Terry Curtis

On Tuesday, February 11th, 2025, UMS Wright head football coach and athletic director Terry Curtis announced his retirement after 52 years, 8 state championships and 361 head coaching victories. But those numbers only reveal part of his career. When Terry Curtis retired, high school coaching lost one of its true icons, and he left high school football in Alabama much better than the way he found it half a century ago. As famous radio broadcaster Paul Harvey was once known for saying, “Now here is the rest of the story.”

Coach Curtis started out like most coaches do. He was a Murphy guy, a quarterback and a great baseball player. He attended Auburn on a baseball scholarship, got educated, and then returned to Mobile. Terry “paid his dues” as an assistant at B.C. Rain and Murphy for a total of 16 years. He learned coaching from some of the best Mobile had to offer in those days- guys like Ed Lathan and Robert Shaw. He learned how to organize, how to motivate and most of all how to get the best out of his players.

Terry’s head coaching journey started at Shaw High School, where he took a team that had only one winning season in 10 years and gave them success. By the third season, he had them in the semifinals. Coach Curtis had that "something", that elusive intangible to be able to bring a team together and convince them to play for something bigger than themselves. When he returned as head coach at Murphy, success followed once more, and he became one of the most respected coaches in the state. In 1999, his coaching journey took him to Mobile’s Old Shell Road and UMS-Wright School. Those 26 years were littered with even more magic, great wins, and state championships. Many coaches watched from a distance at the amazing consistency and filled up rooms at football clinics to listen to his coaching wisdom.

Everyone wants to model success, but what coaches finally learned to appreciate is that the greatness of Terry Curtis could never be evaluated just by the 8 blue maps in his trophy case. His real skill was in his ability to develop relationships with the players, coaches and officials. For years Coach Curtis told everyone that would listen that as coaches we can all be competitive, but when the game ends, we could still be friends. He reminded everyone that coaching football should be a brotherhood.

While some coaches were complaining about the long hours of the job, Terry Curtis was busy promoting the game. While others were worried about their own teams, he was caring about the future of high school football in our state. He spent many years as president of the Alabama Football Coaches Association, where he talked about issues and listened to people's opinions, especially when they were different from his own. He has spent over a decade on the Central Board of the Alabama High School Athletic Association, answering everyone’s questions and making us aware of what the bigger problems were. Terry Curtis was never afraid to take a stand on something, and when he did, the coaches all listened.

Coach Curtis could win with humility, always complimenting players and staff. He also showed us all how to be gracious in a loss. When a team played UMS Wright, and Terry Curtis complimented your squad or your game plan in a win or a loss, that coach walked a little taller the next week. Very simply, the opinion of Coach Curtis always mattered.

He always had time to talk football. Whether it was a big-time college coach or a 1A assistant, he always made time. Terry always cared about and encouraged the young coaches, whether recommending them for a job and counseling them when they made a bad mistake. When he saw their faces, he saw the future of the game.

The media people loved Terry Curtis and he never lost the ability to laugh at himself. Most of the time he told the truth, always had a chuckle or a great quote. It wasn’t unusual to hear someone say, "Hey, did you see what Terry Curtis said after their game last night?"

He has coached in numerous All-Star games, been Coach of the Year so many times they were embarrassed to keep giving it to him, and has been selected to more than one Hall of Fame. Coach Curtis owns many records, but there is one record that no football coach anywhere will ever top. His UMS Wright teams played in eight state championship games, and won all eight of them! Lombardi, Bryant, Belichick, Saban, are all second fiddle to Terry Curtis!

His players loved the experience of playing for him. Former linebacker Curran Foose said that “Coach Curtis had a unique way of cultivating toughness, a palpable desire to win, and a football acumen that was unprecedented.”

Former tight end Preston Dial commented, “he’s the only coach I’ve ever seen that you can’t understand a word he says when he is fired up and yelling, but you know exactly what he is saying.”

Back in the 70s and 80s, we often talked about what it meant to have "class" when it came to football. When you look up the definition in Webster’s dictionary, it says, "unequaled excellence". A picture of Coach Curtis should be next to those words because it perfectly describes his career in coaching.

To his wife Jeanie and the rest of his family, thanks for loaning Coach to all of us for all these years.

The like of Terry Curtis, we may never see again in the state of Alabama.

The Alabama Football Coaches Association is proud to present its Lifetime Achievement Award to Coach Terry Curtis.