Members of the John Curtis Sr. family will receive the Sports Award at the Sabine Hall of Fame Banquet to be held Tuesday, March 28, at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church Hall in Zwolle.
John attended Many High School (MHS) and played football four years from 1959-62. He played quarterback for the Tigers, but with only 17 players on the team, he had to play a little bit of everything.
He was offered a scholarship to play quarterback at Louisiana Tech in Ruston. While there he competed against and became great friends with Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame and briefly with Terry Bradshaw, National Football League Hall of Famer.
Following college, John owned and operated Big Star for 38 years. During this time, he was very involved in supporting and contributing to all the athletic programs in Sabine Parish. Whatever the need of the schools, folks could count on Big Star to step up to the plate no matter what.
Following retirement in 2011, John became even more involved with the hometown Tigers. About this time, his son Jess became head coach, and you could count on John being at most practices.
In 2018 Tiger Stadium was renamed John W. Curtis Tiger Stadium due to his generous and continued support of MHS football and all other athletic programs.
In the last five years, John lived a dream with grandson Carson playing his senior year at Many, followed by four years of getting to watch grandson Tackett play and son Jess coach. John attended most all practices, went on some recruiting trips with Tackett and family and was on the sidelines every Friday night cheering on the Tigers.
Coach Jess Curtis
Jess was a member of the first MHS football team to make it to the state championship game in 1988. He became head football coach at MHS in 2010 and led the team to its first state championship in 2014.
After instilling the “Many Made” culture in his program, the team enjoyed consistent greatness. During his 13 years as head coach, he led the Tigers to three state championships, six state championship games and three other appearances in the semifinals. All three of his state championship teams were undefeated, including this past year when they won the newly created Division III championship.
His teams were undefeated in their last 53 district games in a row. He compiled an overall record of 142 wins and only 32 losses during his tenure at MHS. Coach Curtis took MHS to a level of football success never before achieved in its history. The MHS football program is recognized statewide for its physical and aggressive style of play and its winning way.
Over the last 10 years, the MHS football program has won more games than any other team regardless of class. Coach Curtis is very grateful for all the support he’s received from everyone throughout Sabine Parish. In January, Jess announced he was leaving MHS to take on a new challenge as head coach at Natchitoches Central High School.
Tackett Curtis
Tackett started all four years at MHS. He played safety on defense and in his last two years, he also played quarterback and safety. He helped lead the Tigers to four straight championship games, two of which they won. He was Most Valuable Player of this season’s championship game in which the Tigers defeated 3A powerhouse Union Parish 35-13. He finished his high school career on a team that won 49 games and lost only six.
During the latter part of his sophomore year, he became a national recruit getting offers coastto- coast from most all of the top programs in the country. He received a total of 46 collegiate offers.
Tackett was threetime MVP defensive player of the year on the class 2A All State Teams. He was named high school All American by Max-Preps following his junior year. He was also a finalist for the Dick Butkus award, a national award honoring the top high school linebacker in the country.
This past January, Tackett was named Mr. Football for Louisiana, which is awarded to the most outstanding player in the state. Along the way he beat out Arch Manning and Trey Holley for this honor.
In July, Tackett announced he would attend the University of South- ern California (USC) in Los Angeles to play college football. He enrolled at USC in early January and is now participating in spring training practice getting ready for his first college football season and doing great.
Each year the Hall of Fame donates to non-profit charitable groups. This year, donations will be made to H.E.L.P. of Sabine, a Christian 501c(3) corporation that provides outdoor opportunities to physically disabled children, adults and combat injured veterans and to SWAG Youth Group at Zwolle’s St. Joseph Catholic Church.
Tickets are $50 per person and available at Pete Abington’s Office, Nichols in Many, Sabine Parish Tourist Commission, Robert Gentry’s Office in the radio station and from Martha Henderson at (318)-6459573.