Clippings – Curly Culp, Yuma High School (Arizona)

curly culp
gamestrat high school football sideline instant replay

With more-and-more newspapers going online, instead being tossed onto the front porch or a home’s lawn, I’ve been wondering what will happen to the athletic scrapbook in the digital age?

For those of you too young to know about scrapbooks, there was a time when high school athletes would have a book filled with newspaper clippings that touted their athletic accomplishments. Especially if said athlete was very good and found himself “in print” on a regular basis.

Those scrapbooks were usually put together by a family member. Other scrapbooks may have been put together by players wanting to commemorate their games, creating memories that could last a lifetime.

During my research for my book High School Football in Texas – Amazing Football Stories From the Greatest Players of Texas, I became addicted to Newspapers.com. The old stories about past-and-present NFL players I was going to talk with for the book, made every interview a lot more fun, because the players really enjoyed me taking them down memory lane.

Buy: High School Football America in Texas – Amazing Football Stories From the Greatest Players of Texas

So, with that as the backdrop, I’ve decided to create a new feature on High School Football America called Clippings. Yes, I realize that clipping isn’t a good thing in football, but in this case, I think every reader will enjoy a good “clip.”

I’m starting with one of my favorite players as a youngster — Curly Culp, the Kansas City Chief Hall of Fame nose guard.

Why Curly?

Well, at 68 pounds on the Wilson Vikings junior pee-wee football team at 8-years old, I was a nose guard. That also coincided with the Kansas City Chiefs being my favorite team as a youngster. I started liking the Chiefs mainly because my father liked the Oakland Raiders. Back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, there was nothing better than the Chiefs/Raiders rivalry.

I also loved the fact that Culp was a great wrestler at Yuma High School in Arizona. Being from the Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania, a high school wrestling hotbed, I really enjoyed knowing that he was a multi-sport athlete, which probably wasn’t even a term then. Culp was a two-time Arizona high school state wrestling champ.

Clippings will appear on High School Football America to salute the Golden Age of newspapers and to honor players who were chasing a dream of one day playing on Sundays…a dream we all had.

I hope you enjoy.

Curly Culp, Yuma High School (Arizona) – 1964

Wed, Aug 12, 1964 – 10 · Arizona Daily Sun (Flagstaff, Arizona) · Newspapers.com Sat, Dec 7, 1963 – Page 7 · Tucson Daily Citizen (Tucson, Arizona) · Newspapers.com Sun, Feb 23, 1964 – Page 7 · The Yuma Daily Sun (Yuma, Arizona) · Newspapers.com

Stadium Project: Home of the Yuma Criminals, one of high school football’s most original names

Play Football

nfl play football

About the Author

Jeff Fisher
Jeff is an award-winning journalist and expert in the field of high school sports, underscored with his appearance on CNBC in 2010 to talk about the big business of high school football in America.Jeff turned to his passion for high school football into an entrepreneurial venture called High School Football America, a digital media company focused on producing original high school sports content for radio, television and the internet.Jeff is co-founder and editor-in-chief of High School Football America, a partner with NFL Play Football.