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Tommy McDonald, the flamboyant Hall of Fame record receiver, who played in the Eagles' NFL championship team in 1960, died on Monday, the pro football hall of fame announced. He was 84 years old.
"Tommy McDonald played the match with unparalleled passion and energy," said Jeffrey Lurie, owner of the Eagles. "We will remember him as one of the most exciting players to have played his part, but what truly separated him and made him so unique was his personality and infectious charisma.
"He really liked this team, the Philadelphia community, the fans and of course his family. He was a man of character, both on the field and in the field, who embodied all the qualities we hope to represent as an organization.
"He was a champion, a member of the Professional Football Hall of Fame and one of the most authentic I have ever met. On behalf of the Philadelphia Eagles, I would like to express our deepest condolences to the entire McDonald family.
McDonald's was the Eagles' third-round pick in Oklahoma in 1957 and in seven seasons with the Eagles he captured 287 passes for 5,499 yards and 66 touchdowns.
Despite being just 5 feet 9 inches and 175 pounds, McDonald dominated the NFL in touchdowns in 1958 and 1961 and in receiving yards in 1961.
In the 1960s championship game, which the Eagles won 17-13 against the Packers at Franklin Field, he captured three passes for 90 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown by Norm Van Brocklin in the second quarter.
After the game, legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi said, "If I had 11 Tommy McDonald, I would win a championship every year."
McDonald finished his career with the Cowboys, Rams, Falcons and Browns and retired after the 1968 season with 495 assists for 8,410 yards and 84 touchdowns. He was four times All-Pro and six times Pro Bowler.
When he retired, McDonald's ranked sixth in NFL history with catches, fourth in yardage and second-best long-time Packers player, Don Hutson, in touchdowns.
Today, 55 years after his last participation in the Eagles, he still ranks second in franchise history with 66 touchdowns, behind the 79 of Harold Carmichael.
He was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1998.
"I've played with a lot of great receivers, including Elroy Hirsch and Tom Fears with the Rams," said Norm Van Brocklin, a member of the Hall of Famer, in an article published in 2016 on the Eagles' website.
"But if I had to pick a guy to throw the ball at the game, I'd choose McDonald's. I know that the little rascal would open and he would catch the ball. "
But McDonald was much more than a terrific player.
Long before Twitter and Instagram, he was a beloved personality who made a show when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, dancing on stage at the Bee Gees' Staying Alive, telling jokes about his wife, throwing his Hall of Fame bust in the air and catches, and bang the other inductees.
His colorful life was immortalized in the play "Tommy and Me," written by Didinger, who first met McDonald as a child at the Eagles Hershey training camp in the 1950s.
Interviewed in an interview with Bleacher Report in 2012 about his strengths as a player, McDonald said, "Good instincts and good hands. I think I was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1962 and the title was "The Best Hands of Football". B-E-S-T! God bless me also with S-P-E-E-D! I've won 5 track gold medals in my senior year of high school. Who wins 5 gold medals?
Didinger wrote in this 2016 play on the Eagles' website that McDonald's never wore gloves because he wanted to feel the ball in his hands.
"He squeezed his fingertips before every game," wrote Didinger. "He said it made his fingers more sensitive and helped him feel the ball. He scratched his fingers on the brick wall at Franklin Field before home games to get the same effect. "
Many of the legendary Eagles players of 1948, 1949 and 1960 have died in recent years.
Chuck Bednarik, a Hall of Fame member, passed away in 2015 at the age of 89. The Steve Van Buren Hall of Fame died in 2011 at the age of 87, at the Hall of Famer Pete Pihos, at 87 years old. the Hall of Fame, died in 2016 at 95.
The only Hall of Fame survivors who have spent at least half of their career in the NFL with the Eagles are Bob Brown, 76, and Brian Dawkins, inducted in 2018.
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