Raymond Berry, the Hall of Fame wide receiver who played on the great Baltimore Colts teams that won NFL championships in 1958 and 1959, died on May 25 at the age of 93.
Mr. Berry will forever be associated with the late legendary Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas. The 6-foot-2, 187-pound receiver was Unitas’ favorite target, and the two combined for 63 touchdowns during the 12 seasons both were with the Colts. In a 13-year career spent entirely in Baltimore from 1955-1967, Mr. Berry caught 651 passes for 9,559 yards and 69 touchdowns in 154 regular-season games and four playoff games.
After his playing days, Mr. Berry became a coach and was the head coach of the New England Patriots from 1984-1989, taking that team to Super Bowl XX.
Mr. Berry and Unitas had an uncanny connection, the result of long hours of practice together, and that special quarterback-receiver magic was memorably on display during the Colts’ 1958 overtime championship win against the New York Giants, 23-17, dubbed the “Greatest Game Ever Played.”
In the nationally televised game, Mr. Berry caught 12 passes for 178 yards and one touchdown.
In a 2009 interview published on the Baltimore Ravens website, Mr. Berry said the three catches he made during the last-minute drive in regulation that led to the Colts’ field goal tying the game and sending it into overtime were the best of his career.
“[When asked about my best career catch], the first thing that came to my mind, without question, were the three most important catches I ever made in our two-minute drive to send that game [to overtime],” Mr. Berry said in that interview. “I didn’t get it at the time, but without question, that’s the high point of my entire pro career, those three catches.”
The next year, when the Colts and Giants met again in the championship game, Mr. Berry made five catches as Baltimore won, 31-16.
Along with being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973, he was named to six Pro Bowls and the NFL’s 75th Anniversary All-Time Team. His most productive season was 1960, when he caught 74 passes for 1,298 yards and 10 touchdowns in just 12 games.
Mr. Berry was born and raised in Texas and played football at Southern Methodist University. He was not regarded highly coming out of college and was drafted in the 20th round, the 232nd pick overall.
Mr. Berry was considered slow — he reportedly ran a 4.8-second 40-yard dash — and had various physical challenges. He needed contact lenses, and he wore a back brace when he played.
To compensate, Mr. Berry became a master technician, honing his deft moves in endless practice and learning to run his pass routes to perfection. He’d do anything possible to improve, getting just about anyone he could — even his wife — to throw to him.
Mr. Berry’s devotion to improvement included constant film study during an era when it wasn’t as commonplace as today, as he studied his opponents and the Colts looking for any detail that would help him improve and the team to win.
He joked in a Baltimore Sun article that he “must be the only player whose contract included his own Bell and Howell projector. People thought I was nuts.”
Soon after he retired from playing, Mr. Berry went into coaching and was an assistant in college (University of Arkansas) and with several NFL teams. After a hiatus from football, Berry became the head coach of the Patriots, when he replaced Ron Meyer midway through the 1984 season. In his first full year as an NFL coach, Mr. Berry took New England to the Super Bowl following the 1985 season, but in Super Bowl XX, the Patriots ran into the great Chicago Bears team and were routed, 46-10. Mr. Berry finished with a 48-39 regular-season record (3-2 playoffs) as a head coach.
Berry is survived by his wife, Sally, his three children and nine grandchildren.
Photo Credit: Sabina Moran/PressBox