Humble Rock in the Middle, Curley Culp: 1946-2021

Curley Culp, a Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs who used his strength, quickness, agility and tactics he learned as a collegiate wrestling champion to reinvent interior defensive line play, died Saturday.

Less than two weeks ago, Culp told followers of his Twitter account that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and urged them to “donate to your local cancer organizations so this dreaded disease is eradicated.”

He was 75.

“The entire Pro Football Hall of Fame family mourns the passing of Curley Culp. He was a wonderful man of great integrity who respected the game of football and how it applied to everyday life,” said Jim Porter, President of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “Curley’s humility and grace were always apparent. He loved the Hall of Fame – always proudly wearing his Gold Jacket as he visited Canton many times following his election in 2013.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Curley’s wife, Collette, and their entire family during this difficult time. The Hall of Fame will forever guard his legacy. The Hall of Fame flag will be flown at half-staff in Curley’s memory.”

Culp talked openly about how football shaped his life.

“I have learned that football is not just a sport, but a life lesson in what it means to be a team player,” he said. “I have learned how pain can build character and endurance and believe that life itself is like playing a very long and exciting football game where every play can determine the outcome.”

Culp was an All-American lineman in football and as a heavyweight wrestler at Arizona State, not far from his boyhood home in Yuma, where he had won two Arizona high school state championships in wrestling.

At Arizona State, he was a three-time wrestling champion in the Western Athletic Conference. He won 84 of his 96 matches, and in 1967 advanced to the NCAA national tournament, capturing the title with a pin barely a minute into the match. He pinned three of his four opponents at nationals and won the other match 15-5.

“I was in the best shape I’ve ever been in in my life going into nationals,” he told an interviewer years later.

As one of the country’s top-ranked heavyweights, he had a shot at the 1968 Olympic Team, but went with football after being taken with the 31st overall selection in the combined AFL-NFL Draft in 1968 by the Denver Broncos.

The Broncos envisioned Culp at guard, citing his 6-foot-2, 260-pound frame as more suited to that position than as a defensive lineman. When the experiment did not work, Denver dealt him to the Kansas City Chiefs.

“It was a gift to us,” said Hall of Fame defensive back Emmitt Thomas, a teammate of Culp’s in Kansas City. “Curley was very smart and strong – and a great racquetball player despite his size.”

With those athletic skills, Culp quickly became an integral part of the Chiefs’ dominating defense, and the “stack” formation Hall of Fame coach Hank Stram devised – playing Culp over the opposing center – paved the way for the odd-man fronts that became more commonplace, especially in the American Football Conference, in the 1970s.

Hall of Fame center Jim Otto of the Raiders called Culp “perhaps the strongest man I ever lined up against.”

In 1968 and 1969, the Chiefs led the American Football League in fewest points allowed. The 1969 team led the AFL in nearly every statistical category, with opponents scoring more than 20 points only three times. The opposition was held to single-digit scoring eight times, including all three playoff games that was capped with the Chiefs’ 23-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.

Culp registered 8.5 sacks that season (an unofficial figure at that time) and earned a spot on the AFL All-Star Game roster.

That was “one of those teams you wanted to be on,” Culp said, saying it had “good chemistry.”

In the AFL Championship Game leading to Super Bowl IV, Culp contributed four tackles, two assists and a sack as the Chiefs downed the archrival Oakland Raiders 17-7. He followed with four tackles against the Vikings.

After six-plus seasons in Kansas City, Culp was dealt in 1974 to the Houston Oilers as part of a blockbuster trade.

It was with Houston that he began to gain perennial acclaim for his consistent high level of play.

Culp helped transform the Oilers from losers to contenders. In his first full season in Houston, the team finished with a 10-4 record – the first winning mark for the club in eight years and only the second time in 13 seasons the Oilers finished above .500.

He was the anchor of the Oilers’ defense that boasted the top-ranked defense against the run in the AFC, and third in the entire NFL, in 1975.

That year, Culp recorded arguably his finest season. He totaled 11.5 sacks and was named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year by the Newspaper Enterprise Association and to the All-Pro team.

Culp continued as a leader of the Oilers, helping the team reach back-to-back AFC Championship Games in 1978 and 1979.

In addition to the AFL All-Star Game selection, Culp was named to five Pro Bowls during his career.

Culp finished his 14-year pro football career with the Detroit Lions. Overall, he played 179 games. He was credited with 68.5 sacks, intercepted one pass and scored a touchdown on a fumble recovery.

When Sports Illustrated magazine compiled its “50 Greatest Sports Figures” for each state in 1999, Culp was listed at No. 3. The Arizona Republic’s “Athletes of the Century” placed his at No. 6 that same year.

Culp was inducted into several halls of fame: National Federation of State High School Associations, Arizona State University Sports Hall of Fame, the Arizona High School Hall of Fame, the National High School Sports Hall of Fame, the Arizona Wrestling Hall of Fame and the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame. He is a member of the Kansas City Chiefs Ring of Honor and the Arizona State Ring of Honor.

In January 2008, Culp was voted by a panel of former NFL players and coaches to Pro Football Weekly's “All-Time 3-4 Defensive Team.

Culp’s legacy as a dominant force on the field and humble, gracious man off it will be preserved forever at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.