Houston Oilers great and Hall of Fame defensive lineman Curley Culp has passed away at the age of 75 due to complications from pancreatic cancer, his family revealed on Saturday.
Tennessee Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk released a statement on the passing of the former First-Team All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowler:
“Our team certainly lost a great one today,” Adams Strunk said in a statement. “Curley was a game changer for our defense when he came to us in the trade with the Chiefs and was pivotal to our success during the Luv Ya Blue days. He rightfully earned a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and I was fortunate to spend some quality time with Curley and his wife Collette when we hosted the Oilers reunion this past September. They also brought two of their young grandchildren for that weekend and Curley’s love for those two was very obvious. He will forever be remembered as a ferocious nose tackle as a player and a Hall of Fame gentleman off the field.”
After being drafted by the Denver Broncos in the second round of the 1968 draft, Culp ended up playing his first six-plus seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he won both an AFL and Super Bowl title.
The nose tackle was traded to the Oilers in the middle of the 1974 season. He would go on to notch four of his Pro Bowl appearances and his First-Team All-Pro during his time in Houston, which spanned from 1974 to 1980.
Culp was also a key part of the Oilers teams that went to back-to-back AFC championship games in 1978 and 1979. Culp finished his career with 68.5 sacks and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013.
