After 33 years, Louisiana Superdome PR guru Bill Curl is calling it quits and heading to retirement.
Some media friends of mine, including long-time Southwest Conference/Big 12 Conference PR honcho Bo Carter, had known Curl long before I did and told me that I would be greeted warmly by Curl and staff on my visit to New Orleans in September 2006 for a Monday Night Football game between the Saints and Atlanta Falcons that would officially re-open the glorious Dome one year after Hurricane Katrina struck.
Curl was seated in a makeshift media room across the street from the Dome at the New Orleans Arena. He did in fact greet me warmly despite my admitting through previous e-mails that to him that I did in fact know Bo Carter. I would come to find out that Curl and Carter were actually cut of the same cloth (try saying that fast a few times). Both were PR “throwbacks,” guys who liked to look you in the eye, understood the value of face-to-face and did not need the latest technologies, bells and whistles to ply their trade better than anyone. They were about public, and they were about relations.
Of course, the story in the Superdome on this given day was that football would again be played in New Orleans, despite some early worries after the hurricane that the Superdome might not make it. But on this beautiful night it did make it. Tailgaters were around the venue all day, and Curl was ready for the onslaught of media ready to cover the event.
The media packet was chock full of what you would expect from a PR icon … game day notes, affiliated notes, all kinds of numbers, stats and data talking about the city’s recovery and more.
Curl said in a bulk e-mail announcing his retirement (no newfangled social networking tool for this guy!) that it was also for “personal health reasons.”
May you be well in retirement, Bill. You kept us all in the media healthy through your public relations expertise.