Don Currivan and Bucky Pope—The 30.0 Yards Per Catch Club

 By John Turney 

Don Currivan and Bucky Pope

For players with twenty-four (the minimum to qualify for the "NFL Record & Fact Book") or more receptions in a single NFL season, there have only been two in league history that have ended a season with an average yard per catch of 30 or more yards.

Two.

They are Don Currivan and Bucky Pope.  

Yards per catch record, per the "2023 NFL Record and Fact Book"

Currivan was a star at Boston College and had his big year with the Boston Yanks in 1947. That year he caught 24 passes for 782 yards and nine touchdowns. His average catch was 32.6 yards.

Pope burst onto the NFL scene in early 1964 and went on to catch bomb after bomb from Rams quarterbacks Roman Gabriel and fellow rookie Bill Munson. Pope ended the year with 786 yards on 25 catches for  31.4 yards per catch. Ten of his receptions went for touchdowns.

Pope was one of Steve Sabol's favorite players, based on his great year and his nickname --  the Catawba Claw -- derived from the college he attended.

Currivan and Pope were fast -- but we're not talking about Bob Hayes or Cliff Branch's speed -- but they were faster than most defensive backs at the time -- and both used it to get deep. 

Currican was a star at B.C. during the early 1940s when they had a run of success going to two Bowl games while he was an All-American playing there. 

He was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals in the third round of the 1943 draft. After being inducted by the U.S. Army he didn't fight in World War II. He was honorable discharged due to high blood pressure, an ailment physicians felt would keep him from being able to serve.

So the next year played with the Cardinals and then the merged Cards-Steelers and was all set to coach the ends at his alma mater, Boston College when the Boston Yanks came calling. Currivan was not getting a lot of playing time so he was about ready to hang the cleats up.

The Yanks and Cardinals agreed to a trade consisting of a couple of players and cash and he went on to have his best years in Beantown including the year in question.

The year after his record-setting season he slumped and the Yanks sold him to the Los Angeles Rams where he ended his career. His last, in 1949, he was a defensive back and a very good one.

During the 1950 season when the Rams were scoring record points and the defense was giving up quite a few on their own the LA media lamented the loss of Currivan in the secondary. In fact, before the season the Rams tried to talk him into another season in Los Angeles but they never came to terms and Currivan stayed with his fledgling insurance business.

There was some talk of him joining the Boston College coaching staff but like I'm 1946 it didn't materialize. 

In his seven-year career, Currivan averaged 23 or more yards a catch five times, though in a couple of those seasons he caught less than ten passes. Of his 78 career catches and 24 went for touchdowns - almost one-third. His average of 25.4 yards a reception is first all-time among players with 75 or more receptions.

No, he wasn't prolific but he did the most with his relatively few opportunities. 

Tragically several years later Currivan collapsed playing in the Cape Cod Pro-Am golf tournament and died of a cerebral hemorrhage approximately four hours after fire rescue transported him from Oyster Harbors, a goldfclub near Hyannis.  

One can't help to wonder if the ailment that kept him out of the Army was a contributing factor in his premature death. Juts a cursory Internet search does suggest a connection between the two.

Currivan was inducted into the Boston College Athletic Hall of Fame

Here are two long touchdowns against the Los Angeles Rams in 1947, one for 47 yards and the other for 51. The first one is tipped. Who says a little luck isn't part of an NFL record?

Here are a couple clips of two long scores when he was with the Rams. The first was in 1948 against the Chicago Cardinals and the second against the New York Bulldogs in 1949.

Bucky Pope was from Pittsburgh but began his collegiate career at Duke but finished at Catawba  -- a small college in North Carolina where he starred in football and basketball. He didn't meet his academic requirements as Duke so he had to make other plans and Catawba was the place. 

He got the attention of pro scouts when he caught 66 passes for 1197 yards in his last two seasons in college (making All-Carolina Conference). But the man most impressed at Rams general manager Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch. Back then GMs did some of their own scouting. On Hirsch's recommendation, the Rams took Pope in the eighth round of the 1964 draft.

In fact, it was Crazy Legs that tagged Pope with the nickname "Claw". 

Fitting.

He used his slim (195ish pounds) 6-foot-five inch frame and good speed to beat defensive backs and could fight for deep balls like they were basketball rebounds. Now they call it "high-pointing" the football.

In his rookie year, he tied for the NFL lead with 10 touchdown catches and that fabulous 31.4 yards per catch average. He was voted All-Rookie, along with eventual Hall-of-Fame wide receiver Paul Warfield and future All-Pro and NFL receiving triple crown winner Dave Parks. 

He seemed destined for a great NFL career but it was derailed his sophomore season when he hurt a knee in the 1965 preseason versus Dallas and he missed the entire year.

He joined the Rams late in 1966 due to a staph infection and rookie head coach George Allen didn't play him much. Pope thought that Allen didn't rotate receivers enough for him to get playing time. "Allen plays one quarterback, one split end and one flanker. There isn't room for anyone else."

As a result, Pope didn't think he had a future as a Rams player. So in 1967 he played out his option, taking a ten percent pay cut and even relatively healthy he didn't play much. Only when Jack Snow or Bernie Casey truly needed a breather or were nicked.

In 1968, Pope, now a free agent signed with the Falcons. He noted that he signed for enough to get his 1967 pay cut back but the Falcons coaches didn't particularly like what they saw. He wasn't the same guy they were hoping for -- a redux of the 1964 Catabaw Claw.

Prior to the season, the Falcons sent him to Jim Finks and Bud Grant on a conditional deal. The Falcons would get compensation if Pope made the team.

He didn't. 

So, the Claw sat around for most of the season until he got a call from the Green Bay Packers. They worked him out and signed him and he played three games for the reigning World Champs.

However, his time with the Packers was short. He was cut in the 1969 preseason and that ended his career.

He didn't have it anymore.  "The knee—I'd lost the speed, couldn't make the cuts," Pope later said.

Unlike Currivan, Pope has lived a long life and is 82 years old in work related to the steel industry, back home in Pittsburgh.

Here are a few clips of Bucky Pope in 1964—

Pope's 28.0 average gain is the best-ever for anyone with 30 or more receptions. Second is Currivan. No, that's not many catches, only enough to make him one of the NFL's top one-year wonders.

Currivan was more than that but still, not a guy who had a long career.

Both are tied together, though.