Rabbit Curry Inspired McGugin

Rabbit Curry Inspired McGugin

8/18/2005

by Bill Traughber

Kwane R. Doster would have been a senior running back in 2005 for the Commodores. But, his untimely tragic death last December in his Tampa, FL hometown sent shockwaves throughout the Nashville and Vanderbilt community.

The Vanderbilt football program, and the university community have dedicated the 2005 football season to the inspirational Doster, who will be remembered for a long time. Such was the case of a light-weighted quarterback at Vanderbilt in the early 1900’s whose life ended suddenly and tragically.

Irby “Rabbit” Curry was an All-American quarterback for Vanderbilt in 1916. The brilliant runner was born in Marlin, Texas, in 1894 and was a product of Marlin High School. After graduating from Vanderbilt, Curry volunteered for service during World War I. After completing his Ground School work he was ordered to Rantoul, IL to the Flying School.

Heroically, Curry was shot down over France near Chateau Thierry and was killed during aerial combat on August 18, 1918. The death of Curry stunned Vanderbilt coach Dan McGugin and the Vanderbilt family. The image of Curry had been with McGugin since the former quarterback made an impression with his heart and not his size.

Vanderbilt was scheduled to play the University of Texas, in Dallas, on October 22, 1921. The Commodores were heavy underdogs and during McGugin’s pre-game talk, Curry was on the coach’s mind. The book, 50 Years of Vanderbilt Football by Fred Russell and Maxwell Benson reveals the motivational speech:

“You are about to be put to an ordeal which will show the stuff that’s in you! What a glorious chance you have! Every one of you is going to fix his status for all time in the minds and hearts of his teammates today. How you fight is what you will be remembered by. If any shirk, the Lord pity him; he will be degraded in the hearts of the rest as long as they live.

“Man is a curious kind of a “critter.” You will all doubtless eat and have comforts and ‘butt around’ for a good many days, but during the next hour you must forget yourselves absolutely. You are to hurl yourselves like demons with the fury of hell on the crowd that has come here to humiliate us. The man worthwhile is the man who can rise away above and beyond himself in the face of a great task.

“I am glad Mr. Curry is here. Some of you knew Rabbit. We felt toward him the tenderness a mother feels towards her own little boy. He had a little slender body; he weighed only 128 pounds, but he had a heart as big as that loving cup over there on the mantel. He was modest; his life was absolutely clean; and what a fighter he was. His life was a great contribution to Vanderbilt–traditionally to our athletic traditions. The influence of his spirit will always abide. He always wanted to play with Vanderbilt against Texas. His body is resting only a few miles south of here; but his spirit is hovering above us now. Some of these days I want to see his likeness looking down on our athletic fields. I am glad his father is here so that he can see, face-to-face, how we regard his son.

“There is one thing that makes me sick at heart. I heard repeatedly before we left Nashville that this Vanderbilt team, this crowd of men into whose faces I now look, might win from Texas if it would only fight. Has anybody the right to imply such an insult? And, if so, when before now could such a thing be said of men from Tennessee? How about Pickett’s men who moved out of the wood and exposed their breasts and faces to be shattered and torn as they moved up that slope? And how about The Tennesseans of the Thirtieth Division, who broke the Hindenburg line–a task even greater because it was accompanied by so much mud and misery. All but a few here are Tennesseans and the rest have elected to be educated here. You are a part of us and you must uphold the traditions of Vanderbilt and Tennessee.

“Who in the devil started all of this bunk about the Texas team? Who thinks they are unbeatable? They say that they have the greatest team in their history and perhaps this is true. They say Vanderbilt never had a team which could defeat theirs of this year, and that is not true. Texas has no shield like ours. We have some scars on it, but there are a lot of stars there, too. Texas has no such athletic tradition and history.

“They say the climate is against us. That is not true. The change should do us good. This light, pure air will help us.”

Sports writer Blinky Horn covered the game for The Tennessean and wrote this about the Commodores’ 20-0 victory:

“Vandy outcharged, outfought and outgamed the boastful Texans. Their courage was finer. Their stamina was greater. Thrust into the throes of a Turkish bath day which blistered tongues and made legs weary the McGuginites shook off the galling heat and won a hellish battle on a hellish afternoon.

“The spirit of Rabbit Curry, Commodore immortal who sleeps but a scant 150 miles away from Dallas, hoisted the McGuginites upon a fighting pinnacle only reached by the gods when they quarrel.

“With his father huddled on a Vandy bench, his face a silent but beseeching plea for the stifling of the arrogance of Texas, the Commodores responded with a moleskin exhibition rarely surpassed in all their long and Gem-like history. The victory surely must make the gallant Curry rest with more repose in his Texas tomb, now wreathed with the hale of a Commodore conquest.”

Curry was the captain of the football team, played baseball and was a member of the track team. Lieutenant Hunnicutt, who flew with Rabbit, described First Lieutenant Curry’s death in a letter to his family:

“Irby and a classmate from Vanderbilt were in the same aero squadron. At Chateau Thierry their squad engaged the Richthoffen’s circus (Germany’s greatest aero squad). Irby was wounded and went into a tight spiral and to land. He never gained strength to come out of the spiral and crashed to the earth. His classmate downed a plane and landed to get the German, but landed on German soil and was captured. Nine out of eighteen of Irby’s squad were killed, The Germans suffered greater than the Americans.”

After learning about the death of Curry, McGugin wired this telegram to The Tennessean:

“During the four years of my intimate association with Irby Curry, I never heard him utter a word his mother might not hear and approve. A game sportsman and scholar, truly he was gentle as a dove. He had a lion’s heart, and now a hero’s death. Poor Little Rabbit! How he pulls at the heart-strings of all of us who knew him and therefore honored and loved him tenderly.”

McGugin would have a photo of Curry hanging prominently in his office until his death in 1936. Curry is buried in his hometown of Marlin, Texas.

Next week read about Dr. William L. Dudley, for whom Vanderbilt’s field is named.

If you have any comments or suggestions you can contact Bill Traughber via e-mail.