Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2009
While a student at Wake Forest, Accorsi was heavily involved in the campus media as sports editor for the Old Gold and Black and sports director for WFDD. Accorsi graduated from Wake Forest in 1963.
He spent time as a sports writer at three newspapers, the Charlotte News, the Baltimore Sun and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He also worked in the athletic departments at St. Joseph's University and Penn State University. He began his career in professional sports in 1970 as the public relations director for the Baltimore Colts.
After serving a two-year stint as an assistant to the president of the National Football Conference, Accorsi returned to the Colts, first as an assistant general manger from 1977-81 and then as general manager from 1982-83. He left the Colts on Feb. 7, 1984 and joined the front office of the Cleveland Browns on March 4 - a mere 24 days before the Colts packed up and headed to Indianapolis.
Named Cleveland's GM in 1985, he engineered the supplemental draft selection of Bernie Kosar and guided the franchise to AFC Central Division titles in four of his first five years in charge of football operations. The Browns advanced to the AFC title game in 1986, '87 and '89. Accorsi left the Giants in April 1992 to work as a lobbyist for Baltimore's NFL expansion efforts, and he briefly served as chief financial officer of the Baltimore Orioles in 1994.
Accorsi might be best known for his work with the New York Giants, where he spent 13 seasons. Accorsi was the assistant general manger for the Giants from 1994 through the 1997 season and was promoted to general manager on Jan. 7, 1998. During his tenure as GM, the team won the NFC East in 2000 and advanced to Super Bowl XXXV. New York made three other playoff appearances, including a division crown in 2005, before Accorsi retired in early 2007.
He currently serves as a consultant to the NFL.
Accorsi was inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame on Sept. 26, 2008.
