Each week in The Toy Department, veteran Baltimore Sun sportswriter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's going on in his/her life in a segment called, "Catching Up With ... " Let Klingaman know who you'd like him to find and click here to check out previous editions of "Catching Up With ... "

He had one of the shortest names of anyone to play for the Baltimore Colts – and one of the longest careers here.

For 13 years, David Lee punted for the Colts, sending spirals airborne and often pinning opponents near their goal line. Twice, he won the NFL punting crown (1966 and 1969) while helping Baltimore to six division titles and a Super Bowl victory.

Lee retired in 1978, having punted 838 times for more than 34,000 yards, or nearly 20 miles. But it was one lousy kick, early in his career, that the All Pro remembers most.

"I shanked a punt, stormed off the field, tore off my helmet and started to swing at the water cooler," Lee said.

Then John Unitas tapped his 6-foot-4 teammate on the shoulder.

"You’ve got to forget about that (bleeping) kick," the Colts’ quarterback said, "because you may have to do it again in five minutes."

Lee nodded and cooled off.

"At that moment, I knew what made John tick – bad plays never affected him," he said. "I never forgot."

Continue reading "Catching Up With ... former Colt David Lee" »

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 4:30 PM in Baltimore Colts, Catching Up With, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Each week in The Toy Department, veteran Baltimore Sun sportswriter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's happening in his/her life in a segment called, "Catching Up With ..." Let Klingaman know who you'd like him to find and click here to check out previous editions of "Catching Up With ... "

For five years he manned the trenches for Baltimore, stalking quarterbacks and dropping ball carriers in their tracks. During the 1970s, few players could stuff the run like John Dutton, the Colts’ 6-foot-7, 290-pound All Pro defensive end.

So what does Dutton do now?

He sells stop signs.

He used to be one.

A member of Baltimore’s celebrated "Sack Pack," Dutton helped the Colts to three straight American Football Conference East championships (1975-77).

Driven by their young front four – Dutton, Fred Cook, Joe Ehrmann and Mike Barnes – those Colts won 31 of 42 regular-season games, but lost each year in the playoffs.

"What chemistry we had," said Dutton, 58, who owns a sign-making company in Dallas. "All four of us were tough to block, and quarterbacks couldn’t just sit in the pocket. One of us was always breaking free to make a sack."

Too often, it was Dutton, a first-round draft pick from Nebraska who had a career-high 17 sacks in 1975, his second year in the pros. Three times, he nailed Kansas City’s Len Dawson in a 28-14 victory. The game ball sits on a shelf in Dutton’s den, beside his battle-scarred Colts helmet and three Pro Bowl trophies.

Continue reading "Catching Up With ... former Colt John Dutton" »

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 7:39 PM in Baltimore Colts, Catching Up With, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Each week in The Toy Department, veteran Baltimore Sun sportswriter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's happening in his\her life in a segment called, "Catching Up With ... " Let Klingaman know who you'd like him to find and click here to check out previous editions of "Catching Up With ... "

Bert Jones backpedaled, ducked the rush and threw. Fifty yards away, Roger Carr gathered in the football and, having outrun two defenders, streaked into the end zone for a 68-yard touchdown.

Then, as the Memorial Stadium crowd of 50,374 roared, the young Baltimore Colts receiver leaped high in the end zone, reached over the crossbar ... and spiked the ball.

The fans went nuts. So did Carr, who would add two more TDs that afternoon in a stellar performance during the Colts’ 1976 home opener. He finished with six receptions for 198 yards in a 28-27 victory over Cincinnati.

Thirty-three years later, Carr, now 57, recalled the buzz he felt that day, a sense that he’d finally arrived in the NFL.

"That’s the game that really got me going," said Carr, a first-round draft pick from Louisiana Tech in 1974. "I’d made other catches, sure, but that day told me that I belonged. That’s why I spiked the ball. When I crossed the goal line, I felt as though I’d busted through."

