Eagles lose ‘all-time great’ Timmy Brown
It was announced Tuesday that another Eagles great had passed away, running back-kick returner Timmy Brown joining kicker Tom Dempsey. Both iconic Eagles died Saturday.
Brown, 82, was the Eagles’ version of Gayle Sayers. Brown scored 62 career touchdowns, playing eight of his 10 NFL seasons with the Eagles. Only Brian Westbrook (68 TDs), the late Tommy McDonald (67) and Pete Pihos (63) got into the end zone more often for the Birds.
“He was an electrifying player who played on some bad teams,” said Billy Werndl, the Delaware County Sports Hall of Famer and long-time spotter for play-byplay guy Merrill Reese.”He was drafted by the Packers in the 27th round, they cut him and he came to the Eagles. He was a kick return specialist who developed into a threat. After he was done playing, he was in ‘M*A*S*H’ and ‘Nashville’ and those TV series. He had a pretty good career.”
Indeed Brown did, in both the sports and entertainment fields.
Hailing from the Indianapolis suburb of Knightstown, the young Thomas Allen Brown attended the Indiana Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s Home, whose mission statement was “to be a safe mentoring community where Indiana’s at-risk youth are given opportunities to excel.”
Graduates, male and female, had the option to go to any public college in Indiana, tuition-free. Brown chose Ball State, where he was known as “Timmy” Brown and excelled in football and was drafted by the Packers in the 27th round in 1959.
Released by Vince Lombardi after one season, Brown joined the Eagles and helped them beat Lombardi and Green Bay in the 1960 NFL championship game at Franklin Field. McDonald caught a TD pass from Norm Van Brocklin in that game.
Brown averaged 6.52 yards per touch, most in Eagles history.
“Timmy Brown was an all-time great Eagle and one of the most dynamic multi-purpose players of his era,” Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said in a tweet dispersed by the team. “He overcame many obstacles in his life to enjoy success both as an athlete and as an entertainer.”
Brown played eight seasons in Philadelphia,
including Pro Bowl trips in 1962, ‘63 and ‘65. After leaving the Eagles he played one more season as a member of the Baltimore Colts team that lost to Joe Namath and the New York Jets in Super Bowl III. That was Brown’s last game.
Six of Brown’s Eagles touchdowns were by kick returns, including two in one game in 1966 which led to one of the team’s most memorable wins ever. Brown answered Dallas touchdowns with 93- and 90-yard kickoff returns for scores, Aaron Martin returned a punt for a 67-yard TD and the Eagles beat the up-and-coming Cowboys, 24-23, despite gaining just 80 yards, getting five first downs and without scoring a TD from scrimmage.
A singer and dancer in some productions while at Ball State, Brown went into acting and did some recording shortly after leaving football. Known in Hollywood as Timothy Brown, he had a minor part in the movie version of M*A*S*H in 1970, and two years later joined the cast of the television show of the same name as the character Dr. Oliver Harmon “Spearchucker” Jones. After appearing in several episodes that first season, Brown was dropped from the show reportedly because the producers learned there were no African-American surgeons in Korea.
He went on to make numerous film and television appearances in the 1970s (including a one-off during the first season of Mary Tyler Moore), and had one season as a color analyst for CBS NFL telecasts in 1973. His career wound down quickly, however, though Brown did make an appearance in a 1990 film called Midnight Ride.
Dempsey, he of the NFL record, 63-yard field goal while with the Saints in 1970, died of complications from the coronavirus at 73.
He played for the Eagles from 1971-74.