Francis Eduardo Curcio, known simply as Frank, was a man with an unlikely mix of elite talents. He was a tough as nails Fitzroy footballer and an acclaimed bass violinist. And he did both especially well.
So well did he play violin, and so conscious was he of protecting his hands, the powerhouse ruckman/defender once famously told North Melbourne opponent Fred Fairweather “hit me as hard as you like, but don't hurt my fingers”.
Seventy-seven years ago this week in football terms Curcio, originally of Italian heritage, grabbed a special place in Fitzroy Football Club history. Player #424 on the club’s all-time player list, he did what the 423 players before him and all but 10 of 733 who followed him failed to do.
In Round 2 1946, when Fitzroy played Collingwood at Victoria Park, Curcio played his 200th game. Originally recruited from the Christian Young Men’s Society in 1931 and unscrupulously fair, he was the first Fitzroy player to a double-century and just the 35th in a competition beginning its 50th season.
It was a mark that would have come two years earlier had he not sat out the 1937 season to concentrate on his music, and not missed the 1944 season, when Fitzroy won their last premiership, due to military service in the Second World War.
He missed only 57 games in his 17-year career – 45 due to his musical exploits and his preparedness to fight for his country – yet had to be content listening to the 1944 grand final on radio while stationed in New Guinea.
He’d done the hard years. Ten seasons without a finals appearance from 1932 and four seasons as captain from 1938-41 before a 1943 campaign in which Fitzroy, known as the Gorillas from 1938-57, returned to the finals. They finished third on the home-and-away ladder, beat Carlton by 51 points in a semi-final and lost to eventual premiers Richmond in the preliminary final.
And then, when they were finally ready to win their first flag since 1922, the man on whom so much had been built was missing.
He’d even been denied appropriate individual recognition in an era in which club records were poor, and only two Fitzroy best & fairest winners were recorded from 1933-43. Quite probably Curcio was a multiple winner who wasn’t.
It was Round 7 1945 before Curcio returned to the Fitzroy after the war. And by then he’d reluctantly been forced to abandon his violin after he suffered three broken fingers in a mishap in a services matches earlier that year.
So when he returned from war service it was only right that he had his time in the spotlight, first in Round 17 1945 when he played his 196th game to better Percy Parratt’s club record, and then in Round 2 1946 when he played his 200th.
Curcio was a year and a half older and 73 games more experienced than captain-coach Fred Hughson in his double-century. And although a 16-point Collingwood win in front of a reported crowd of 22,000 wasn’t what Fitzroy faithful had hoped for, he was suitably by fans and players from both teams.
When he retired at the end of the 1948 season he had stretched the Fitzroy games-record to 249 and ranked 9th on the all-time AFL games list. He’d also set a League record for games in jumper #18, which 74 years on has been topped by only three players – Port Adelaide’s Kane Cornes (293), Essendon’s Matthew Lloyd (270) and Melbourne’s Brad Green (254).
Curcio lived 40 years beyond his football retirement and maintained a close connection to the club.
He even coached the side once against Carlton at Brunswick Street Oval in 1956 when Bill Stephen was unavailable. Although they were beaten he claimed the distinction of giving 151-game Lion and two-time best & fairest winner Graham Campbell his first taste of League football.
He passed away on 11 November 1988 two weeks short of his 76th birthday and almost sadly the biggest individual accolades of his career came after his death.
In 2001 he was named in the back pocket in the Fitzroy Team of the Century, and in 2007, having been the first player of Italian background to emerge as a really top-flight player, he was selected in the Italian Team of the Century.
He was further honoured when, after the Brisbane-Fitzroy merger, he was further recognised via a 200-Game Honour Board set up in the players’ rooms and named in honour of Curcio and Scott McIvor, a 200-game Queenslander who played first for Fitzroy and later the Bears/Lions.