1976 Sun file photo by Carl D. Harris

Continue reading "Catching Up With ... former Colt Roger Carr" »

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 6:15 PM in Baltimore Colts, Catching Up With, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Each week in The Toy Department, veteran Baltimore Sun sportswriter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's happening in his/her life in a segment called, "Catching Up With ... " Let Klingaman know who you'd like him to find and click here to check out previous editions of "Catching Up With ... "

He was the most prolific placekicker in Baltimore Colts history, a rugged miner’s son with coal-black hair, a snarly look and a square-toed shoe that booted 107 field goals for the team in its heyday.

Famous, Lou Michaels was not. Other Colts made more spectacular kicks. Steve Myhra’s field goal sent the 1958 NFL championship game into sudden-death, and Jim O’Brien’s three-pointer won the 1971 Super Bowl.

But no kicker teed it up more times here than Michaels, who played six seasons (1964 through 1969), during which the Colts won 63 games, lost 17 and tied 4.

"Nowhere in there can you find a game where we lost because I missed a field goal," said Michaels, 74.

1965 Sun file photo

Continue reading "Catching Up With ... former Colt Lou Michaels" »

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 6:00 PM in Baltimore Colts, Catching Up With, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Each week in The Toy Department, veteran Baltimore Sun sportswriter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's happening in his/her life in a segment called, "Catching Up With ... " Let Klingaman know who you'd like him to find and click here to check out previous editions of "Catching Up With ... " 

Three months shy of his 84th birthday, Gino Marchetti sees life as an all-out pass rush. Forget old age – he hurdles it as nimbly as he did all of those blockers before sacking the quarterback.

Gino Marchetti at his West Chester, Pa., home in 2003. (Sun photo by Lloyd Fox)  

Marchetti walks up to three miles a day and bowls four times a week. In West Chester, Pa., where the Baltimore Colts Hall of Famer lives, they’re still buzzing about the 299 game Marchetti rolled a couple of years ago, one pin shy of a perfect score.

This year, he took up painting – not with brush and palette, but with roller and paint tray. He painted the master bedroom, plus the homes of two of his seven children. Then, feeling restless, Marchetti built a cedar closet in the basement for his wife, Joan.

How long can he keep up the pace?

"As long as I’m breathing," he said. "Hell, I’ll go on until I can’t open my eyes any more, until I join (John) Unitas up there in the sky – I hope."

As a player, patience was not Marchetti’s forte. Sundays found him prowling the Colts' dressing room, end to end, five hours before kickoff.

"I probably walked 30 miles before each game," he said.

Continue reading "Catching Up With ... former Colt Gino Marchetti" »

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 4:30 PM in Baltimore Colts, Catching Up With, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

 Each Tuesday in The Toy Department, veteran Baltimore Sun sportswriter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's happening in his/her life in a segment called, "Catching Up With ... " Let Klingaman know who you'd like him to find and click here to check out previous editions of "Catching Up With ... "

Forty-four years later, Gary Cuozzo recalls every nuance of his first NFL start. Who wouldn’t, having replaced John Unitas in the lineup and passed for five touchdowns?

It was the game of his life for Cuozzo, then the Baltimore Colts’ understudy, who made pro football history on a brisk November day in 1965. No quarterback, before or since, has done what Cuozzo did in his first full game.

Subbing for an injured Unitas, he led the Colts to a 41-21 victory in Minnesota, the seventh straight win for the playoff-bound club. Under a withering pass rush led by the Vikings’ Carl Eller, a Hall of Famer, Cuozzo completed 16 of 26 passes for 201 yards and five touchdowns.

His performance outshone even Unitas who, 12 times in his career, had passed for four TDs – but never five.

Cuozzo’s effort earned him the game ball, though now he doesn’t know its whereabouts.

