CHARGER ’86 PREVIEW : Curran’s New Arena : Former Receiver Has Kept His Link to the Game as Team’s Business Manager

The walls of Charger business manager Pat Curran’s office are lined with awards and pictures that capsule his 18-year National Football League career, including five as a tight end for the Chargers.

A small grouping of motion picture stills and two movie posters adorning the wall directly facing Curran’s desk seem oddly out of place--at least until Curran talks about his football career. Then the bit of movie memorabilia seems appropriate.

A poster of the Marx Brothers’ frantic comedy “Coconuts” can aptly describe a typical in-season day for Curran, who balances himself precariously between what the Chargers’ media guide describes as “an endless list of administrative duties,” doubling as color commentator for radio broadcasts of Charger games and being host of the “Chargers Talk” postgame show.

The second poster, Mae West’s “Every Day’s a Holiday,” speaks for itself. And for Curran.

“I’m one of the fortunate people,” Curran said. “A lot of players leave and are really lost for a year or two--some never find themselves.”

Curran didn’t give himself time to get lost. He retired March 1, 1980, and started his new job as Charger business manager two days later.

“We dealt with Pat when he was the player rep,” Charger General Manager Johnny Sanders said. “He was firm, but he was friendly.”

Sanders said that he, assistant general manager Tank Younger and former Charger owner Gene Klein were impressed with Curran’s administrative ability and developed plans for the player when he retired.

“We all knew he had a good business head,” Sanders said. “Mr. Klein said, ‘When he gets done playing, we’re going to hire him.’ When Pat retired we just happened to have an opening for business manager. It worked out perfectly.”

Curran says he was lucky because he spent the greater part of the 1979 season on the injured reserve list. That year was instrumental in helping him with the transition.

Although his heart and mind wanted to play, Curran’s right knee told him it was time to retire.

“When it’s over, it’s over that fast,” Curran said, snapping his fingers. “It’s over faster than it took to get in. Then you have to get rid of that player mentality. You have to realize people are not that glad to see you any more.”

Although Curran had a relatively smooth transition, he still felt a twinge to get out on the field the first day of practice.

“You eat your heart out,” he said. “The biggest transition a player makes is in that first year. It’s a select group of people who can do that. The first year is the real mental torture.

“I was lucky. I was injured, but I was doing radio broadcasts and the players still looked at me as part of the team. I was still part of the game. I still had the camaraderie with the players. The second year, I was already in my job and loving it.”

Today, Curran says he still feels the same way about his job, which includes making all travel arrangements for the team and handling many of the day-to-day internal operations of the administrative offices, such as selecting telephone systems and other equipment.

“It was made for me,” he said. “I knew I wanted to stay involved in football somehow--it really becomes a part of you.”

A career in pro football wasn’t always at the forefront of Curran’s life, however. He went to Iowa State on a football scholarship but left after one year. “I was not ready to leave home yet,” Curran says now.

He returned home to Milwaukee and decided to join some of his high school friends at nearby Lakeland College, an NAIA school of about 600 students.

Curran played football at Lakeland for three years, setting numerous school records as a running back and leading the team to two Gateway Conference titles. But not even Curran knew just how much pro scouts were interested him.

“I didn’t realize I was going to get drafted until my senior year,” Curran said. “I was kind of confused at the time.”

The Rams chose him in the sixth round in 1969, a year when the team had three No. 1 choices.

“Talk about your transitions,” Curran said. “They brought me up fast--I was trained.

“They had blocking sleds I’d never seen before. At Lakeland we blocked the back of the coach’s car with pads on it.”

Curran played six years with the Rams and three of those seasons the team won the NFC Western Division title. In 1975, Curran was traded to the Chargers. He was named the Most Valuable Player and Most Inspirational Player that year after leading the team in receiving with 45 catches for 619 yards.

Curran, who says he has always been a movie fan, received his first taste of Hollywood while with the Rams. Part of the film “Hickey and Boggs,” a crime thriller featuring Bill Cosby and Robert Culp, was shot at the Coliseum during a football game. And Curran was captured on celluloid running upfield for a tackle on a kickoff.

“I thought, ‘Look, I’m in the movies,’ ” Curran said. He followed that up with appearances in “Prisoner of Second Avenue,” which he describes as “about six seconds--most of me ended up on the cutting room floor,” and “Scavenger Hunt.”

Dreams of movie magic aside, Curran now spends most of his time barking orders to interns and anyone else who ventures into his office, juggling phone calls and greeting untold numbers of visiting VIPs.

“People in my position don’t last that long,” Curran said. “There’s high turnover because they have to deal with players. The players can be intimidating. But I was a player. I am not intimidated. I have an advantage because most administrative people have not played football. I guess they don’t know where the players are coming from. I can understand the players’ feelings.”