Bill Curl

Sport: Distinguished Service Award in Sports Journalism

Induction Year: 2003

University: Tulane

Bill Curl served as Tulane’s Sports Information Director for eight years (1966-73) and was in charge of public relations at the Louisiana Superdome and New Orleans Arena for 33 years (1977-2010). His tenure at the Superdome included six Super Bowls and four Final Fours; it also spanned four decades of Sugar Bowl Football Classics, including two BCS championship games. He was responsible for working with worldwide media for historic reopening the iconic Superdome in 2006, one year after Hurricane Katrina. Curl initiated hosting the state high school football championships in the Superdome in 1981. He coordinated New Orleans’ first bid for a Final Four, and that event began a new era for the NCAA basketball championships in mega-stadiums. Curl directed public relations for the opening of the New Orleans Arena in 1999 and he later helped orchestrate the city’s effort to encourage the Hornets to move their NBA franchise to New Orleans. He managed the New Orleans Night Arena Football team for one year. Curl started the Winn Dixie Classic college baseball series in the Dome. His years at Tulane included the Green Wave’s first bowl trip in 25 years; the 1970 Liberty Bowl. He moved to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark., for two years as sports information director then returned as P.R. Director for the New Orleans Visitors Bureau for one year before joining the Superdome staff. He is a graduate of Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where he served as Sports Publicist in (1962-66). Curl received the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Distinguished Service Award in 2003 and is a member of that organization’s Foundation Board of Directors. The Louisiana Sports Writers Association presented him with the Mac Russo Award and a lifetime membership in 2010.