They met during training camp at Western Maryland (now McDaniel) College in Westminster: a country boy from north Texas and a steelworker's son from a working-class neighborhood in South Baltimore. Both single, Berry and Vaughn played catch, met for chow, shot some pool, shared some laughs.
"It was as if we'd been drawn together by a magnet," Vaughn said.
Occasionally, in their free time, the two would drive to Baltimore in Berry's black 1950 Chevy to see the sights or maybe catch a show. Vaughn took Berry with him on a visit to his alma mater, Carver Tech, an all-black trade school on the city's west side. Once, Berry and several other Colts invited Vaughn to a movie at the Hippodrome Theater. Turned away because of Vaughn's presence, the players went instead to the Regent Theater in a black neighborhood on Pennsylvania Avenue.
"We hit it off real good," Berry said of their relationship. "Who would have thought, back then, that the best friend of a guy from Texas would be a black quarterback?"
Vaughn remembered Berry for his character and drive. Bigotry, he said, was absent.
"I'd been around long enough to smell it," Vaughn said, "but I didn't smell it at all. Raymond and I really became friends."
Times were changing in Baltimore. In 1954, the city had been among the first to desegregate its public schools. A year later, had they wanted, Berry and Vaughn could have sat together for the first time at the lunch counter at a Read's drug store. Or played tennis on the same court at Druid Hill Park without risk of arrest.
But integration came in fits and starts. In 1955, if a black woman tried on a hat in a Baltimore department store, she was expected to buy it. Overt racism died grudgingly. Not until 1963 would Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Woodlawn or the Northwood Theatre (near then-Morgan State College) admit black patrons.
Pro football was changing, too. By 1955, black players had gained a toehold in the NFL. Three blacks made the Colts' roster that season, and though Vaughn wasn't one, he did make the team's taxi (practice) squad.
Berry? He caught 13 passes that season, a measly sum on a 5-6-1 club that finished 10th in passing yardage among 12 teams.
But Berry was developing a quirky work ethic that would soon become legend. Resolute and obsessive, he sought perfection. And the strong-armed Vaughn helped him in that pursuit.
