Tom Brown

Tom Brown

Tom Brown won the Outland Trophy as the top lineman in U.S. college football in 1960 playing at the University of Minnesota. Brown was highly desired and courted by the AFL and NFL, but instead signed with the BC Lions and played seven seasons for them from 1961 to 1967.  At 6' and 250 pounds, Brown initially played middle guard in the era of a five man defensive line, but was switched to MLB partway through the 1961 season.  Despite his size, Brown was exceptionally fast as well as strong, a deadly combination for opponents.  With no sack or tackle statistics from those years, it is hard to measure how good Tom Brown was except for the words used by those who saw him in action or played against him.  One of the best offensive players of that era was the legendary Jackie Parker who had this to say about Brown "When the Lions played Brown at middle guard, I felt okay.  But when they switched him to linebacker, I felt sick. Now he goes with me wherever the ball is thrown or the run goes."  Sadly Brown's football career was cut short by a neck injury in 1967.  Brown was a three time Western and CFL All-Star, twice at linebacker in 1962 and 1963 and at middle guard in 1964.  Brown was also named the Oustanding Lineman in the CFL in 1963 and 1964 and elected to he Canadian Football Hall-of-Fame in 1984.

Games Played and Interceptions
Year Team GP Int Yds Avg TDInt Long
1961 BC
0 0 0 0 0
1962 BC
1

0
1963 BC
1

0
1964 BC 16 4 63 16.8 0 33
1965 BC 16 1

0
1966 BC 16 2 33 16.5 0 20
1967 BC 4 0 0 0 0 0
Fumble Recoveries
Year Team FR Yds Avg TD Long OFR FF
1961 BC




0
1962 BC




0
1963 BC 1

0
0
1964 BC 1 1
0
0
1965 BC 0 0 0 0 0 0
1966 BC 0 0 0 0 0 0
1967 BC 0 0 0 0 0 0
1965 OPC