Roanoke Times
March 3, 2007
by Joe Kennedy
Last Sunday was the first time Raymond Berry had ever been in the Roanoke airport. He picked up The Roanoke Times and read about the death, the day before, of his Baltimore Colts teammate, George Preas.
Berry called B.J. Preas, the widow of the former Colts offensive tackle, and offered to speak at Thursday's memorial service.
"I think I'm supposed to be here today," he told the mourners on Thursday at Second Presbyterian Church, as he reminisced about playing with Preas when both were Colts rookies and when the team won NFL championships in 1958 and '59.
At 74, the NFL Hall of Fame receiver is tall and rangy. He shows no outward effects of his football career, though he says "a few joints" remind him of it at times.
His former teammates, defensive end Ordell Braase, tight end Jim Mutscheller and center Buzz Nutter also spoke at the service.
Sandy Unitas, the widow of the legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas, also attended.
Life is difficult
George Preas died Feb. 24 at age 73 after a 17-year struggle with Parkinson's disease.
Few people can claim to have gone through anything like that, but Sandy Unitas dodged a possible heart attack and Braase's wife died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, several years ago.
Braase, 74, has had three hip replacements and a knee replacement, likely as a result of his football career.
At the luncheon in the church fellowship hall, he said he felt he mishandled his wife's illness.
He tried to learn everything about it, hoping to unearth a cure, though none exists.
And he insisted that she come home from the hospital, so he could care for her and help her to recover.
She died the night before she was to leave the hospital.
"I think she willed herself death," he said.
He subsequently organized an ALS fundraiser to mark the 45th anniversary of the Baltimore Colts' victory in the 1958 overtime championship contest known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played."
It raised $250,000 for research at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore.
No warning
For Sandy Unitas, an invitation to speak for a group called Sister to Sister about heart disease and the fatal heart attack that killed her husband in 2002 led her to "walk the walk."
She was overweight and exhausted, and her cardiologist noticed that she was depressed. He ordered tests.
The results showed a 90 percent blockage in a coronary artery. It reduced her heart function by 40 percent.
Two hours later, Unitas underwent open heart surgery.
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, she said, and 80 percent of the problems are curable. Depression and stress are prominent among them.
She feels better now. She drove to the service in Roanoke from Charleston, S.C., where she is taking a four-month vacation.
(Coincidentally, B.J. Preas had open heart surgery in December.)
Separate roads
When the final whistle blew in that 1958 championship game, Raymond Berry's life changed in a different way.
He was 27, and "I wasn't a person who thought about God," he said.
But his team's achievement left him enveloped by awe.
He went from the clamorous locker area to a restroom stall and tried to puzzle out the purpose of his achievement.
Ultimately he concluded, "There's got to be more to life than chasing a football."
He almost gave up the game.
Just before the start of training camp in 1960, teammate Don Shinnick "led me to Christ."
Now he speaks to Christian groups and tends to business matters, including a meeting in Christiansburg on Feb. 24.
The meeting led him to the Roanoke airport and the news that his teammate had died.
And that brought him to the service.
As a player, Preas was known as strong and silent.
Berry saw him as "a man that had a natural leadership about him -- a very smart football player."
On Dec. 28, 1958, none of these people knew where their roads would take them.
Separate roads, all of them potholed, brought Berry, Braase, Mutscheller and Nutter, as well as Sandy Unitas, to Roanoke to pay tribute to an old friend.
March 3, 2007
by Joe Kennedy
Last Sunday was the first time Raymond Berry had ever been in the Roanoke airport. He picked up The Roanoke Times and read about the death, the day before, of his Baltimore Colts teammate, George Preas.
Berry called B.J. Preas, the widow of the former Colts offensive tackle, and offered to speak at Thursday's memorial service.
"I think I'm supposed to be here today," he told the mourners on Thursday at Second Presbyterian Church, as he reminisced about playing with Preas when both were Colts rookies and when the team won NFL championships in 1958 and '59.
At 74, the NFL Hall of Fame receiver is tall and rangy. He shows no outward effects of his football career, though he says "a few joints" remind him of it at times.
His former teammates, defensive end Ordell Braase, tight end Jim Mutscheller and center Buzz Nutter also spoke at the service.
Sandy Unitas, the widow of the legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas, also attended.
Life is difficult
George Preas died Feb. 24 at age 73 after a 17-year struggle with Parkinson's disease.
Few people can claim to have gone through anything like that, but Sandy Unitas dodged a possible heart attack and Braase's wife died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, several years ago.
Braase, 74, has had three hip replacements and a knee replacement, likely as a result of his football career.
At the luncheon in the church fellowship hall, he said he felt he mishandled his wife's illness.
He tried to learn everything about it, hoping to unearth a cure, though none exists.
And he insisted that she come home from the hospital, so he could care for her and help her to recover.
She died the night before she was to leave the hospital.
"I think she willed herself death," he said.
He subsequently organized an ALS fundraiser to mark the 45th anniversary of the Baltimore Colts' victory in the 1958 overtime championship contest known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played."
It raised $250,000 for research at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore.
No warning
For Sandy Unitas, an invitation to speak for a group called Sister to Sister about heart disease and the fatal heart attack that killed her husband in 2002 led her to "walk the walk."
She was overweight and exhausted, and her cardiologist noticed that she was depressed. He ordered tests.
The results showed a 90 percent blockage in a coronary artery. It reduced her heart function by 40 percent.
Two hours later, Unitas underwent open heart surgery.
Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, she said, and 80 percent of the problems are curable. Depression and stress are prominent among them.
She feels better now. She drove to the service in Roanoke from Charleston, S.C., where she is taking a four-month vacation.
(Coincidentally, B.J. Preas had open heart surgery in December.)
Separate roads
When the final whistle blew in that 1958 championship game, Raymond Berry's life changed in a different way.
He was 27, and "I wasn't a person who thought about God," he said.
But his team's achievement left him enveloped by awe.
He went from the clamorous locker area to a restroom stall and tried to puzzle out the purpose of his achievement.
Ultimately he concluded, "There's got to be more to life than chasing a football."
He almost gave up the game.
Just before the start of training camp in 1960, teammate Don Shinnick "led me to Christ."
Now he speaks to Christian groups and tends to business matters, including a meeting in Christiansburg on Feb. 24.
The meeting led him to the Roanoke airport and the news that his teammate had died.
And that brought him to the service.
As a player, Preas was known as strong and silent.
Berry saw him as "a man that had a natural leadership about him -- a very smart football player."
On Dec. 28, 1958, none of these people knew where their roads would take them.
Separate roads, all of them potholed, brought Berry, Braase, Mutscheller and Nutter, as well as Sandy Unitas, to Roanoke to pay tribute to an old friend.
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