For Curley Culp NCAA Wrestling Champion Pro Football Hall of Fame Finalist and many other topics visit HSWrestling.net

Two senior candidates have been announced for the 2013 Pro Football Hall of Fame. One is former Green Bay Packers Linebacker Dave Robinson*while the other is a former standout football star and wrestler at Arizona State, Curley Culp.

Dave Robinson and Curley Culp will be joining 15 other football stars (to be decided) and the day before the Super Bowl, voting will commence. Robinson and Culp will be voted on separately from the other Hall of Fame candidates (being Senior candidates). But as with other candidates, they will need 80% of the votes or more to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Curley Culp was a dominant college wrestler and garnered numerous accolades, including being the 1967 NCAA Heavyweight Wrestling Champion. Culp received the Gorriarian Award for Most Pins as the 1967 NCAA Championships (held at Kent State). His first win in the tournament was a 15-5 victory over Frank Paquin of Lehigh. Culp then proceeded to make short work of the next three opponents, pinning each of them. Curley Culp took down Nick Carollo of Adams State in the finals in 51 seconds.

Prior to his time at ASU, Culp was a two-time Arizona State Wrestling Champion at Yuma High School in 1962 and 1963.



Curley Culp was taken by the Denver Broncos in the 1968 NFL draft, but was traded to their rival the Kansas City Chiefs. Culp then become a standout lineman for the Chiefs during a time when they boasted one of the stingiest defenses of all time.

Culp was part of a blockbuster trade in 1974 that sent him to the Houston Oilers. His finest year in the NFL was the next year, as Curley Culp won the 1975 NFL Defensive Player of the Year award. In total, Culp reached the Pro Bowl six times along with being on the first/second All Pro teams five different years.