Tommy McDonald, a small, speedy and sure-handed receiver who teamed with quarterback Norm Van Brocklin to help the Philadelphia Eagles win the 1960 NFL championship, died Sept. 24. He was 84.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced his death but did not provide additional details.
Mr. McDonald was a two-time all-American from Oklahoma who played 12 NFL seasons for five teams and was a six-time Pro Bowl selection. When he retired in 1968, he ranked second in league history in touchdown catches, fourth in yards receiving and sixth in receptions.
But the 5-foot-7, 175-pound Mr. McDonald had to wait 30 years before becoming the smallest player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“Oh, baby!” Mr. McDonald shouted in Canton, Ohio, during his induction ceremony in 1998. “Do I look excited, like I just won the lottery or the jackpot? Yes! I’m in the Hall of Fame!” In an induction speech that was equal parts hysterics and histrionics, Mr. McDonald told jokes and tossed his 25-pound bronze bust in the air, pulled out a radio and danced to disco music.
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In seven seasons with Philadelphia, the durable Mr. McDonald had 287 receptions for 5,499 yards, with a per-catch average of 19.2 yards. He had 66 touchdowns in 88 games and went to the Pro Bowl five straight seasons, from 1959 to 1963.
Mr. McDonald was traded to Dallas in 1964 and dealt the next season to the Los Angeles Rams. Determined to show that he could still be a force in the league, he had a solid season with a career-best 67 receptions for 1,036 yards and nine TDs, and he earned another trip to the Pro Bowl.
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“Tommy McDonald played the game with a passion and energy that was second to none,” said Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. “He will be remembered as one of the most exciting players ever to play his position, but what really separated him and made him so unique was the infectious personality and charisma that he brought to his everyday life.”
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Thomas Franklin McDonald was born in Roy, N.M., on July 26, 1934. He graduated from high school in Albuquerque, where he developed into a three-sport athlete in football, basketball and track.
At the University of Oklahoma, where he played under Hall of Fame coach Bud Wilkinson, Mr. McDonald was an all-American in 1955 and 1956. He never experienced a loss with the Sooners, winning 31 straight games as part of Oklahoma’s record-setting 47-game run.
In 1956, Mr. McDonald finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Paul Hornung of Notre Dame and Johnny Majors of Tennessee. He also won the Maxwell Award, given to the best player in college football.
Share this articleShareAmid rumblings he was too small to play in the NFL, the Eagles drafted Mr. McDonald in the third round in 1957.
He was used primarily on punts and kick returns early in his rookie season before being inserted as a flanker against the Washington Redskins midway through the year. Mr. McDonald scored two touchdowns, including a 61-yarder that onetime NFL commissioner Bert Bell reportedly called “one of the greatest catches I have ever seen in pro football.”
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Mr. McDonald and Van Brocklin proved a formidable pair for the Eagles. They combined for one of the most memorable touchdowns in franchise history, a 35-yard reception on a frigid afternoon that helped the Eagles to a 17-13 win over Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers in the 1960 NFL title game at Franklin Field. It was the team’s third championship (the first Super Bowl was played in 1967), and the only championship game a Lombardi-coached team lost.
“You can’t go any higher,” Mr. McDonald said in 2005 as the Eagles prepped for a Super Bowl appearance. “We were at the top of the hill looking down yelling, ‘Hello! Nobody expected us to be here.’ ”
The next season, Mr. McDonald set a franchise record with seven catches for 237 yards receiving in a game against the New York Giants. He went on to finish with 64 receptions for a league-leading 1,144 yards and 13 touchdowns.
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After retiring from football, he founded Tommy McDonald Enterprises, which created portraits and plaques for athletes.
A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.
“I think catching passes is judgment, mostly,” Mr. McDonald once said, according to the Hall of Fame. “I’ve got good vision; good peripheral vision. I think sometimes I can see things the defensive back doesn’t see. I watch for him to make his move — you’ve got to study the guys in this league — and if he’s a fraction late compensating for mine, then I’ve got him beat.”
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