Tom Brown obit

Lombardi-era safety Tom Brown dies at 84

’66 NFL title game hero started on defense throughout Packers’ three-peat

 

He was not on the list.

Tom Brown, starting left safety on the Green Bay Packers' three-peat NFL champions from 1965-67, died Wednesday, April 23. He was 84 and had been a resident of Salisbury, Md.

The Packers selected Brown in the second round of the 1963 NFL Draft, but had to wait a year before he decided to pursue a pro football career. A little more than three months after the Packers had drafted him, Brown signed a baseball contract with the Washington Senators.

A two-sport star at Maryland, Brown batted .312 in spring training and played in 61 games for the Senators in 1963. A switch-hitter who could play both outfield and first base, Brown batted .147 and was shipped to York, Pa., of the Eastern League, where he played 77 games in '63 and 59 in 1964.

In July of that year, Brown abruptly quit baseball and signed with the Packers. He was tried at flanker, then cornerback before settling in at safety. In 1965, Brown beat out defensive captain Hank Gremminger for the starting job at left safety.

Over the next four seasons, Brown started all but one game for the Packers. He also started in three straight NFL championship games from 1965-67 and in Super Bowls I and II. The highlight of his career was a game-saving interception in the closing seconds of the Packers' 34-27 victory over Dallas in the 1966 NFL title game.

In February 1969, Brown was traded to Washington for a fifth-round draft pick and reunited there with Vince Lombardi, who had left the Packers less than a month before. However, Brown played just one more game.

During a 2009 interview, Brown recalled his first encounter with Lombardi, who was then coaching the Packers and anxious to get a look at Brown after he had abandoned his baseball career.

"I met Coach Lombardi on the steps of Sensenbrenner Hall the first day," Brown said in reference to the Packers' dormitory at St. Norbert College. "I had just left baseball with the York White Roses in the Washington Senators' organization. I told Coach Lombardi I'd make a decision by July 1st. So I said, 'OK.' He said, 'We'll send you a plane ticket and we'll see you at training camp.'

"They were making a film, "Run to Daylight," with Howard Cosell. He was there and they were filming some stuff, and that's where I met (Lombardi) – on the steps. He said, 'Well, we finally got you.' He had drafted me in (December) 1962. I was drafted No. 2 behind Dave Robinson. But I loved baseball. It was my favorite sport. Football was just an opportunity to go to college on a scholarship. My parents didn't have that much money. But I went to the (Giants-Packers) championship game in 1962 up in Yankee Stadium. It was a cold, windy, nasty day. The field was frozen. I went in the locker room and I said, 'These guys are big. I'm going to play baseball.'

"I think I could probably have played major league ball, but not as a starter; probably as a utility player. But I had the opportunity to play with the Packers and I took that opportunity."

He's the first athlete to win both a Super Bowl and hit a home run in a major league baseball game and the only one other than Deion Sanders to do so.

Brown briefly played for the Washington Senators of the American League early in the 1963 season, and then was a defensive back in the National Football League for six seasons with the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins. He played college football at the University of Maryland in College Park, where he also played for the baseball team.

Brown played outfield and first base for the Washington Senators in 1963. A switch hitter who threw left-handed, he was signed to a minor league contract in late February, played extremely well in spring training, batting .312, and earned a spot on the major league team. In the regular season, Brown batted a meek .147 in 61 games (23 as a starter), with 17 hits in 116 at bats, one home run, and four runs batted in. Sent down to the minors, he played parts of two seasons (1963–1964) in the Senators' farm system with the York White Roses of the Class AA Eastern League; in 470 at bats, he batted .223 with eight home runs and 47 RBI. He was recalled up to the big club in September 1963, when he hit his sole homer.

Brown was selected in the second round (28th overall) of the 1963 NFL draft by the Packers, and twentieth overall in the AFL draft by the Buffalo Bills. After his stint in baseball with the Senators, he played defensive back for Green Bay from 1964 through 1968 and for the Washington Redskins in 1969.

In the 1966 NFL title game at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Brown intercepted a fourth-down pass in the end zone by quarterback Don Meredith in the final minute, preserving the Packers' 34–27 victory over the Cowboys.