Timmy Brown
Brown in Ball State uniform, 1958
Born	Thomas Allen Brown (1937-05-24)May 24, 1937 Richmond, Indiana, U.S.
Died	April 4, 2020(2020-04-04) (aged 82) Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Other names	Timmy Brown Timothy Brown Tim Brown
Occupations	football player singer actor
Years active	Singer: 1962–2016 Actor: 1967–2000
American football player American football career
No. 25, 22, 2
Position:	Running back Return specialist
Personal information
Height:	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight:	198 lb (90 kg)
Career information
High school:	Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's Home (Knightstown, Indiana)
College:	Ball State
NFL draft:	1959: 27th round, 313th pick
Career history
Green Bay Packers (1959) Philadelphia Eagles (1960–1967) Baltimore Colts (1968)
Career highlights and awards
2×NFL champion (1960,1968) 3× Second-teamAll-Pro (1963,1965,1966) 3×Pro Bowl (1962,1963,1965) 2×NFL kickoff return yards leader (1961, 1963) Philadelphia Eagles 75th Anniversary Team Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame
Career NFL statistics
Rushing yards: 3,862 Rushing average: 4.3 Rushingtouchdowns: 31 Receptions: 235 Receiving yards: 3,399 Receiving touchdowns: 26 Return yards: 5,420 Return touchdowns: 6 Stats atPro Football Reference

Thomas Allen Brown (May 24, 1937 – April 4, 2020), known also asTimothy Brown,Tim Brown, andTimmy Brown, was an American actor, singer, and professionalfootball player.^[1][2] He played in theNational Football League (NFL) as arunning back andreturn specialist.

Born inRichmond, Indiana, Brown was raised inKnightstown, east of Indianapolis. Brown had six siblings, of which he was the second-oldest. When he was eight years old, Brown's parents divorced, primarily due to his father's drinking habits and time spent away from home in the Army. From there, he bounced between homes until he settled into a boarding school with his brother, John Brown Jr.

Brown is a 1955 graduate ofMorton Memorial High School at theIndiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's Home.At the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, Brown excelled as a star athlete in football, basketball, and track. He received around 15 scholarships to play collegiate basketball, and only one football scholarship to play forMichigan State. However, he had no interest in playing anywhere exceptBall State--at the time an NAIA-level program--and decided to walk on to play football.

Brown playedcollege football for theBall State Cardinals. Although he had initially been recruited as a basketball player, he chose to play football instead. Despite a personal feud with head coachJim Freeman which almost led to Brown quitting the team, he agreed to play as long as he would never have to speak with Freeman. Despite this, Brown excelled as a star running back and returner for the Cardinals. In his senior season, Brown led theIndiana Collegiate Conference in rushing and scoring, finished second in punting, and was selected to the All-ICC first team and the All-America second team. For his collegiate career, Brown set six Cardinal records: best rushing average for a single game (20.5), most net yards in a single game (164), best rushing average in a season (10.0), most rushing attempts in a game (21), most rushing attempts in a season (112), and most points scored in a single game (25—a record that still stands today). He also earned a varsity letter in track, participating in his junior and senior years.

Brown was selected by theGreen Bay Packers in the 27th round of the1959 NFL draft. Brown feuded with head coachVince Lombardi and struggled early in the preseason with dropped passes. Brown was cut by Green Bay following a week one 9–6 victory over theChicago Bears in which he fumbled a snap whilst holding for a field goal.

Brown then signed with thePhiladelphia Eagles, where he would play eight seasons as a returner and running back. In his first year, the Eagles won the1960 NFL Championship Game over his former team in what would be Lombardi's only playoff loss. While playing for Philadelphia, Brown enlisted in theArmy National Guard to make ends meet. Brown would have his greatest football moment on November 6, 1966 against theDallas Cowboys, a 24–23 win in which he scored both a 90-yard and a 93-yard kickoff return (and almost a third if not for a trip-up with his own teammate after a 21-yard return). He is the only Eagle (and the first of nine NFL players ever) to return two kickoffs for touchdowns in the same game.

TheCowboys-Eagles rivalry can have much of its nucleus attributed to a hit Brown took in the December 10, 1967 matchup. In the second half, Brown was hit in the face byLee Roy Jordan chasing an overthrown pass. Brown lost three teeth, fractured his jaw, and broke a permanent bridge in his mouth. Jordan's hit—which Brown and his teammates claimed was both a late hit and an intentional elbow toward Brown's mouth—sidelined him for the remainder of the season.

