Tommy McDonald, a Hall of Fame wide receiver remembered as a big-play threat, a leader of championship teams and the last non-kicker to play in the NFL without a facemask, has died at the age of 84.
McDonald grew up in New Mexico and was a star in football, basketball and track, and he ended up playing football at Oklahoma because the Sooners’ basketball coach, Bruce Drake, convinced the school’s legendary football coach, Bud Wilkinson, to give him a scholarship.
At Oklahoma, McDonald became one of the biggest stars in college football, a two-time All-American and the winner of the 1956 Maxwell Award as college football’s best player. Oklahoma went a perfect 31-0 in McDonald’s three seasons on the team.
Although he was primarily a running back in college, the Eagles drafted him in 1957 and moved him to wide receiver. McDonald stood only 5-foot-9 and was a scrawny 178 pounds, but in his second season McDonald led the NFL in touchdown catches, and in his fifth season he led the league in both receiving yards and touchdowns. He was also a Pro Bowler for five straight years in Philadelphia and one of the key players on the Eagles’ 1960 championship team.
“Any ball that came near me, I wanted to be like a vacuum cleaner,” McDonald told NFL Films. “I wanted people to say, ‘Tommy McDonald? Get the ball to him and believe me, don’t worry about it because it’s leather in his pocket.’”
Said Hall of Fame quarterback Sonny Jurgensen, “He was the guy who could probably catch the ball better than anybody I ever threw to. As far as sheer hands, catching the ball if he could touch it, anything he could touch, he could catch it.”
Said another Hall of Fame teammate, Chuck Bednarik, “I would say that as a receiver, I think Tommy was the best I ever saw.”
In 1964 the Eagles traded McDonald to the Cowboys, where his production declined, but the following season he was traded again, to the Rams, where he had a career-high 67 catches and was again chosen to the Pro Bowl. He later played for the Falcons and Browns before retiring after 12 NFL seasons.
McDonald was known for his toughness, including a willingness to go over the middle back in the days when defensive backs were not just allowed but encouraged to deliver kill shots.
“I don’t know how many times I hit Tommy McDonald, and how many times I thought I killed him, and how many times he got up before I did,” recalled Hall of Fame safety Larry Wilson. “I used to watch him on film and think, ‘That little snot, look at him bounce up.’ I’d think, ‘He’s not going to bounce up this time,’ but he’d be up fixing his shoulder pads and running back to the huddle while you’re down there hurting. Just more guts than sense. He enjoyed playing the game. He’d come across the middle and he’d be smiling when he’s running. Most guys today, you can see the fright in his eyes.”
That fearlessness was part of why McDonald refused to wear a facemask even as every other player in the league, aside from kickers, had started wearing them. McDonald once suffered a broken jaw and continued to play with a facemask even with his jaw wired shut.
“With my size, I know the only reason I was able to make professional football, is that I had a heart as big as a wash tub. I don’t even know the word quit. It’s not in my dictionary,” McDonald recalled after he retired. “I just wanted a quarterback to be able to say to me that when he was in trouble and he needed something, that old No. 25 would come across.”
McDonald’s teammates always knew they could count on old No. 25.
