Three Up, Three Down: Currie, 75, revels in feats with Lombardi’s Packers
There’s a bar and grill called Jackson’s on West Flamingo in which Green Bay Packers memorabilia is displayed in a glass case. Lots of green and gold knick-knacks. Lots of stuff with Brett Favre’s picture on it.
More conspicuous is the cover from the Dec. 18, 1961, edition of Sports Illustrated. It shows a football player, a handsome football player, with a square jaw and a shock of dark, damp hair.
Dan Currie was an outside linebacker for Vince Lombardi’s Packers, which, no affront to the ones that will play the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV today, are still the best kind.
Inside, there’s a quote from Currie who says Jon Arnett of the Rams scares the hell out of him. An onlooker recalls possessing a football card with Jon Arnett’s picture on it. It had been awhile.
Dan Currie is sitting at a table in the back room of Jackson’s, with friends Jan and Mike Thomson and Bob Leuck. They had picked him up at the assisted living complex in Jan’s “Packer Mobile,” a green and gold PT Cruiser with pictures of Donny Anderson and Fuzzy Thurston on the side. Young Donny Anderson and (sort of) young Fuzzy Thurston. Young Dan Currie’s picture is on the front license plate.
Old Dan Currie is 75 now. The jaw is still square. The dark hair is gray, and mostly gone.
Currie watches Packers games at Jackson’s with his Las Vegas friends, where he will have a Budweiser or two. Or three, if you want to buy him one.
Now and then, a fan who remembers young Dan Currie will ask for his autograph. A lot of fans who don’t remember pretend they do, and have their picture taken with him. They put it on Facebook and tell friends that’s them and Dan Currie. Outside linebacker. Lombardi’s Packers.
A visitor notices Currie’s championship ring. “That from ’62, when you intercepted Y.A. Tittle in the championship game?” No, he says. The first one. Sixty-one. Packers 37, Giants 0. Take that, Y.A. Tittle. Take that, Kyle Rote.
A visitor also notices that Currie’s left thumb is attached to his left hand at about a 70-degree angle. And that most of his other fingers don’t run parallel, either.
Health issues make telling stories about Lombardi’s Packers problematic, but one gets the impression Currie considers other things more significant. This is confirmed when someone at the table asks about a career highlight.
Years flash, and Jim Brown is coming at him with a straight arm. Or that damn Chuck Bednarik is pulling on his fingers. Speedy Jon Arnett circles out of the backfield to catch a pass. How’s a 235-pound linebacker supposed to keep up with a gazelle like Arnett?
When Currie replies, it’s not of a game played on frozen tundra, but of a practice held in gentle rain, when a visitor of some distinction dropped in on Lombardi’s Packers.
“Black Hamburg hat. Black Chesterfield coat. White scarf,” old Dan Currie says. “It was Eisenhower.
“He waved his hand and rode off into the mist.”
THREE UP
■ If Nick Sherry turns out to be the savior of the UNLV football program — or even a pretty good quarterback — then Stacey Hauck, wife of coach Bobby Hauck, should receive credit. She was the one who saw an Internet report that Colorado had withdrawn its scholarship offer to Sherry and told her husband “you gotta look at this kid.” Then she told her husband to bring home a quart of milk and a loaf of bread and that the faucet in the upstairs bathroom was leaking.
■ If NBC assumes control of the Versus network and shows a Mountain West Conference football game at 5 p.m. every Saturday after a Big East and a Big 12 game, it’ll help soften the blow of losing Texas Christian to the Big East, Brigham Young to independence and Utah to the Pac-whatever. And then when MWC commissioner Craig Thompson says this is a good thing, you can actually believe it. For as long as Boise State remains undefeated.
■ Today’s Super Bowl is predicted to have a nongaming impact of $85.6 million on Las Vegas with a similar amount being wagered at our sports books. Or as the guys proposing to build UNLV’s new domed sports arena call it, “chump change.”
THREE DOWN
■ The average ticket price for the Cubs vs. Reds (March 12) and Cubs vs. Dodgers (March 13) preseason games at Cashman Field is roughly $43 for each. The average ticket price for major league games that counted in last year’s standings was $26.74.
■ It would appear Brigham Young’s Jimmer Fredette is getting tired of the double teams and people asking how he got his name. In his last two games, he has made only 3 of 18 shots from beyond the 3-point arc. In his last two games, he scored 26 points (against Wyoming) and 29 points (against UNLV on Saturday). BYU won both games. There is no stopping Jimmer Fredette. There is no stopping people from asking how he got his name.
■ In their past three games, the Rebels have shot 7 of 24, 2 of 12 and 6 of 23 from beyond the 3-point arc. Works better for Jimmer Fredette than it does for UNLV.
Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352.
