Jack Curran

John Joseph Curran

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 3", Weight 185 lb.
• School St. John's University
• High School All Hallows High School
• Born September 6, 1930
• Died March 14, 2013 in Rye, NY USA

BR minors page

Biographical Information

Jack Curran has been the head baseball and basketball coach at Archbishop Molloy High School since 1958, and was still active in that dual role as of 2012. In 2008, the New York Times described his baseball career as follows:

"He grew up in the Bronx and became a basketball and baseball star at All Hallows High School before moving on to pitch at St. John's, where he was Lou Carnesecca's teammate.

A 6-foot-3 right-hander who said he had 'a fairly good fastball, good curveball and good changeup,' Curran was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952 after graduating from St. John's.

'The Dodgers gave me a $1,500 signing bonus and paid me $300 a month for that season,' Curran said.

In his pro debut, he went 3-1 with a 4.03 ERA for the 1952 Great Falls Electrics. He had a 7-4, 4.99 record for the same club in 1953 while hitting .341. By 1954, Curran was in the Philadelphia Phillies' farm system. He was pitching in the Provincial League on a rainy night in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, when he fractured vertebrae in his back, shattering any hopes for a shot at a big-league career." For the year, he was 7-9 with a 5.34 ERA for the Trois-Rivières Phillies and 1-2 for the Miami Sun Sox. Overall, he had gone 18-16 in minor league ball.

As of December 2010, he had won 2,783 baseball and basketball games, the most of any high school coach in the US. He produced a number of NBA players, including Kenny Anderson, as well as major leaguers Mike Baxter and Mike Jerzembeck.

Related Sites

• Celebrating Jack Curran’s 50 Years at Archbishop Molloy
• Famous Stanners (Molloy Alumni0
• Curran celebrates 80th birthday
• NY Times obit