Ulysses "Crazy Legs" Curtis (May 10, 1926 – October 6, 2013) was an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offense ...

in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

(CFL) for the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Argonauts compete in the East Division (CFL), East Division of t ...

from 1950 to 1954. He won two

Grey Cup The Grey Cup () is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners ...

s with Toronto in 1950 and 1952. Curtis was long considered the Argonauts' first black player. On February 2, 2021, it was revealed that Curtis was only their second ever black player after Ken Whitlock, a halfback & kicker who played only 4 games for the Argonauts in 1948. Curtis is sixth on the Argonauts all-time career

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

list with 47 touchdowns, fourth on the Argos all-time rushing list with 3,712

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English units, English unit of length in both the British imperial units, imperial and US United States customary units, customary systems of measurement equalling 3 foot (unit), feet or 36 inches. Sinc ...

s on 529 carries, second on the Argos all-time list with most yards in a game with 208 yards, and third on the team list of most 100-yard rushing games with 12. After retirement from football, Curtis remained in Toronto and raised his family. He owned a cleaning business and later became a teacher and coach in the North York Board of Education. In 1959 he coached the North York Knights, a team that played in the national Canadian Junior Football championships. He also helped coach the

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

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in the 1960s. He was named to the Toronto Argonauts All-Time Argos List in 2005. Curtis died October 6, 2013, in Toronto.

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External links

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Historical Albion Michigan bio: Ulysses Curtis
1926 births 2013 deaths Florida A&M Rattlers football players Toronto Argonauts players Canadian football running backs People from Albion, Michigan Sportspeople from Calhoun County, Michigan Players of American football from Michigan 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen 21st-century African-American sportsmen Players of Canadian football from Michigan {{Canadianfootball-runningback-stub