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Richard Adam “Dick” Bielski, a Baltimore Colts place-kicker who later became a team coach, died of cancer Oct. 15 at his Ruxton home. He was 91.
“He grew up in East Baltimore during the 1940s, a chunky Polish kid who used to bound down the marble steps of his family’s home on Madeira Street and race the half-block to Patterson Park to play pickup football games until dark,” The Sun wrote about him in 2014. “If I was there alone, I’d take the ball, kick and chase after it,” Mr. Bielski told the paper.
He was the son of Adam Bielski, a stevedore, and Stella Kuchtaik, a homemaker.
Mr. Bielski starred at was then called Patterson Park High School and went on to the University of Maryland. He was a first-round draft pick in the NFL.
“Irv Biasi [Patterson Park’s then coach] stopped me in the hallway one day and said, ‘How come you’re not out for football?’” Mr Bielski said in 2014. “I told him I worked at Phil’s Bakery on Gough Street after school. So he got my work hours changed.
“After that, I’d get up at 4:30 every morning, load the truck and deliver buns and bread to Curtis Bay and Locust Point. Then I’d go to school and then to practice. I barely had time to brush my teeth. But if Irv hadn’t made me play, God knows where I would have been. That man molded my life.”
At Patterson Park, Mr. Bielski led a team that won 29 games straight, trampling Baltimore City College and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and whoever else would face the Clippers. The 1948 team was not scored on, The Sun’s 2014 story said.
Mr. Bielski said that then University of Maryland coach Jim Tatum came to the Bielski family home and told his mother if he played for the University of Southern California, which was offering a scholarship, he’d “get involved with all of those starlets.”
“When he left, Mom said, ‘You’re going to Maryland,’” Mr. Bielski told The Sun.
He helped the Terps to 35 victories in 41 games, a national championship in 1953 and a Sugar Bowl victory his freshman year.
Mr. Bielski was the ninth player chosen in the 1955 draft and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, who converted him to tight end. He then went to the fledgling Dallas Cowboys, where he made the Pro Bowl in 1961.
He moved to the Baltimore Colts in 1962 and caught 15 passes — two for touchdowns — and made 11 of 25 field-goal attempts, four of them against the champion Green Bay Packers.
He then became the team’s wide receiver coach in 1964.
“He worked under head coach Don Shula defeating the Cowboys in Super Bowl V,” said his daughter, Debbie Bielski.
In 1973, he joined what is today the Washington Commanders before returning to Baltimore as wide receiver coach.
In 1983, he served as the offensive coordinator for the Washington Federals in the United States Football League and in 1984 became the team’s head coach.
“I remember the 1970 Super Bowl [between the Colts and Cowboys], which came down to rookie Jim O’Brien’s field goal. I coached the kickers, and when Jim lined up for the [32-yard] kick, I leaned over to [assistant coach] Bobby Boyd in the press box and said, ‘This is a lock, we are champions!’” Mr. Bielski said in 2014.
He met his future wife, Johan “Jo” Mazzadri in high school and they married in 1952.
“The were school sweethearts and they had a lifelong love story,” said his daughter.
He is survived by two daughters, Debbie Bielski and Jody Bielski; two sons, Ricky Bielski and Randy Bielski, all of Baltimore; a sister, Stephanie Bielski, of Hurlock; nine grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. His wife died in 2018.
Services were held Oct. 21 at the Ruck-Towson Funeral Home.
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