Cureton, Hardiman

Sons of Westwood: Bruin Legends

HARDIMAN CURETON

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Played guard on both sides of the line in 1953,54,55
• Was a three-year starter on team that won three PCC championships.
• Part of Bruins' 1954 National Championship team.
• While he played the record was 26 - 4.
• Was a 26th round selections (312th overal pick) in the 1956 NFL Draft (Los Angeles Rams).

ACCOLADES

• Earned Consensus All-American honors in 1955.
• Inducted into UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005.

MEMOIRS OF A FAN

Hardiman Cureton was recruited by my Uncle as was acceptable at that time. Kind of a neat story about that recruitment by my Uncle. He had taken Cureton and another player who I cannot recall to dinner. It was a rainy nite and after dinner my Uncle was taking the guys home and hit a big puddle and it stalled the car. He could not get it started and called his buddy. His pal was asleep and had to be at work at 5:00am in the morning. My Uncle tells him he has to come and get him and the guys, his pal grumbles...can't post that stuff and my Uncle says..."you have to come, if you don't these guys are going to go to SC..! His pal get out of bed and picks em up and the rest is history

- bigtmebruin

Cureton had a mean streak on the field, but was jovial and mellow off the field. He reported to UCLA weighing something like 240 pounds prompting one sportswriter to refer to him as a giant (for that period) guard. But Sanders and staff had no use for baby fat, and they got him down to 208. At that weight he ran forties with myself and the other sprinters, and we were surprised he could keep up with us.

- DocJock