Eagles Star Tom Brookshier Dies at 78
Tom Brookshier, a star defensive back who helped lead the Philadelphia Eagles to the 1960 National Football League championship and later teamed with Pat Summerall as CBS’s No. 1 professional football broadcasting duo, died Friday night in suburban Philadelphia, where he made his home for more than half a century, after a bout with cancer. Brookshier, who lived in suburban Philadelphia, was 78.
Thomas Jefferson Brookshier (December 16, 1931 – January 29, 2010) was a professional American football player, coach and sportscaster.
Brookshier played high-school football in Roswell, New Mexico. After graduating from the University of Colorado, Brookshier was a 10th-round NFL draft pick. He played defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League from 1953 to 1961, during which time the Eagles won the NFL Championship (in 1960), and he was selected for the Pro Bowl twice. Brookshier's playing career ended because of a compound leg fracture, sustained while making a tackle. He is a member of the Eagles' Honor Roll and is one of only seven players to have their number (40) retired by the team.
He began sportscasting for WCAU-AM-FM-TV in Philadelphia in 1962, eventually becoming the station's sports director. In 1965, he became a color commentator for CBS Sports' NFL telecasts. In addition to many regular-season games and NFC playoff contests, he broadcast three Super Bowls (X, XII, XIV) with Pat Summerall, and did pre- and post-game shows for four other Super Bowls. (Brookshier also teamed with Summerall in the early 1970s to narrate This Week in Pro Football, a weekly syndicated highlights show produced by NFL Films.) For most of the 1970s, he and Summerall were CBS's premier announcing team. In 1981, he switched to calling play-by-play for the network.
Brookshier appeared as himself in the 1977 motion picture Black Sunday.
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