On a side note, I would say the Colts lost Super Bowl III to the Jets because Earl Morrall threw three interceptions in the first half.
Defensively they held the Namath-led Jets offense to 16 points, despite four turnovers by the Colts O.
Posted on 04/23/2020 5:01:51 AM PDT by Rummyfan
It must have been in the Fall of 1960 that I went with some neighbors to watch our local high school football team, Wheaton, play powerhouse Richard Montgomery in the final game of the Montgomery County football season. Wheaton was hoping to gain a share of the County championship with Richard Montgomery.
Optimism did not abound. Richard Montgomery had a star running back named Mike Curtis. Rumor had it that he was unstoppable. Curtis must have played on defensive side as well, but it was his ability as a ball carrier that had made him a local legend.
If my memory is accurate, the game was effectively over well before half time. Curtis ran through our defense at will. On offense, we were unable to move the ball.
Curtis, who died on Monday of the degenerative brain disease CTE, went on to become a star linebacker for Duke, then a strong football program. As a senior, he was named first team All American. Curtis also was an academic All American.
The Baltimore Colts drafted him with the 14th pick of the first round in 1965. Soon, he became the leader of one of the best defenses in football.
Curtis stood out for his intensity, his sideline to sideline speed, and his coverage skill. His intensity earned him the nickname “Mad Dog” and drew comparisons to other great linebackers like Joe Schmidt, Ray Nitschke, and Dick Butkus.
The 1968 Colts went 13-1. They allowed only 144 points, the fewest in pro football. Curtis was named first team all-pro that season.
Those Colts famously lost the Super Bowl to the New York Jets led by Joe Namath. Curtis didn’t take it well. He always insisted that the Colts were “twice as good as the Jets,” who “got lucky” on the day.
That’s harsh, but it wasn’t Curtis’ fault that the Colts lost that Super Bowl. According to accounts I’ve read of the game, the Jets ran their offense away from “Mad Dog Mike’s” side of the field. Curtis still managed some fine open field tackles.
Curtis made first team all-pro the following season, too. The season after that, 1970, he was named AFC defensive player of the year.
The 1970 season presented Curtis and the Colts with another shot at Super Bowl glory. Curtis excelled in that game against the Dallas Cowboys. His interception and return of a Craig Morton pass set up Baltimore’s game-winning field goal in the final minute of this defensive struggle. The final score was 16-13.
During the next season, Curtis made an even more iconic “play.” He decked an intoxicated fan who, as Curtis put it, invaded “my place of business” by running onto the field and grabbing the football.
That blow enhanced Curtis’s image as one of the meanest players in football. The image seems to have been accurate on the field. Off the field, Curtis was, by all accounts, a gentleman and good guy. On receiving news of Curtis’s death, his former teammate Bill Curry tweeted:
Mike Curtis was my roommate for 5 years, one of the great players ever. In my 1st camp my wife went into labor at 5am. I panicked, but Mike talked me through plane res, seeing (coach Don) Shula, and gave me the keys to his brand new T Bird. I never forgot.
Curtis made the last of his four pro-bowl appearances after the 1974 season. His next season was cut short by knee surgery. He does not seem to have been the same player after the surgery.
The Colts let him go to Seattle in the expansion draft. After one year with the Seahawks, George Allen brought him to the Washington Redskins as part of the “over-the-hill” gang. As I recall, Curtis played well as a starter in 1977, but became a back up in 1978, his last season in the NFL.
Curtis thus ended his career in the city where he was born and the area where he had starred in high school. I haven’t followed Montgomery County football closely over the years, but I doubt that the County has ever produced a better player than Mike Curtis.
RIP.
On a side note, I would say the Colts lost Super Bowl III to the Jets because Earl Morrall threw three interceptions in the first half.
Defensively they held the Namath-led Jets offense to 16 points, despite four turnovers by the Colts O.
I remember Mike Curtis well. He was a superb linebacker who always came to play. I didn’t know he died until I read this.
Tommy Nobis was in the same era and also a great LB. He, too, died of brain injury related disease.
sad, even as a Cowboy fan and high school linebacker I thought he was great, back in the day the pros were not superhuman size 6’3 220 lbs same as my dad and some of the guys on our high school team.
Defensively they held the Namath-led Jets offense to 16 points, despite four turnovers by the Colts O.
I would say you are correct.
I didn't realized that Curtis died a couple of days ago. I didn't hear anything in the news about his death.
What I remember about Curtis is that he was nicknamed "The Animal" and he tackled a person who ran on the field during a preseason game. Old school dude. RIP
The old boys are starting to die off. Pete Retzloff co captain of the world championship NFL Phil’s Eagle (1960) team died two weeks ago.
Coming out of Texas, Nobis was rated by some as the best college linebacker ever. The expansion Falcons drafted him and he spent his career on bad Atlanta teams.
I miss the old days of NFL. Mike Curtis was a Mad Man.
I was a big fan of the Redskins back in the day, and I was excited when they got him.
A Mad Man. Love those guys and that style of play.
Curtis wouldn’t last ten minutes in the NFL today (suspended for life for being too tough):
At the 7 minute mark he wacks some hippy who tries to steal the game ball. That alone is worthy of the NFL Hall of Fame.
Correction: He sacks the fan at the 4:36 mark.
RIP Mike. I was a huge Colt’s fan and had season tickets at the old Memorial Stadium when he played. He was one of my favorite players. Tuff as nails despite being on the small size for a MLB. Became an Eagles fan when the Colts left Baltimore.
Dolphin fullback Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick posed for a famous Sports Illustrated cover as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid after the Dolphins undefeated season in 1972.
Kiick has dementia, but a lot of retired Dolphin players still come to see him.
Kiick's teammate, Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti, also struggled with neurological problems before his death last year.
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