1965 Sun file photo

Continue reading "Catching Up With ... former Colt Gary Cuozzo" »

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Each Tuesday in The Toy Department, veteran Baltimore Sun sportswriter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's happening in his/her life in a segment called, "Catching Up With ..." Let Klingaman know who you'd like him to find and click here to check out previous editions of "Catching Up With ... "

He lives in Upperco, in a weathered old farmhouse on 46 acres that he bought for a song when he retired from football. There’s a sweet spring-fed pond out back full of catfish and bass, a vegetable patch stuffed with sweet corn and beans, and a woodpile large enough to keep the home fires burning all winter.

Fred Miller doesn’t want for much. And if he did, you wouldn’t hear a peep from the 69-year-old tackle, a mainstay on the Baltimore Colts’ defensive line during their heyday.

A three-time Pro Bowl selection, Miller spent a decade here (1963-72), much of it as defensive captain of the Colts. Though undersized at 250 pounds, he anchored the club’s front four despite chronic back spasms and bum knees that would have sidelined most others.

Baltimore Sun photo by Doug Kapustin

Teammates called Miller "a pro’s pro" and paid heed when he spoke, which wasn’t often.

"Fred never has a bad game, and he’ll never tell you he’s in pain," head coach John Sandusky once said.

Sun file photo

The son of a Louisiana farmer, Miller plowed through enemy lines, dragged down runners and helped the Colts to Super Bowls in 1969 and 1971. Guess which one he’d rather recall.

"The one we won," he said of the Colts’ victory over Dallas in Super Bowl V. "That was one of the hardest hitting games I ever played. The next morning, when I got up for breakfast, I could hardly lift my arms to cut my pancakes. First time that ever happened."

Trouble is, said Miller, "nobody will let us forget the ‘other’ Super Bowl (a loss to the New York Jets two years earlier). Every year, at Super Bowl time, when I turn on the NFL Channel, they’re running that game in its entirety."

That’s when Miller sighs and hits the remote.

"When we lost, we didn’t know it would last forever," he said.

Continue reading "Catching Up With ... former Colt Fred Miller" »

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 6:00 AM in Baltimore Colts, Catching Up With, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (23)
        

 Each Tuesday in The Toy Department, veteran Baltimore Sun sportswriter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's happening in his/her life in a segment called, "Catching Up With ... " Let Klingaman know who you'd like him to find and click here to check out previous editions of "Catching Up With ... "

Pound for pound, he was the smallest offensive tackle of his day, and maybe the smartest. It wasn’t size but savvy that made Bob Vogel one of football’s top lineman and a pillar of the Baltimore Colts’ storied front wall.

Vogel, the team’s top draft choice in 1963, spent the next decade taming sack packs and clearing paths for Colts’ runners despite a 240-pound frame that even then was underwhelming.

"I wasn’t one of those guys who could lift the stadium," said Vogel, from Ohio State. "I was purely a technician. That’s how I survived."

As a rookie, Vogel was so good that Baltimore shifted tackle Jim Parker, a Hall of Famer, to guard to accommodate him. A five-time Pro Bowler, Vogel helped the Colts to two Super Bowls (III and V) and then retired from the game at the age of 30, his dignity intact.

"I just walked away in 1972 and said, ‘It’s over,’ " said Vogel, 68. "I loved every minute of the game, but it was painful to see so many of my teammates stay too long. They either got hurt, mad, benched or traded. For so many guys, their identity is wrapped up in football. It’s who they are, like Brett Favre. To me, that’s sad."

Vogel traded the mayhem for a more selfless life. Witness the 48 foster children that he and his wife, Andrea, have cared for through the years. Or the prisons that Vogel visits, Good Book in hand, in a bid to turn inmates’ lives around. Or the mission trips he makes regularly to places like Honduras and Cuba, to bring health care to the poor.

"Football was a good experience, but this is the Lord’s will for my life," said Vogel, of Sunbury, Ohio.

Continue reading "Catching Up With ... former Colt Bob Vogel" »

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 6:00 AM in Baltimore Colts, Catching Up With, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Each Tuesday in The Toy Department, veteran Baltimore Sun sports reporter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's happening in his/her life in a segment called "Catching Up With ..." Let Klingaman know who you'd like him to find and click here to check out previous editions of "Catching Up With ..."

