Hall of Famer and Former Oilers DL Curley Culp…

Hall of Famer and former Oilers defensive lineman Curley Culp died on Saturday of complications from pancreatic cancer.

Culp’s wife, Collette Bloom Culp, announced “on behalf of our family and with a broken heart” the five-time All-Pro’s death. He was 75.

Earlier this month, Culp announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

“Our team certainly lost a great one today!,” Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk said in a statement. “Curley was a game changer for our defense when he came to us in the trade with the Chiefs and was pivotal to our success during the Luv Ya Blue days. He rightfully earned a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and I was fortunate to spend some quality time with Curley and his wife Collette when we hosted the Oilers reunion this past September. They also brought two of their young grandchildren for that weekend and Curley’s love for those two was very obvious. He will forever be remembered as a ferocious nose tackle as a player and a Hall of Fame gentleman off the field.”

Culp, who was in Nashville earlier this season for Oilers Tribute Week, played for the Oilers from 1974 to 1980 after coming into the league with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he played from 1968 to 1974. He was traded to the Oilers in the middle of the 1974 season.

Culp was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013.

“The entire Pro Football Hall of Fame family mourns the passing of Curley Culp. He was a wonderful man of great integrity who respected the game of football and how it applied to everyday life,” Hall of Fame president Jim Porter said. “Curley’s humility and grace were always apparent.”