Raymond Berry, who coached Patriots to first Super Bowl, dies at 93

In his six years coaching New England Mr. Berry produced five winning campaigns and in 1985 directed a third-place squad to the championship game against the Chicago Bears. Mr. Berry, who grew up in the east Texas city of Paris, was an unpromising football specimen.

He was skinny and slow with a back misalignment that made one leg shorter than the other and he wore glasses inside his helmet cage. “He didn’t even look like a football player,” said his high-school quarterback Bill Thompson. “He looked like a student.” Even though his father coached the team Mr. Berry didn’t start at split end until he was a senior.

But he made up for his physical limitations by squeezing rubber balls to strengthen his hands and by running exact pass patterns. “He really didn’t have any athletic ability to think of,” said fellow receiver Paul Stewart. “He just outfoxed and outthought everybody.” After spending a year at Schreiner Institute, a junior college in Kerrville, Mr. Berry transferred to Southern Methodist, where he had only 33 receptions in three seasons. “I didn’t catch many balls,” he said, “because not many were thrown.” Baltimore selected Mr. Berry as an afterthought in the 1954 NFL draft, picking him in the 20th round as the 203rd player overall. “If you give me a fair chance I’ll make your team,” he told coach Weeb Ewbank. The struggling Colts, who’d only been in existence for two years, offered uncommon opportunities for newcomers.

But Mr. Berry found the transition to the professional game bewildering. “I didn’t know my butt from first base about running pass routes or what pass defense was all about,” he said. “It was just a maze to me.” Mr. Berry earned and retained his blue jersey by obsessing over preparation, especially film study, and repetition. “I must be the only player whose contract included his own Bell & Howell projector,” he said. “People thought I was nuts.” Veterans, amused by his compulsiveness, dubbed him “Dingleberry.” “We’d all be running off the practice field and he’d be chasing us to get somebody to throw him another 50 passes,” recalled teammate Art Donovan. “He was one of a kind.” Yet after the Colts reclaimed quarterback John Unitas from a Pittsburgh sandlot in 1956, Mr. Berry, who reckoned that he had 88 different moves, blossomed into one of the league’s premier receivers.

His signature performance came in the 1958 championship game against the New York Giants in Yankee Stadium, an overtime victory that was called “The Greatest Game Ever Played” and put professional football on the map after decades in the shadow of the college version. Mr. Berry caught 12 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown that day, setting a record for most receptions in a championship that stood until 2013.

But the most important were the three in a row for 62 yards that he gathered in during the last-minute drive that set up the tying field goal and led to Baltimore’s dramatic triumph in the extra session during which Mr. Berry caught two more passes for 33 yards. “It was my greatest day as a pro,” he said.

Yet Mr. Berry’s best seasons still were ahead of him. He led the league in receptions during the next three years and twice had the most yards and touchdowns.

Despite playing with a back brace he was a weekly fixture in the lineup, playing in every game for his first six years and fumbling only once in his career amid a collision with a Minnesota safety in 1962. “I never really caught it,” Mr. Berry insisted. “The officials blew the call but I forgive them. They miss one every once in a while.” After injuries sidelined him for half of the 1967 season Mr. Berry announced his retirement. “He never looked back over his shoulder,” said his wife Sally. “Never.

He knew he’d done all he could and the playing was over.” Mr. Berry then brought his receiving expertise to the coaching side, serving as an assistant for Dallas, Detroit, Cleveland and the University of Arkansas before Chuck Fairbanks hired him for the Patriots in 1978. He stayed on with successor Ron Erhardt until the entire coaching staff was dismissed in 1981 in the wake of a 2-14 season, the worst in franchise history. Mr.

Berry then worked for a Medfield real estate development firm and his brother-in-law’s company. But when Ron Meyer was dismissed as head coach midway through the 1984 season amid widespread friction with his players the Patriots tapped Mr. Berry as his replacement. “We feel we’ve hired a stable man for the moment,” said general manager Patrick Sullivan. Mr.

Berry felt comfortable taking charge of a club that was going sideways. “The time was right,” he said. “I’m where I’m supposed to be.” His pedigree as a player and his understated approach made him popular with the players, as New England won four of its final eight games to finish with its first winning record in four years. “Raymond Berry earned more respect in one day than Ron Meyer earned in three years,” said running back Tony Collins. Much of the Patriots’ improvement was credited to Mr. Berry’s team-first philosophy. “He has no ego problem at all and he’ll never have one,” said defensive line coach Eddie Khayat. “He puts the club before himself always.” The renaissance came full flower in 1985 when New England made it to the Super Bowl by becoming the first team to win three playoff games on the road against the Jets, Raiders, and Dolphins.

But the season ended with a thud in New Orleans where the Bears battered the Patriots 46-10, the most lopsided outcome in history. “I don’t see any excuses, really,” Mr. Berry said. “I was the most surprised guy in the place that the game turned out the way it did.” Although that campaign was the high point of Mr. Berry’s tenure, the team’s success continued. New England claimed its first divisional title in eight years in 1986 and posted winning records during the following two seasons.

But the Patriots collapsed in 1989, losing five of their first seven outings and never recovered, ending with a 5-11 mark. Mr. Berry was dismissed after the season due to what Sullivan called “deep philosophical differences,” most notably the coach’s refusal to name offensive and defensive coordinators. “When he doesn’t agree with my decision his job is to fire me,” said Mr. Berry, who received a $550,000 buyout.

He later served as an assistant coach for Detroit and Denver, ending his football career after the Broncos fired the entire staff after the 1992 season. Mr. Berry then returned to the business world, working for a California insurance and financial services company and a Kansas air purification firm. “I’m not getting bored,” he said in 2009. “I need a vacation.” Mr. Berry is survived by his wife Sally, daughters Suzanne and Ashley and son Mark.

John Powers can be reached at [email protected].