Prior to placing the capstone on a career rich in character-building and idealism, there is one thing best understood about Bill Curry.

Winning mattered, too.

Before he was a nagging conscience of college football, before his mid-80s declaration that his Georgia Tech team would drive the cheaters to their knees, he was growing up in College Park as Bill Sr.s son. And when you were in the company of the elder Curry, a man as unyielding as the weights he lifted competitively, you did everything with intense desire to be the best.

Curry, too, was the lineman who sampled victory in Super Bowls I and V with Green Bay and Baltimore, and very much enjoyed the taste.

And when he didnt win, it hurt like blazes.

Look, this is America, we play to win, he said. If you play football and get your college degree and you dont learn how to win youve been cheated. Just as surely as if you win a bunch of games and you dont get your degree.

You got to win its not even fun if you dont win. Its a nightmare.

The days have dwindled to a precious three on a 20-year coaching career that defies easy assaying. Curry has breathed life into his Georgia Tech alma mater, been an unhappy outsider at Alabama, tried to convert Kentuckians to a less spherical ball and grew a program from the asphalt of Georgia State. At 70, he will retire Saturday after the Panthers final game of the season at Maine.

Normally, high up in the legacy-writing process, you cite some one-sided career record and let the numbers herald the man. Curry enters his last hurrah with a 93-127-4 lifetime ledger.

Yes, he had some splendid moments: His 1980 Tech team played No. 1-ranked Notre Dame to a 3-3- tie; his 1984 and 85 teams recorded huge victories over Georgia; his 1989 Alabama team won an SEC title. The final classes he signed at Georgia Tech and Alabama both would go on to help win national titles for another coach. But, often saddled with building/rebuilding projects, Curry would endure more losing seasons (11) than winning ones (7).

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Curry’s coaching legacy not numbers driven