Colts receiver Jimmy Orr catches a third touchdown pass against the Rams during a game in 1964. (Baltimore Sun photo Paul Hutchins)

They called it Orrsville, that patch of paydirt in the Baltimore Colts’ end zone where No. 28 plied his trade. How many teams were buried there, in the closed end of Memorial Stadium, beaten by a scoring pass to the elusive Jimmy Orr?

"I must have caught 45 or 50 touchdowns in that right corner," said Orr, a favorite Colts receiver in the 1960s. "It was sloped some, a little downhill, which helped me, speed-wise. I wasn’t all that fast."

But Orr had sure hands and he ran smart routes, which made him All-Pro -- and the club’s deep threat for much of his 10 years with the Colts. In 1968, at an age when his legs should have quit, he led the NFL with an average of 25.6 yards per catch. Orr was 33 at the time.

Fans loved the tough, cigar-smoking flanker with the southern drawl, who played and partied hard. Injured during a close game in 1965, Orr was hurried to the hospital at halftime for X-rays.

"There were 17 people ahead of me in the emergency room at Union Memorial," Orr said. "But they had the game on the radio and when someone recognized me, all of those people sent me to the front of the line."

Told he had a shoulder separation, Orr shrugged and returned to the ballpark for the final quarter. When he trotted onto the field from the Orioles’ dugout, "a roar built until it just about lifted Memorial Stadium off the ground," The Sun reported.

Continue reading "Catching Up With ... former Colt Jimmy Orr" »

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 9:00 AM in Baltimore Colts, Catching Up With, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Each Tuesday in The Toy Department, veteran Baltimore Sun sportswriter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's happening in his/her life in a segment called. "Catching Up With ... " Let Klingaman know who you'd like him to find and click here to check out previous editions of "Catching Up With ... "

On one wall of Ray Brown’s office hangs his law diploma and other professional awards. Across the room are a different set of treasures – team photos of the 1958 and 1959 world champion Baltimore Colts, for whom Brown played.

Guess where his visitors head first.

"It’s always football," said Brown, 72, a Mississippi attorney who helped put the Colts on the NFL map.

Don’t remember Ray Brown? He played three seasons in Baltimore, then quit the game to join the bar. Yet he had a big role in the team’s first title run 51 years ago.

A rookie safety in 1958, Brown started every game for the Colts, the only first-year player to do so that season. His eight interceptions tied for the club lead. He also punted, and his lofty 51-yard average in the Colts’ 23-17 sudden-death victory over the New York Giants remains an NFL championship game record.

His secret that day?

"Adrenalin," Brown said.

All of this, he achieved while also attending law school at the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

"I’d get up every morning, grab a brown-bag lunch from my wife and go to classes," he said. "Then I’d zip up to Memorial Stadium and eat lunch while studying films. After practice, I’d go home and work on my law briefs."

Did he ever sleep?

"It wasn’t that bad," Brown said of the regimen. "Those were great times with the Colts. We were grateful to be playing, and there were no prima donnas or (sports) agents or drugs. It was a different game."

In 1959, besides his defensive chores, Brown became understudy to quarterback to John Unitas.

"John called most of his own plays, but occasionally Weeb (Ewbank, the coach) would send one in," Brown said. Once, he recalled, Ewbank relayed to Unitas these directions: "Just score."

The Colts repeated as champs.

Brown played one more year and then, at age 25, he walked away. Why? The Colts had slipped to fourth place. Brown needed knee surgery. And he was near to getting that law degree, which came in 1962.

His diligence paid off. That summer, he took a coveted job as law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark. Two years after leaving football, Brown walked those hallowed halls in Washington, D.C. But it couldn’t match the thrill of stepping on the field at Yankee Stadium for the ’58 title game, he said.

