One-of-a-kind Ernie Accorsi dreamed big — and became an NFL titan

There was no one like Ernie Accorsi.

He was an original in every sense.

Everyone who ever was around him in any capacity has an Ernie story. An Ernie anecdote. A favorite Ernie interaction. An Ernie moment. Ask Ernie Accorsi a question and be prepared for a dissertation filled with historical perspective, personal touchpoints, wisecracking commentary all wrapped into the most interesting, humorous, factually accurate and entertaining few minutes you are going to have that day, or week.

Accorsi, the former Giants general manager, passed Saturday night at the age of 84 following a brief bout with cancer, dims the light for anyone who flips a game on TV or walks through the turnstile into the stadium or arena. He was the epitome of the fan who pours blood, sweat and tears into the games and the players, agonizes over the defeats and embraces the fleeting moment after that precious victory is secured. The difference was, he got to live it from the inside and what a sports life he led.

Short in stature, the games and athletes ran through Accorsi’s veins and he became a titan in an industry as a one-of-a-kind throwback general manager who loved what he did and never lost the appreciation that this son of immigrant parents was able to live out childhood dreams.

His dogged determination to save a franchise he cherished brought Eli Manning to the Giants. That is one of his Mount Rushmore achievements. For someone born and raised in Hersey, Pa. he never lost his small-town sensibilities even though he grew to love living on the East Side of Manhattan before returning to his beloved Hershey, where he swore by his old-time Italian restaurants as he walked his dog among familiar streets.

Bring up a quarterback and you would get a heavy dose of Johnny Unitas and John Elway but also Bert Jones and Bernie Kosar. He worked in the NFL for so long but his rooting passion was baseball — baseball and golf — and the names he would throw out there when talking about the old Yankees sent you to your laptop to figure out who the hell he was talking about. One of his few regrets was he never saw a game in Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

He was a sportswriter who became a top NFL executive. While working as a young reporter in 1968 for the Philadelphia Inquirer he and an older colleague, Frank Dolson, caught wind that the 76ers were going to trade superstar Wilt Chamberlain to the Lakers. Accorsi never forgot that Dolson allowed Accorsi to have the byline all to himself and the front page news became a career highlight.

Accorsi could talk sports with the best of them and probably more intelligently than any of them. He was sort of like a sports Zelig, showing up here, there, everywhere, where you expected him and least expected him. When “Field of Dreams’’ was released in 1989, of course Ernie had a connection. You see, back in 1963, working for the Charlotte News, at a minor league reunion he interviewed Moonlight Graham. Years later, Burt Lancaster played Moonlight Graham — he played only one inning in the Major Leagues without getting an at-bat – and Ernie had a tale to tell. He called “Field of Dreams’’ his all-time favorite movie.

While working for the Colts, he was given a script for the 1982 movie “Diner’’ and changed some of the questions in the famous quiz given to the prospective bride that became one of the signature scenes in that classic film.

Accorsi knew Elway would change the Colts for the better and selected him No. 1 in the 1983 NFL Draft. Accorsi did not believe Elway’s threat that he would go play minor league baseball in the Yankees’ farm system rather than play in Baltimore. It broke Accorsi’s heart when Colts owner Bob Irsay traded Elway to the Broncos. Accorsi cagily got Kosar for the Browns in the 1985 supplemental draft but the Browns lost three times in the AFC Championship game to Elway and the Broncos. Mention Elway’s famous 98-yard drive or Ernest Byner’s fumble and be prepared for an Ernie stare and then an impeccable recounting of every foible along the way,

George Young became a mentor and asked “Did you go to a reading and writing school?’ when considering Accorsi for the Giants’ assistant general manager position (Accorsi graduated from Wake Forest). When Young retired in 1998 he said of his successor “He knows who to talk to and he knows who not to listen to.’’

Accorsi could not believe he had the great fortune to work for Wellington Mara and had to restrain himself from asking too many questions to the Giants’ patriarch — Accorsi felt as if he was sitting down the hall from living NFL history. He often hoped for the best and expected the worst. His Giants were leading 34-0 at halftime of the 2000 NFC title game and, when spotted in the press box, he looked as if he anticipated the Vikings coming up with a 35-point play to start the second half.

Well-read, politically aware, a delightful dinner companion and loyal friend, Accorsi stayed close to the Giants after his retirement in 2006. He was presented with a Super Bowl XLII ring even though, technically, he was no longer the GM. He built the guts of that team and, of course, Manning was his greatest contribution. “Ernie stories’’ continue to run through the Giants’ facility and likely will long after his passing.

Accorsi’s favorite quote was Robert Browning’s “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?” Ernie Accorsi reached big and grasped bigger.