In 1957, when he was drafted by the Baltimore Colts, Jim Parker was one of
the country’s most sought-after football players. He lived up to the hype,
earning All-Pro honors eight consecutive seasons and getting inducted into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
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He was on the 1958 team that brought the Colts what was then the league’s
most-coveted prize: the NFL championship.
At 6-foot-3, 275 pounds, he was agile for a big guy.
But just as the Liberty-Garrison neighborhood where he ran a liquor store
for 35 years has lost some of its vitality, so has the man nicknamed “Unitas’
Protector” for the pass protection he provided quarterback Johnny Unitas.
Today, Parker, 65, takes several seconds to rise from a chair. He is
diabetic. He has had at least one stroke. And he uses the blue wheelchair in
front of his Columbia home to travel to the steps at the edge of his driveway.
He closed his liquor store two weeks ago, but instead of relaxing, he
struggles with do’s and don’ts.
Although he’s not supposed to smoke, he seemed happiest during a recent
interview when he lighted his pipe.
Drinking also is taboo. He insists the Hennessey, Smirnoff and other
spirits at the bar in his home are for friends. Yet, after pausing for a
moment, Parker acknowledges drinking a 22-ounce Heineken “every now and then.”
His favorite food is ribs, and although doctors forbid him from eating
them, he acknowledges devouring some once a week, much the way he brags about
how he used to eat up Deacon Jones, one of his toughest opponents.
Long removed from the game but not the glory, he fondly recalls the battles
that made him a household name.
As he prepared to leave the game, he worked briefly for a liquor
distributor and had such success his boss helped him buy his business in 1964
when the neighborhood in Northwest Baltimore was thriving.
Predominantly Jewish in the 1950s, the neighborhood boasted a Union Trust
Co., Silber’s Bakery, Shure’s Pharmacy and The Forest Theater, among other
businesses.
But as has been evidenced in many areas of Baltimore, the population was
pushed to the suburbs by encroaching crime and drugs, and businesses began to
fade.
So did Parker’s health, forcing him into retirement.
‘He gets evasive’
His children are glad he gave up the store, as is Colts great Lenny Moore.
Moore said it wasn’t hard to recognize during phone calls and visits last year
that something was wrong with his former teammate and fellow Hall of Famer.
“He looked kind of out of it,” Moore said. “I’d say, ‘Hey, man, what’s
wrong with you?’ Then he’d say ‘Oh, I’m all right.'”
Moore knew Parker was being macho. After all, Parker had played football in
the ’50s and ’60s, when the game had no official disabled player lists.
“I know he gets evasive,” Moore said. “With Parker, he may just say
something to get you off the subject. I know him. That’s why I know exactly
what to say and how to say it.”
Moore talked to Parker’s son, David. Then, without giving their father a
chance to brush them off, 11 of his 12 children showed up at the store one day
last year and drove him to a hospital.
Doctors told Parker he had recently suffered a stroke and needed to take it
easy. He was released after three months and returned to the store that had
become his life. But he knew he had to get out of the business.
Plans have been under way for several months to close about a dozen
businesses on Liberty Heights Avenue. A Walgreens will replace those
businesses, which include a laundromat, pizza parlor and hardware store. The
corner where Parker’s business sits will be converted to parking spaces, said
LeRoy Adams, director of the business assistance group with the Housing
Authority of Baltimore City.
Walgreens is a sign that the neighborhood is on the mend, Adams said.
“We have to try to form a functional business association, one which
actively advocates for the small businesses that are in the district,” Adams
said yesterday. He added that officials are trying to determine the best use
for an abandoned fire station across the street from Parker’s business.
With Walgreens coming, some of the displaced businesses are moving to other
locations. But Parker is out altogether.
None of his children or grandchildren wanted to carry on the business.
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And Parker, although stubborn at times, has accepted his limitations.
“When I came back from the hospital last year, it was real hard,” Parker
said. “Getting in and out of the truck was hard. Waiting on the people behind
the counter was tiring me out. I didn’t get up and wait on them. I asked them
to come behind the counter and get what they wanted and they’d bring it over
to me and I’d ring it up. Most of them had gotten used to doing that. I just
didn’t feel up to it.”
Changing routine
Instead of getting up at 6 a.m. to shower, dress and rush to the liquor
store for a 14-hour workday, Parker sleeps until 10 a.m., a luxury. And he
tries to work out for at least 30 minutes a day.
“I just ride the bicycle, and I do arm presses and neck presses,” he said.
In Baltimore, sports fans haven’t let go of their beloved Colts, now in
Indianapolis, though the city has the Ravens. Likewise, Parker can’t seem to
get the liquor store out of his system.
He went to the store yesterday to wait on the last of the trucks that are
coming to haul away his liquor. And he sat outside the store in his Jeep
Cherokee for several minutes before realizing the men aren’t due there until
today.
But he didn’t sit there in vain.
“I was down there [yesterday] morning, and I bet you 200 people came over
to the truck and told me they were going to miss me and they hated to see me
go,” he said.