"What a fantastic time we had," said Brown. "I remember driving home from New York with my family after the game, stopping for dinner at a Howard Johnson’s and having the waitress say, ‘Mr. Brown, your family’s meal has been paid for by a Colts’ fan (who’d already left the restaurant).’

"The guy hadn’t even asked for autographs. That’s how grateful people were that we’d won."

A practicing attorney for 46 years, Brown started his own law firm in 1987 and still works from his home in Gautier, Miss. Married 51 years, he has three children, eight grandchildren and a cranky right knee that is giving him fits "from kicking thousands of punts as a player."

Past president of the Mississippi Bar, Brown wears his ’58 Colts championship ring and, on occasion, the blue-and-white team jacket that the club gave him. At 195 pounds, he hasn’t gained an ounce.

Two years ago, the Wall Street Journal selected an all-time law football team including, among others, former President Gerald Ford, the late Supreme Court Justice Byron (Whizzer) White . . . and Brown, the Colts’ fifth-round draft pick from Mississippi.

"When I saw that article, I thought, ‘My goodness,’ " Brown said. "Then I framed it and hung it on the wall with the rest."

Top photo: AP; Bottom photo: George C. Cook / Baltimore Sun

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 7:00 AM in Baltimore Colts, Catching Up With, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Those Baltimore Colts who played with him will tell you: There was no one tougher than Bill "Iron Horse" Pellington, here tackling the New York Giants’ Bob Schnelker by the head during the Colts’ 1959 NFL championship victory at Memorial Stadium. Pellington played 12 years here (1953-64), compiled 21 interceptions and punished everyone he tackled.

How tough was he? In his autobiography, "Fatso," the Colts’ Art Donovan wrote that "Pellington once tried to clothesline [Pittsburgh running back] Tom Tracy, but he missed his throat and caught him square on the helmet. Tracy was lying unconscious for a good 15 minutes. Pellington said ‘Geez, I hurt my arm on that bleepety-bleep.’ He played five more plays before coming to the realization that his arm was broken in two."

Pellington died of Alzheimer's disease in 1994. He was 66.

Also see: Through the Looking Glass archive

Sun file photo by Joe DiPaola Jr.

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 9:13 AM in Baltimore Colts, Through The Looking Glass, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

In a game of heroes, Mike Woods stood out for his courage under adversity.

When the former Baltimore Colts linebacker died last week at age 54, he was not so much a victim of the 1982 shooting that left him a quadriplegic as he was a monument to the human spirit when confronted with the worst of situations. His career in the NFL over at 27, he taught the rest of us for the next 27 years not to bemoan our piddling disappointments.

If Mike could handle his cruel fate, then we certainly should be able to handle ours. That was the message that so many who knew him came to realize, delivered ever so eloquently by a man who refused to quit or be bitter.

"Mike was destined to be heroic in a different way," Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, said Wednesday. "We deal in the business of heroes in the NFL. We all know some of the incredible heroes that exist in day-to-day life, and Mike was destined to be one of those inglorious heroes.

"I say inglorious only because [his life] was not a reality show, and he didn't have Monday Night Football covering him every day of his life. He woke up each day wanting to stay positive. That's what it's about."

Continue reading "Mike Woods: The power of a positive life" »

Posted by Ken Murray at 6:00 AM in Baltimore Colts, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Each Tuesday in the Toy Department, veteran Sun sportswriter Mike Klingaman tracks down a former local sports figure and lets you know what's going on in his/her life in a segment called "Catching Up With ..." Let Klingaman know who you'd like him to find and click here to check out previous editions of "Catching Up With . . . "

He was a first-round draft pick in 1971, a rugged tailback from North Carolina who looked a little like Robert Redford and ran a lot like Tom Matte.

For the next 11 years, Don McCauley would serve the Baltimore Colts as an unassuming role player with a healthy work ethic and a me-last mindset. At a funky time in Baltimore football history – he played for seven different head coaches – McCauley was the quintessential Colt, a throwback who seldom griped or put himself above the team.

