral procession

By Paul Sokoloski

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Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski