Tim Brown (American football)

Timothy Donell Brown (born July 22, 1966) is a former American football wide receiver who played professionally in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for Notre Dame, where he won the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first wide receiver to win the award. He spent sixteen years with the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders, during which he established himself as one of the NFL’s most prolific wide receivers. Brown has also played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In 2015, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Before his college career at Notre Dame, Brown played for Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, the same school as 1938 Heisman Trophy winner Davey O’Brien. Brown’s receipt of the 1987 Heisman Trophy gave Woodrow the distinction of being the first high school in the country to have produced two Heisman Trophy winners. Amazingly, Tim didn’t play football as a freshman at Woodrow, because he was forbidden to do so by his mother. Instead, he played in the Woodrow band during that first year. But he joined the Woodrow football team as a sophomore, although he initially tried to hide that fact from his mom. She later found out about it when the band leader called his house asking why he was no longer at band practices. Despite his outstanding contributions to Woodrow’s football program, the team fared poorly, posting only a 4–25–1 record over his three years as a starter. Nevertheless, Brown was heavily recruited by major colleges. His five official visits were to Notre Dame, Nebraska, Oklahoma, nearby SMU and Iowa. While at Woodrow, Brown also was a standout track athlete. He was one of the state’s top performers in the 400-meter dash, with a PR of 47.14 seconds, and he cleared 7.42 meters in the long jump event.