Tom Brookshier, broadcaster and Eagles great, dies

Tom Brookshier, according to his friends, knew how to tackle.

Whether on the football field or as a television and radio personality, his impact was equally immense and intense.

He was an all-pro on the last Eagles team to win an NFL championship, in 1960, and was part of CBS's top NFL broadcast team during the 1970s along with his close friend Pat Summerall. In the late 1980s he hired Angelo Cataldi, launching the 610 WIP sports-talk format that remains in place today.

Mr. Brookshier, 78, died Friday of cancer at Lankenau Hospital.

"He was a very complex and wonderful person," said Dick Vermeil, the former Eagles coach who later became a broadcast partner with Brookshier at CBS. "He had great compassion for people, and he could be very intense. He was a tough football player, but he was also gentle as a teddy bear. He had just an unbelievable blend of positive qualities. He's a Philadelphia icon just like Chuck Bednarik."

A New Mexico native who played college football at the University of Colorado, Mr. Brookshier came to Philadelphia when the Eagles selected him in the 10th round of the 1953 NFL draft. In the years that followed, he fell in love with Philadelphia, according to his wife, Barbara.

"After he broke his leg in 1961 and his career was over, we were going to go back to Denver," Barbara Brookshier said. "That was our dream place. But then when it was time to go, we looked at each other and said, 'We can't leave Philly.' "

As a rookie defensive back, Mr. Brookshier intercepted eight passes in 12 games. Then he didn't play in the NFL for the next two seasons.

"He had been in the ROTC at Colorado, and he went into active duty for two years in the Air Force," said Jim Gallagher, a former Eagles executive who spent 46 seasons with the organization.

During his time in the Air Force, Mr. Brookshier became an assistant coach for the first Air Force Academy football team, where he also worked with Buck Shaw, his future head coach with the Eagles.

Mr. Brookshier returned to the Eagles in 1956 at the age of 25, and the team won a total of nine games in his next three seasons. By 1959, with Shaw in his second season as the head coach, the Eagles were on the rise, and Mr. Brookshier was a major reason.