Long before Brendan and Andrew Curran took to the Northwestern wrestling mats, they were terrorizing their mother by grappling with each other on the floor of their Chicago home.
Fourteen years and many pins later, the Curran brothers are both standouts in NU’s line-up. Although Andrew has sat out most of the year recovering from knee surgery, this weekend he will rejoin the Wildcats (5-7, 0-3 Big Ten) as they take on Illinois (7-3, 1-2) Friday in Champaign and two-time defending national champion Minnesota (12-4, 3-0) Sunday in Minneapolis.
When Andrew, a junior, returns to the mat, he will continue a friendly competition with his brother that began in third grade.
“Deep down I think there is a little bit of rivalry,” said Brendan, a senior. “I enjoy watching him succeed, but at the same token, when he succeeds, I want to do that much better because I want to outdo him.”
Their competitive spirit filled the Curran household when the two were younger. With three rambunctious sons, Marylin Curran needed to find a new channel for their energy.
That, and she wanted a quieter home.
“I guess with three boys, she just needed to get us out of the house, so we all got into wrestling,” Andrew said.
Although the boys started wrestling at a young age, they admit they weren’t phenoms from the start.
“I really wasn’t that good at wrestling at all when I was in grammar school,” Brendan said. “I was just mediocre — which kind of makes me wonder why I stuck with it from fourth to eighth grade.”
Both Andrew and Brendan improved throughout their careers at Mt. Carmel High School on the city’s South Side. When it came time to choose a college, Brendan was attracted to NU for the academics and the chance to wrestle in the most competitive conference in the country.
For Andrew, it wasn’t a case of being a tag-along.
“We both wrestle together, we both played football and went to the same high school, but besides those superficial things, we both led our own lives,” Brendan said. “We are really good friends and have gotten to be better friends in college. In high school, we didn’t go our different ways, but we certainly didn’t follow each other.”
Last year the two moved into a dorm room together and rediscovered each other’s quirks.
“He’d set the clock at eight and then he’d get up and turn it off and then he would do it again — 10 or 15 times in a row,” Brendan said. “He wouldn’t just set it at 8:30 and go.”
Countered Andrew: “That was my thing — what he does is not printable.”
They may have enjoyed living with each other, but there is one thing neither Curran wants to do: wrestle his brother in a match. That nearly happened once, in middle school, but their mother made them forfeit.
Besides, Brendan said the two have been practicing against each other for so long and know each other’s moves so well that a matchup would be nothing more than frustrating.
Brendan’s opportunities to wrestle are beginning to dwindle as he approaches graduation, although he’s considering staying for a fifth season.
“By far, wrestling is the hardest sport ever invented, and as much as it is an individual sport, it’s a team sport,” he said. “You all go through the tough times and being broken down with those people, you build a camaraderie.”
While Brendan may be on his way out next year, another Curran may be on his way in. Youngest brother Justin, now a high school senior, is considering attending NU next year, too.
“He tries a lot to match what we did in high school through his own actions right now,” Brendan said.
NU (5-7, 0-3 Big Ten) at Illinois (7-3, 1-2)
7 p.m., today
Champaign, Ill.
NU at Minnesota (12-4, 3-0)
2 p.m. Sunday
Minneapolis
