Stephen Curry is a member of perhaps the most athletically decorated bloodline in the region’s history.
Stephen Curry is also a Snell.
“If I sit here and talk to you about this family, you’ll be dizzy,” said his maternal grandmother, Candy Adams of Radford.
The tree branches are thick
The roots of the Snell family in Radford date from the turn of the 20th century when a railroad worker from Patrick County decided to make the community his home.
Wesley Snell — Stephen Curry’s great-great-great-grandfather — and wife Flora Etta raised 11 children in their house on Russell Avenue in Radford, which became the foundation for the athletic lineage.
During the 1970s and ’80s, the name Snell was routinely printed in sports page headlines heralding the athletic careers of Stephen Curry’s cousins, Sidney Snell and Donald Wayne Snell, both of whom spent time leading the Hokies football team in pass receiving during their respective seasons.
Adams was a frequently printed name in the sports pages, too. Sonya Adams Curry was part of Radford teams that won state titles in basketball and volleyball, and her sister, India Adams, was named the 1988 Timesland girls basketball player of the year. Sonya Adams Curry went on to play volleyball at Tech, while India Adams played basketball at Belmont Abbey College.
In the 1990s, another cousin in the Snell line, Doug Day Jr., basically rewrote the Radford University basketball record book while also setting the NCAA record for career 3-point shots made at 401. Stephen Curry would finish his three-year career at Davidson College with 414 3-pointers.
Day, who is currently the head boys basketball coach at his alma mater, Blacksburg High School, said growing up having seen his older cousins’ success was a motivating factor for his own athletic career.
“That always pushed me to want to achieve and be as successful as they had been in high school and college,” he said.
He even recalled picking up a few tips while a high school player from his cousin Sonya’s college sweetheart, future NBA star and Stephen Curry’s father, Dell.
“We worked on my shot, coming off screens, catch and shoot quickly, some things he had been taught when he was coming up,” Day said.
More recently the Snell family tree has seen Stephen Curry’s uncle Cleive Adams become the head football coach at Averett University, and cousins Brenden Motley, Daniella Motley and Donald Wayne Snell’s son Zach Snell each become athletic stars at Christiansburg High School. Daniella Motley went on to play basketball for Wofford College, while Brenden Motley is currently fighting for playing time at quarterback for the Hokies.
“I’d basically say sports are everything to our family,” Brenden Motley said.
Zach Snell was also on Tech’s football team, as an invited walk-on, but left the team this spring to focus on school following injures to both wrists. Cleive Adams’ son Cleive Adams Jr. has taken a more original path into athletics by becoming a professional bullfighter in rodeos throughout Virginia and North Carolina.
“We’re still growing them and they’re still playing,” Sidney Snell said of his younger relatives.
And then, of course, there’s Stephen Curry’s siblings, ex-Duke and current NBA Development League guard Seth Curry, and Sydel Curry, who just finished her sophomore season on Elon University’s volleyball team.
“It’s so hard to keep track of what everybody does and you end up leaving somebody out and their feelings are hurt and it goes on,” Candy Adams said.
“You can’t just let Stephen overshadow everybody else,” her sister Lulabelle Lewis chimed in.
Stephen Curry’s cousin, Joseph Snell, a program associate with the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies in Washington, D.C., has spent countless hours and miles during the past four years researching the family’s history. Wesley Snell is Stephen Curry’s great-great-great-grandfather and Joseph Snell’s great-great-grandfather.
Joseph Snell has tracked the family’s roots back to Patrick County personal property tax records from the 1850s, which list Wesley Snell’s father, John Snell, as well as his grandmother Eliza Snell, among free blacks living on personal property.
He said his great-great-grandfather was known for having large, strong hands and coated railroad ties in creosote, among other things, for the Norfolk and Western Railway. He was also one of three charter members of the Radford Church of God in Christ on Russell Avenue.
Among Wesley Snell’s 11 children were Archie Snell Sr., a World War I veteran and Stephen Curry’s great-great-grandfather, and Hattie Mae Snell Day, the mother of both Sidney Grant Snell and Doug Day Sr.
On Friday, the Radford Army Ammunition Plant dedicated a building the Douglas M. Day Fire and Emergency Services Building in honor of the longtime arsenal employee, who died in 2012.
Archie Snell’s daughter Evelyn is the mother of Max Snell and Candy Adams. Max Snell fathered Donald Wayne Snell, Brenda Motley — mother of Brenden and Daniella Motley — and Steve Snell, who today is an assistant men’s basketball coach at Santa Clara University in California.
Candy Adams is the mother of Sonya Adams Curry, Cleive Adams and India Adams.
“We’re all linked. … Everybody is going in so many different directions, but everybody knows everything that they need to know about the family,” Candy Adams said.
Stephen has the floor
As of late, one thing all branches of the Snell family tree seem to know is the tipoff time for the Warriors’ games.
“You think I’m going to miss it? I got that NBA All-Access. I’m right there,” Candy Adams said.
Candy Adams said she rarely makes the trip from her Radford home to the West Coast to see her grandson play, but did make the trip last month to watch him receive the MVP trophy in California.
“I thought I was just going to melt in the floor,” she said.
Lewis said she might see Stephen Curry once a year, but she knows their connection is special.
She recalled a family member who was on his deathbed a couple of years ago and badly wanted to see Stephen Curry.
“And the day he died, Stephen had been here maybe an hour.He flew into Charlotte, got in a car, and drove up here,” Lewis said.
The act was an example of the family bond of which Cleive Adams said outsiders are often jealous.
“A lot of friends and people who are connected are very envious of the type of relationship we have,” he said.
Many family members said they would have very much liked to have seen Stephen Curry follow in his parents’ footsteps and attend Virginia Tech, but Candy Adams said she believed things not working out with the Hokies and Seth Greenberg, Tech’s basketball coach at that time, was part of a larger plan.
“It was God looking after Stephen,” Candy Adams said.
Most members are also in agreement that they too had underestimated Stephen Curry’s potential.
“I knew he was going to hold his own in the NBA, but this status, I never would have dreamed it,” Candy Adams said.
Brenden Motley said his cousin’s journey and faith had been an example for his own athletic pursuits.
“Seeing Stephen where he is now — keeping his faith in God and giving God the glory — it’s definitely motivation that I could do the same thing. It’s definitely motivation to keep working and that anything is possible,” he said.
Stephen Curry has already taken the family’s legacy to a new level with his historic season, and now the family is hoping he tops it off by hoisting the Larry O’Brien NBA championship trophy.
“That would be the icing on the cake,” Day said.
and yes, it has everything to do with the biracial offspring. how can you ostracize IR relationship but still allow society to boast their offspring as the best, brightest, and most attractive of your community.
well there goes @Gravity's defense
