Delaware native honored Super Bowl week for professional success after Cowboys stint
Delaware native Curtis Powell’s NFL playing career was brief and without fanfare.
But what he did afterward will be recognized leading up to Sunday’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas.
Powell, a Lake Forest High and Delaware State University graduate, will receive the inaugural Jones Award honoring an ex-NFL player “for significant career, community and family contributions” after his football days. He’ll be recognized at Thursday’s Player Networking Event.
Powell recently retired after 22 years as vice president of human resources at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. That was the last stop on a career climb that began with Powell teaching and coaching football at Middletown High.
“It’s not just a personal achievement for me,” said Powell, who still lives in upstate New York but plans to move back to his native Kent County this year.
“It is a symbol of the potential within every athlete to excel beyond the field or the ring and it serves as a beacon of inspiration and encouragement for all athletes to recognize their capabilities and continue competing in the game of life.”
Award honors ex-Jet
The award is named after Jimmy Jones, a defensive end who was with the New York Jets from 1966-68 but never got in a game due to knee injuries. Jones entered the corporate world briefly before rejoining the Jets in their player personnel office, where he was when New York won Super Bowl III.
He then embarked on a lengthy career in human resources with various companies, colleges and health systems while also taking part in community service and various philanthropic efforts. Jones died in 2020 at age 76.
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Like Jones, whom he knew, Powell didn’t let a quick end to his playing career thwart him. Instead, he let, Powell said, “all the skills I acquired in sportsmanship and teamwork” propel him to various leadership positions.
“To me,” Powell said of the Jones Award, “it serves as catalyst for the future where athletes can be celebrated not just for their ability in sports but their contributions to society.”
From Lake Forest, Delaware State to NFL
Powell was a first-team All-Henlopen Conference pick as a senior defensive tackle at Lake Forest in 1970.
The 6-foot-1, 240-pound Powell then went to Delaware State, where he was a first-team All-Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference linebacker as a senior. Powell also set the school record in the shot put.
He was signed as a free agent by the Dallas Cowboys. Powell spent the 1975 NFL season on the Cowboys’ taxi – now practice – squad.
Serving as fodder for those who were playing on Sundays made him reconsider his future.
“You’re away from home and you’re thinking, 'What is this?'” he said. “You wait around for the team to come back [from games on Sundays] so they can beat the crap out of you.”
Maryland job starts path
After that one year, Powell decided to return to Delaware State and do the student teaching necessary to complete his physical education degree. He was then hired at Middletown, where Powell taught and was defensive coordinator for the Cavaliers’ 1979 state title team.
With wife Renee living in Washington, D.C. while working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Powell took a job on the football staff at the University of Maryland, where his duties evolved and launched his career in human resources.
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“It was coaching half time and under [coach] Bobby Ross, I was working in personnel,” he said. “When Bobby Ross left [for Georgia Tech in 1987], I started in personnel full time. I worked my way up.”
He sure did. That’s why Kirk Dixon from the Player Networking Event group called Powell “a special individual” who is “an example of what’s possible” beyond one’s playing career.
Several stops during HR career
Powell ended up serving as Maryland’s manager of Compensation and Employment Operations. That led to being human resources director at Bowie State and UMBC.
He then moved into the health care business with human resources director positions at two Baltimore area hospital systems before taking the job at RPI.
“Playing sports taught me the fundamentals of true sportsmanship and competitiveness,” said Powell, whose son Curtis III also played at Delaware State.
“I look at that as the guiderails that kept me focused as I took on different careers. You go into a new profession, and you have to learn the rules of the game and you always rely on that competitiveness that’s been instilled in you.”
Along his career path, Powell frequently remembered the words of his father, Curtis Sr., a correctional officer who always told him, “I didn’t raise a football player. I raised a young man.”
Longtime high school and college basketball coach in Delaware Jerry Kobasa was the Delaware State quarterback in 1969-70 and was a Hornets assistant coach when Powell played.
“He’s a class act,” Kobasa said of Curtis, with whom he has maintained a long friendship. “He’s made something special of himself, that’s for sure. Everybody loves him. And he looks like he could still play linebacker.”
Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Curtis Powell honored Super Bowl week for success after NFL fling
