Why did we hire Bill Curry?

LEAD: Bill Curry was named football coach at Alabama today, and Steve Sloan, a former Crimson Tide quarterback, accepted the athletic director's job.

Bill Curry was named football coach at Alabama today, and Steve Sloan, a former Crimson Tide quarterback, accepted the athletic director's job.

Both resigned their current coaching posts - Curry at Georgia Tech and Sloan at Duke - to take the positions vacated by Ray Perkins, who resigned Wednesday. Perkins was selected as head coach and vice president of operations of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after leading Alabama to a 10-3 record.

Joab Thomas, Alabama's president, said at a news conference at the Crimson Tide's football complex that he ''can't stand to lose,'' adding that both Curry and Sloan ''can bring a continuing winning program to the University of Alabama.''

The 44-year-old Curry said that until he received the offer from Alabama, he never thought he would surrender the coaching job at Georgia Tech, his alma mater. He held the post for seven years, compiling a 31-43-4 record.

''I want to thank the incredible Georgia Tech family that I thought I would never leave,'' Curry said. He said that after talking it over with his wife and children, he had an ''intuitive compulsion that this is the right thing to do.''

''I've always been fascinated by the Alabama mystique,'' Curry said. He said the mystique stems from a university family ''that really loves this institution and what it means. My job as football coach is to carry on the Alabama tradition.''

''I do know that a concerted effort has been instituted to graduate every single player and I would like to be part of continuing that and building on it,'' he added.

Curry said that with the combined efforts of all sectors of the university, ''We will give you the program that Alabama people deserve.''

Thomas said the search committee that he headed to find a successor to Perkins considered three main criteria.

''First and foremost, we wanted people who had unquestioned integrity,'' Thomas said. ''Second, we wanted people who would assist in the continuing efforts to improve academic records for our student athletes, and third, we wanted to win.''

A Raleigh, N.C., television station, WRAL-TV, reported that Sloan and his staff had nominatedan assistant coach, Richard Bell, to replace Sloan as head coach at Duke. Sloan, who was quarterback at Alabama from 1963 through 1965, compiled a 13-31 record at Duke.