How one Charlotte 49ers superfan captured the heart of football coach Biff Poggi

John McCurdy is in the fight of his life.

When he returns to his Charlotte — his alma mater — he’ll see things from a different perspective.

McCurdy, a member of the Class of 1997, has been a 49ers superfan since his days as a student. An Athletic Foundation member for more than a quarter-century, McCurdy supported the university long before the football program’s inception in 2013. He even has the university in his estate plans.

What he didn’t know then this was that all of his support would come full circle.

McCurdy was rushed to the hospital on Sunday morning, Sept. 17, in critical condition. Born with Cerebral Palsy, he was dealing with a staph infection, which doctors believe stemmed from a defibrillator he’d had put in two years prior.

When he arrived at the hospital, the staff put his kidneys through shock and had to perform a tracheotomy just to prevent McCurdy from dying. But the infection grew. Pneumonia shut down his lungs, leading to Sepsis and septic shock, causing multiple organ systems to fail — everything but his brain and heart.

A day earlier, McCurdy had alerted his friends, a group from his the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, that he was under the weather and wouldn’t make it to Charlotte’s game against Georgia State. It was unusual for McCurdy to miss a Charlotte game.

“He never misses a game,” said Mark Colone, a longtime friend and current senior director of development with the university. Caleb Nolley, one of McCurdy’s best friends, notified the Charlotte athletic department of McCurdy’s illness following the loss to Georgia State. They knew something was wrong.

A lasting impression

Just eight days prior, McCurdy had made the trip to College Park, Maryland, for the Charlotte 49ers’ matchup with the Terrapins. The morning of the early-September matchup, McCurdy encountered head football coach Biff Poggi — a familiar face from preseason events, where the two first met. McCurdy and Poggi sat down and spoke outside of the team hotel, where John left a lasting impression.

“He was somebody that caught my eye. I like guys that have been through stuff, and it was apparent that he was a Cerebral Palsy guy — but his enthusiasm was off the charts,” Poggi told The Observer. “What was amazing was, I was walking out of the hotel at Maryland — and there was John. I’m like, ‘What are you doing here?’ We sat down and talked, and it was really nice because he is a glass-half-full person in life. When you get done talking to him, you feel good about yourself. He makes you feel good about you.”

McCurdy is an active member of his church, serving as a Deacon. He’s a regular at his gym in Huntersville, where he’s been a member for more than ten years. Despite walking with a limp for his entire life, he’s never applied for a handicap tag. He’s an avid hiker, and he recently trekked the Grand Canyon and visited the Hoover Dam over the summer.

Nov. 5th marked McCurdy’s 50th birthday, and his 50th consecutive day in the hospital. For five straight weeks, John was unable to speak. On Friday, Oct. 27, McCurdy underwent surgery to remove both of his feet and hands in an effort to prioritize blood flow to his heart.

“John knew two weeks before it was going to happen that he was going to lose his hands and his feet,” Colone said of McCurdy. “And he was still positive about it. It’s just amazing.”

Just days after the amputation, Poggi arrived at Atrium’s Main Medical Center unannounced. The 49ers coach brought two current football players along with him — quarterback Jalon Jones and defensive end Demon Clowney.

McCurdy flea-flicker

When Poggi and the players appeared, McCurdy’s smile lit up the room.

“When me and Jalon walked in, he was just smiling from ear to ear. That’s what stood out to me the most,” said Clowney.

His first words to the trio were “Beat Tulsa,” which was Charlotte’s upcoming opponent. Clowney, whom McCurdy had long admired from his appearance on HBO’s The Cost of Winning Docu-series, asked McCurdy to call Charlotte’s first offensive play.

McCurdy considered calling the “Student Body” play — an unstoppable play from the College Football USA 96 game on Sega Genesis, which is still one of his favorites. To Poggi’s surprise, McCurdy went with a trick play.

“I thought he would say run or pass, and he said flea-flicker. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we don’t even have that in the playbook,’” Poggi said.

Charlotte installed the play the same day and was gearing up to call it on the first snap against Tulsa — unless the Golden Hurricanes defense derailed it.

“We ran (the flea-flicker) on the first play, but Terron Kellman made a great decision because we had so much penetration; instead of pitching it back — he just turned it into a run, which we didn’t even practice,” Poggi said.

But Poggi wasn’t leaving Oklahoma without running John’s play.

Trailing by five points late in the third quarter, Charlotte’s offense needed a jolt. Poggi told offensive coordinator Mike Miller to run the flea-flicker.

“When we executed the play, I instantly said, ‘Oh my God, they’re doing it,’” athletic director Mike Hill said. “It was just a gorgeous play. It was a beautiful pass and a beautiful catch. It gave me chills when it happened.”

Walk-on quarterback Trexler Ivey received the pitch back from Kellman and lofted a deep ball down the right sideline, finding the outstretched arms of tight end Bryce Kennon. Charlotte’s sideline exploded when Kennon reeled in the pass, setting up Charlotte for what would become the second-biggest comeback victory in program history.

“That play really shifted the momentum of the game,” Ivey said of the flea-flicker. “Once we hit that, we started rolling with confidence.”

The 49ers saved their season with an overtime victory, all while donning McCurdy’s initials “JM” on the back of their helmet.

New perspective

That same helmet sits in McCurdy’s hospital room, decorated with pictures of his friends, family and his cat. The first thing you notice when you walk in is a Charlotte flag, a 49ers helmet signed by the team, as well as Poggi’s game-ball from Charlotte’s first conference victory over ECU — hand-delivered by the 63-year-old head coach.

“John and Biff shared just a couple of interactions, and he’s absolutely concerned with him to the point where he visits him, he texts him, he calls his mom — he’s doing all of this stuff,” Colone said. “It just tells you what kind of man Biff is. He is so good to his players, teaching life lessons, but what he’s done for John is amazing. It’s a beautiful story.”

McCurdy’s story is yet to be fully written. Multiple nurses told McCurdy’s family that with his 106.5-degree fever upon arrival, he might not survive.

But he keeps waking up.

“It’s an incredible story. It’s a tragic story but a feel-good story,” said long-time friend Michael Foy. “He’s going to make the most of it. He’s not going to let it beat him. It may change the way that he lives his life in a lot of ways, but he’ll overcome it.”

Despite the loss of his hands and feet, things are looking up for McCurdy. His pneumonia has subsided, and he’s working with a speech therapist to return to his normal cadence. The process of minimizing ventilator use has already begun, and McCurdy’s next steps include being moved to an inpatient rehab facility. There’s a possibility that with a combination of prosthetic limbs, artificial intelligence, and time to fully heal, McCurdy will be able to walk again.

McCurdy told Poggi that he plans to make the trip to Tampa for the regular-season finale against South Florida. While that trip will have to wait, Poggi has plans for the 50-year-old upon his release from the hospital. Poggi wants McCurdy to join the 49ers at the Judy W. Rose Football Center once his recovery is complete.

“I said to him, ‘I’ll hire you when you get out of here. You just come to the office, and you can do analytics for us. Be on our analytics team and be a part of the team.’ I would love for him to be a part of this program. He’s a treasure,” Poggi said.

McCurdy’s road to recovery isn’t linear, and it’s going to be a long road, but there will almost assuredly be a smile on his face every step of the way.