Rabbit Currey

In the 1920s during a lunch period at Albertville, a group of boys were playing football. A little inconspicuous fellow named Currey got the ball and ran with speed that stunned the sandlotters as he zigged this way and zagged that way for a touchdown. A nearby fan saw the performance and hollered out, “Rabbit Currey!” The name stuck.

The 5 feet 5 1/2 inch Zolen made the team the first year he went out at Albertville and played four years.

In 1926 Guntersville had high hopes of bringing Albertville’s winning streak to an end. When they failed to do so, the Guntersville newspaper lamented, “There was too much Currey.”

Rabbit received scholarship offers from Howard, Alabama and Birmingham-Southern. The summer following his freshman year at Birmingham-Southern, along comes Jacksonville State with a better offer, and Rabbit took it. Rabbit played for Jacksonville five years. That is correct, five years.

In 1982 Jacksonville celebrated its Centennial and declared Rabbit to be a “Centennial Athlete.” That meant he was one of the 100 greatest athletes in the first 100 years of the school. He went to live with an uncle at Snead to help in the rolling store business. Eventually he opened a store at the crossroads on Highway 205 west of Albertville. The community became known as “Rabbittown,” named after him. After being self-employed and working in Birmingham, he started coaching in 1948. Coaching stops included Ranburne, Locust Fork, Susan Moore, Oneonta and Appalachian.