Bob Ferry and Dick Szymanski, two colorful personalities whose careers took similar paths with two different Baltimore sports teams in the 1960s and 1970s, passed away within the last two weeks.
Both Ferry and Szymanski used their playing experiences as stepping stones to longer tenures as front office executives for the Bullets and Colts when both teams joined the Orioles to give Baltimore its Golden Era of Sports.
Ferry played the last five years of his 10-year NBA career in Baltimore while gradually transforming to the role of scout and assistant coach under Gene Shue. He became the team’s general manager when the team moved to the D.C. area after the 1972-73 season.
Szymanski was a second-round draft choice out of Notre Dame by the Colts, breaking in as a center, making the transition to linebacker when he returned from the Army in 1957. Five years later he returned to his original position, where he was named All-Pro five times.
After retiring in 1969, “Sizzy” started his executive career as a scout, eventually moving into the role of Colts director of player personnel before serving as the team’s GM from 1977-1982.
Ernie Accorsi, the Colts’ assistant and eventual general manager, knew Sysmanski and Ferry well and has fond memories of both.
“There were a lot of times, when we were together on PR events, we would finish the night at [Bill] Pellington’s restaurant, many times with Frank Cashen, Bob Brown and Bud Freeman of the Orioles, and just talk,” Accorsi said. “They were some great times.”
Having worked together for more than a decade, Accorsi knew Szymanski probably better than anybody in, or outside of, the Colts’ organization.
“Sizzy had a certain calmness about him in the general manager’s job,” said Accorsi, who would later go on to work with, and also succeed, George Young with the New York Giants.
Given that those were the (owner Bob) Irsay years, it’s safe to say the calmness was a prerequisite.
“I always had the feeling that becoming a general manager was not his ultimate goal,” Accorsi said. “It happened and he was happy to achieve it, but he felt he left his mark as a player. He was a Pro Bowl player, a scout, an interim offensive line coach, and a GM. There wasn’t a job in pro football he didn’t have — he touched all the bases.”
During Ferry’s 17-year GM reign with the Bullets (now Wizards) the team made the payoffs 13 times and won the organization’s only NBA title in 1978. Those were also formative years in Accorsi’s career.
“I got a lot of advice from Bob when he became general manager of the Bullets and I was just working my way up,” Accorsi said. “He always had a simple, common-sense approach and it worked.”
It was as a scout, however, that Ferry made his most significant contributions. And even though he was a 6-foot-8 center noted for his outside shooting ability, Ferry had a keen eye for all facets of the game. He was particularly adept when it came to judging backcourt play, especially on the offensive end.
He was instrumental in the decisions to draft Earl Monroe (1967) and Unseld (1968) and even though those decisions seem easy today, especially given the fact that the Bullets lost a coin flip both years — and most likely would have taken Jimmy Walker and Elvin Hayes had they won — they weren’t no-brainers at the time.
Monroe was a scoring machine, but at the College Division level at Winston-Salem, and Unseld was a prohibitively undersized center who had modest scoring statistics but outlandish rebounding skills that to this day still rank him among the NBA’s all-time greats.
Ferry also recommended the early draft of Phil Chenier, who still holds the scoring record (53 points) at what was then the Baltimore Civic Center (now Royal Farms Arena) and had All-Star potential thwarted by a back injury that cut short a promising career.
Kevin Porter was one of Ferry’s unsung draft choices in the third round in 1982, but his biggest “under the radar” pick ever was also the shortest player who has ever played in the NBA — Baltimore’ Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues (Dunbar), the 5-foot-3 guard who the Bullets drafted in the first round (12th overall) out of Wake Forest in 1987.
“I may have stuck my neck out a little on this one,” Ferry said shortly after making a choice that some called a gimmick. Bogues would only play one year with the Bullets before going to Charlotte in the expansion draft, but he ended up logging a 14-year career in the NBA, more than justifying Ferry’s faith in him.
A longtime resident of Annapolis, where he was active in the Boys and Girls club, Ferry passed away on Oct. 27. Services are scheduled for Thursday and Friday this week.
Arrangements were incomplete for Szymanski, who suffered with Alzheimer’s before dying at his home in Sanford, Fla., on Oct. 28.
Jim Henneman can be reached at JimH@pressboxonline.com
Photo Credit: NBA Photos