^[3] After initially planning to retire, Brown would play one more season in 1968 for theBaltimore Colts.^[4][5] He scored the last touchdown in the1968 NFL Championship Game and his final game was two weeks later inSuper Bowl III with the Colts. He would finish with 80 return yards in the Colts' historic 16–7 loss to theNew York Jets.

Brown went to thePro Bowl in 1962, 1963, and 1965. He led the league twice in all-purpose yards, in 1962 and 1963 with 2,306 and 2,428 yards, respectively. He also led the league in kick returns and return yards twice, in 1961 and 1963.^[6]

He was inducted into thePhiladelphia Eagles Hall of Fame in 1990. Then known as the Eagles Honor Roll, he was the only member to be inducted that year.^[7]

Brown also served as acolor analyst forCBS NFL telecasts in 1973. In 1969, Brown was approached byFrank Gifford andHoward Cosell to be an on-air talent forABC'sMonday Night Football, but declined the offer to pursue his career in acting.

Brown used the name "Timothy Brown" as an actor, to more clearly distinguish himself fromJim Brown, theCleveland Browns running back who also became an actor.

Brown's acting career began while he was still an active player, with aguest appearance on the Season 3 premiere ofThe Wild Wild West as Clint Cartwheel in the episode titled "The Night of the Bubbling Death", which originally aired on September 8, 1967.

After retiring from the NFL, he became a full-time actor, appearing in such films asMASH (1970),Sweet Sugar (1972),Black Gunn (1972),Bonnie's Kids (1973),Girls Are for Loving (1973),Dynamite Brothers (1974),Nashville (1975),Zebra Force (1976),Black Heat (1976),Gus (1976) andMidnight Ride (1990). He also appeared in a half-dozen episodes of the first season of theM*A*S*H television series asDr. Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones, but was dropped from the show. While it was reported that was due to the producers learning there were no African American surgeons serving in Korea during theKorean War, the producers said it was due to not feeling they could come up with meaningful stories involving that character when they were concentrating on writing stories about the characters Hawkeye and Trapper John.^[8] Along withGary Burghoff,G. Wood, andCorey Fischer, he is one of only four actors who appeared in both the originalMASH movie and the spin-off television series.

He made three guest appearances in the 1960s–1970s TV showAdam-12 and appeared in a Season 1 episode ofThe Mary Tyler Moore Show with opposite guest star and previousMASH co-star John Schuck. Both played retired NFL players vying for a job as sportscaster.

Brown began singing when he was attending Ball State. He performed in a band called 'Timmy Brown and the Thunderbirds'. His band included three white students at a time when interracial bands were quite rare.^[9]

In 1962, Brown recorded withImperial Records (Travis Music Co. & Rittenhouse Music, Inc.) "I Got Nothin' But Time" and "Silly Rumors" while still in the NFL.^[10][11][12] The songs were written by N. Meade andV. McCoy and produced and arranged by Jerry Ragavoy.^[13][14]

In 1964, he headed a stage show at theSteel Pier inAtlantic City, New Jersey. When his part of the show came up, Brown backed by a nine piece orchestra started off with "What'd I Say. Other songs he performed were "Do You Want to Know a Secret", "This Land Is Your Land", and "I've Got a Secret".^[15] He made a guest appearance onI've Got a Secret,^[16] during which he sang a song of the same name.

In addition to appearing in the 1975 filmNashville, his vocals appeared on the soundtrack.^[17][18]

Brown became a father in 1987 with the birth of his first and only son, Sean. In later years, Brown worked as acorrectional officer inLos Angeles. In the 2000s, he had retired and was residing inPalm Springs, California.^[30] Brown died on April 4, 2020, of complications fromdementia at the age of 82.^[31][32] Two years later, the biographyRunning Against the Grain by Roy Weaver, David Sullivan, and Shawn Sriver about Brown's life was released. In 2024, Timmy Brown was celebrated by Ball State Athletics onJuneteenth with multiple tributes to his life.

• Running Against The Grain
• Ball State Sports Link: The Timmy Brown Story
• Juneteenth Special: The Story of Ball State's Timmy Brown
• Timothy Brown atIMDb
• Timothy Brown discography atDiscogs
• Career statistics fromNFL.com · Pro Football Reference · 

• 1937 births
• 2020 deaths
• 20th-century American male actors
• 20th-century American singers
• 20th-century American male singers
• American football return specialists
• American football running backs
• American male film actors
• American male television actors
• Ball State Cardinals football players
• Baltimore Colts players
• Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players
• Green Bay Packers players
• Male actors from Indiana
• NFL announcers
• Sportspeople from Richmond, Indiana
• Philadelphia Eagles players
• Players of American football from Indiana

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