We were graced by football royalty this week when legendary player and coach, Bill Curry, interviewed his wife, award-winning author, Carolyn Curry, about her new football murder mystery novel, Sudden Death.
Written by a woman who has spent her entire life married to a football player and coach, the book explores serious themes including sports gambling, alcoholism and spousal abuse.
Bill started his interview telling us how he, a short, troubled, chubby guy, met the most beautiful woman, Carolyn, in high school and eventually married her. He even went to Georgia Tech because it was closer to Agnes Scott College where Carolyn was a student than was Athens. December 16 is their 60th anniversary. He also said that he was a bit miffed about this new novel by Carolyn because she killed off the coach in the first chapter.
Bill: Why did you write a fictional murder mystery?
Carolyn: Having been to more than 700 football games with Bill and having good insights about family life as well as knowing what goes on beyond closed doors was the foundation for the novel. And, having endured several death threats to my family over the years, along with the anxiety and stress of being the wife of a major college football coach, the idea of a murder mystery made a lot of sense. So, what would it be like if one of these death threat people actually followed through with the deed? However, the coach who is murdered is very different from Bill.
Bill: Is the story about our lives and about the causes that you champion?
Carolyn: When you write, your own story tends to creep in. So, there are elements of our lives in the story. For example, I advocate for several causes, one of which is spousal abuse so there is a subplot in the book that includes spousal abuse. Another cause I advocate for is the trauma of loss and I started a group called “Women Alone Together” so there is an element of this also in the book.”
More About Carolyn
Carolyn Newton Curry is an award-winning author, historian and founder of the non-profit Women Alone Together. She is the author of Suffer and Grow Strong: The Life of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas 1834-1907, which won Curry the Georgia Author of the Year award from the Georgia Writers Association.
More About Bill
William Alexander Curry, born Oct. 21, 1942, is a retired American football coach and former player. Most recently, Curry was the head coach at Georgia State University, which began competing in college football in 2010. Previously, Curry served as the head football coach at the Georgia Institute of Technology (1980–1986), the University of Alabama (1987–1989), and the University of Kentucky (1990–1996). Between coaching jobs at Kentucky and Georgia State, Curry was a football analyst for ESPN.
He played football at Georgia Tech (1962–1964) and then played for ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with four teams: the Green Bay Packers (1965–1966), the Baltimore Colts (1967–1972), the Houston Oilers (1973), and the Los Angeles Rams (1974).
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