Club/s
Fitzroy
Years
1932-36, 38-43, 45-48 (Player)
1956 (Coach)
Games
249 (Played)
1 (Coached)
Goals
17
Honours/Awards
Fitzroy Captain 1938-41
Fitzroy Team of the Century
Lions Life Member
Fitzroy Vice Captain 1934-36, 48
Victorian State Representative (3 times)
First person to play 200 games for the Club
Frank Curcio was a champion Fitzroy ruckman/defender of the 1930’s and 40’s whose greatest career legacy is that he did not play in the club’s 1944 premiership side.
He should have and would have but for one thing … military service. The good of his country came first.
It would have been the ultimate line on a career record that was outstanding nevertheless. Recruited from the local Christian Young Men’s Society, he played 249 games for Fitzroy from 1932-48 to rank fourth on the all-time games list behind Kevin Murray, Paul Roos and Garry Wilson.
Also fourth in AFL history for games played in jumper #18, he was selected in the back pocket in the Fitzroy Team of the Century and held the club games record for 23 years before it was surpassed by the invincible Murray.
He was three times a Victorian representative, captained Fitzroy from 1938-41 and even coached the club once as a fill-in for Bill Stephen in 1956 – for a draw.
He was the first player of Italian background to really stamp his mark on the VFL, and in 2007 was chosen in the Italian AFL Team of the Century.
And, in unlikely mix, he was a brilliant bass violinist. He sat out of football in 1937 to concentrate on his musical career, and once famously said to an opposition ruckman ‘hit me as hard as you like but don’t hurt my fingers’.
One of the greats, he is recognised with Scott McIvor at the Gabba via the Curcio/McIvor 200-Game Honour Board. And now, furthermore, as a member of the Brisbane Lions Hall of Fame … FRANK CURCIO.