"I loved football so much that I would have played for nothing," said McCauley, who signed for a $47,500 bonus. "Nowadays that’s less than what the guy holding the chains on the sidelines makes."

He retired in 1982, having gained more than 5,600 yards and scored 58 touchdowns, gaudy numbers for a guy who spent his life shuffling from tailback to fullback and often not starting at all.

Continue reading "Catching Up With ex-Colt Don McCauley" »

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 6:00 AM in Baltimore Colts, Catching Up With, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

As a football player, Raymond Berry was a poster boy for preparedness. The Baltimore Colts’ Hall of Fame receiver pored over game films, studied the nuances of defenders and memorized his routes for every occasion. He was a nearsighted end with farsighted plans.

But Berry, 76, felt helpless on Good Friday when a tornado touched down near his home in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

"All we could do was stand in the kitchen, watching it on TV to determine if we needed to go to the basement," Berry said.

The twister killed two, demolished 60 houses and damaged hundreds more. The tornado spared Berry’s house and those of his two daughters, who live nearby. But it carved a jagged swath a few feet from the home of his brother-in-law, who was not inside at the time.

Continue reading "Twister spares Raymond Berry's house " »

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 1:44 PM in Baltimore Colts | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

He’s 85 now and rarin' to go -- at dinner time, anyway. Art Donovan, the Baltimore Colts lineman and Football Hall of Famer, can still tackle a big meal with the best of them.

His appetite is the stuff of legend. During the 1950s, the Colts tried to curb Donovan’s gluttony by offering a $2,000 bonus every season he managed to keep his playing weight under 275 pounds. Sometimes he got the cash, sometimes not.

Photo: Colby Ware / Special to The Baltimore Sun

"His weekly weigh-in before each game was a story," teammate Gino Marchetti said. "Donovan would take his clothes off, piece by piece, and weigh himself after each one.

"His last hope was always his false teeth. A couple of times he had to take them out to make weight."

Donovan himself always addressed the matter with self-deprecating humor.

"You know you’re big when you sit in the bathtub and the water in the toilet rises," he said.

Nowadays, what are Fatso’s choice delights?

1. Kosher hot dogs

"I love em. They sell ‘em on street corners in New York. I used to eat 15 of 16 at a time when I went up there to see my mother. The hot dogs at Harry’s in Westminster are good too -- I once had 25 of them."

2. Pizza

"Make mine with extra pepperoni and sausage. Once, in San Diego, I ordered three pizzas but couldn’t eat the third so I put it on the television set and left the TV on all night to keep it warm. I ate the pizza the next morning."

Continue reading "Fatso's favorite foods: Dinner with Art Donovan" »

Posted by Mike Klingaman at 8:30 AM in Baltimore Colts | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Each week at the Toy Department, in addition to offering one of our writers the chance to endorse something they feel strongly about, we'll also give one of our writers a chance to dismiss something -- however unpopular that opinion may be -- in a segment we call "Dead. To. Me."

This week, Candy Thomson makes the case for why it's time to get over the Colts midnight move

 .

Let's pause for a moment to remember that the Colts left Baltimore for Indianapolis 25 years ago Sunday.

OK, that's enough.

Yes, The Sun will have stories about that fateful day just as sure as Gov. Martin O'Malley will take credit for the grass turning green as part of his "Smart, Green and Growing" campaign. (Now don't you get all mad, Marty. Snarky press is better than no press at all).

When it comes to anniversaries ending in "5" or "0," news organizations can't help themselves. Just once, I'd like to see coverage of the 16th anniversary or the 31st anniversary of something. Won't happen, though.

But just because we lack the discipline to stop rehashing old news doesn't mean the good people of Maryland should sink to our level and wallow in grief and anger. 

Continue reading "Dead To Me: Good grief! The Colts are still gone" »

Posted by Candus Thomson at 6:00 AM in Baltimore Colts, Dead To Me, Today's Special | Permalink | Comments (71)