Raymond Berry, 1933-2026

Jerry Rice is now generally regarded as the greatest receiver in football history. Before he started racking up records, there were 2 serious contenders for that title: Don Hutson of the 1930s and '40s Green Bay Packers, and Raymond Berry.

Raymond Emmett Berry Jr. was born on February 27, 1933 in Corpus Christi, Texas, and grew up outside Dallas in Paris, Texas. Raymond Sr. was the head football coach at Paris High School, and yet Raymond Jr. did not start until he was a senior. (Gene Stallings, who coached Alabama to the 1992 National Championship, also graduated from Paris High.)

Raymond Jr. went to junior college for a year, and then transferred to Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In 3 seasons, he caught just 33 passes. There was no indication that he would become an all-time legend. But then, it was a different game then: The NFL was just beginning to have great quarterbacks, such as Otto Graham of the Cleveland Browns, Norm Van Brocklin of the Los Angeles Rams, Bobby Layne of the Detroit Lions, and Y.A. Tittle of the San Francisco 49ers. The college game wasn't full of star quarterbacks. As Berry later said, "I didn't catch many passes, because not many were thrown."

The Baltimore Colts drafted him in the 20th round of the 1954 NFL Draft. At the time, the Draft was held at the end of the season in the same calendar year, not before it. So his rookie year was 1955. With George Shaw as the regular quarterback, Berry only caught 13 passes. The next year, the Colts signed Johnny Unitas, and he and Berry replaced Graham and Dante Lavelli, or perhaps Van Brocklin and Tom Fears, as the greatest passer-receiver combination in football.

In 1957, Berry led the NFL with 800 receiving yards. In 1958, he led with 56 catches and 9 touchdowns. In 1959, he led with 66 catches, 959 yards, 80 yards per game, and 14 touchdowns. In 1960, he led with 74 catches, 1,298 yards, and 108 yards per game. In 1961, he led with a career-high 75 catches. From 1957 to 1960, Unitas set a record with 47 consecutive games with a touchdown pass, many of them to Berry. (The record stood until 2012, broken by Drew Brees.)

In 1958, with 6 future members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- Unitas, Berry, running back Lenny Moore, guard Jim Parker, defensive tackle Art Donovan and defensive end Gino Marchetti, 7 counting head coach Wilbur "Weeb" Ewbank -- the Colts reached the NFL Championship Game, and beat the New York Giants in overtime, 23-17 at Yankee Stadium. It became known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played." Berry caught 12 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown.

In 1959, the Colts and Giants met in the NFL Championship Game again, this time at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, as the title game then alternated between the home fields of the East Division Champions and the West Division Champions. (The Colts were placed in the West simply because there weren't yet enough NFL teams in the Western U.S.) Again, the Colts won, 31-16, though Berry only caught 5 passes for 68 yards.

For the rest of his career, Berry, like the Colts overall, remained good but not at championship level. He retired after the 1967 season with 631 receptions and 9,275 receiving yards, both then NFL career records. He was not a part of the Colt teams that lost Super Bowl III and won Super Bowl V.

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He went into coaching. It made sense that he went back to North Texas, becoming the wide receivers coach for the Dallas Cowboys in the 1968 and 1969 seasons. He then held the same job at the University of Arkansas in 1970, 1971 and 1972; with the Detroit Lions in 1973, 1974 and 1975; the Cleveland Browns in 1976 and 1977; and the New England Patriots starting in 1978.

In 1984, Patriots owner Billy Sullivan named Berry the Pats' head coach. In 1985, he coached them to their 1st AFC Championship, becoming the 1st NFL team ever to win 3 road Playoff games in a season: They beat the New York Jets at the Meadowlands, the Los Angeles Raiders at the L.A. Coliseum, and the Miami Dolphins at the Orange Bowl. He got the Patriots to their 1st Super Bowl, and he never had to cheat. But they got clobbered by the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX. 

He remained with the Patriots through the 1989 season. He served as quarterbacks coach for the Detroit Lions in 1991, and for the Denver Broncos in 1992.

He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973. He was named to the NFL's 50th, 75th and 100th Anniversary Teams, in 1969, 1994 and 2019, respectively; and its 1950s All-Decade Team. The Colts retired his Number 82, and the Baltimore Ravens (as part of their recognition of Colts greatest from their Baltimore years) and the Patriots elected him to their team Halls of Fame. In 1999, The Sporting News named its 100 Greatest Football Players, and Berry was ranked 40th. In 2010, the NFL Network named its 100 Greatest Players, and he actually rose to 36th.

Raymond Berry died in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on May 25, 1939, at the age of 93. e is survived by his wife of 65 years, Sally, and 3 children and 9 grandchildren. 

 

With his death, there are now only 2 surviving players from the 1958 NFL Champion Baltimore Colts: Hall of Fame running back Lenny Moore and running back Jack Call. There are 2 surviving players from the 1959 NFL Champion Baltimore Colts: Moore and tight end Dave Sherer.

There are 3 surviving players from the 1958 NFL Championship Game: Moore, Call, and Giants defensive end Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier. And Moore is the last surviving player from the NFL's 1950s All-Decade Team.