Click here to subscribe today or Login.
Former players, family and friends show up to honor George Curry.
JENKINS TWP. – Sitting alone in the top row of a television studio, the person who knows George Curry better than anyone else quietly listened as people shared memories and heaped praise upon her husband.
It took a little prodding, but soft-spoken Jacqueline Curry finally stepped up to the microphone. And in one brief sentence, captured the character of her husband.
“He’s a gentle, compassionate man who loves football and loved his boys,” she said during the live broadcast of WVIA’s “State of Pennsylvania.”
Approximately 100 of Curry’s family members, friends, former players and coaches packed the high-definition theater/studio to wish him well on his retirement from coaching. The former Lake-Lehman, Berwick, and Wyoming Valley West football head coach recently retired after 42 years on the sidelines.
“This was special to me because everyone in this room is special to me,” said Curry, amid hugs and handshakes following the hourlong broadcast. “Everyone here had an affect on my life. It’s great to see all of these people.”
Among those in attendance was former Berwick great Bo Orlando, who helped lead the Bulldogs to an undefeated season in 1983 and a mythical national championship by USA Today. Orlando, who went on to play in college at West Virginia and in the NFL for nine seasons, traveled from his Bethlehem home to see his former high school coach.
“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world,” said Orlando, an assistant coach on the Bethlehem Liberty team that captured the PIAA Class 4A state championship last weekend. “Coach Curry was an unbelievable motivator. It was an honor to play for him. He really is an icon.”
There were emotional moments during Curry’s interview with show host Bill Kelly, who called his guest “a national legend.” The state’s winningest high school football coach had to regain his composure when discussing the emotion surrounding his decision to retire.
There were also some very funny moments.
Lake-Lehman head coach Carl Kern, who was a standout performer on Curry’s first team at Lake-Lehman in the late 1960s, remembered one of the first times the Black Knights got together for a practice.
“This was back when there were no weightlifting programs and you weren’t allowed to practice (in the offseason),” said Kern. “George found a place for us in a field behind a barn.”
Curry, whose critics said he bent the rules during his coaching days at Berwick, quickly put an index finger up to his lips as the audience roared with laughter.
“Shhh,” said Curry. “I told him, ‘Carl, they’ll never find us.’”
The former players in the studio, as well as though who spoke with Curry by telephone during the show, remembered many of his 413 wins and record six PIAA Class 3A championships. But most of them remembered Curry as much more than a football coach.
“Coach has been a huge part of my life,” said former Berwick quarterback Dave Robbins, who was also an assistant coach under Curry at Valley West. “I have a great father, but he’s also been a father figure. The things he teaches you are lessons for life. I can’t say enough good things about the man.”