Thomas B. O'Connell (September 26, 1930 – March 20, 2014) was an American collegiate and

professional football In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

who played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL) for three seasons. He played in 1953 for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

and in 1956 and 1957 for the Cleveland Browns. O'Connell also played in two

American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...

(AFL) seasons, 1960 and 1961, for the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...

. He attended the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Un ...

, Class of 1953, where he was a member of the

Chi Phi Fraternity Chi Phi () is considered by some as the oldest American men's college social fraternity that was established as the result of the merger of three separate organizations that were each known as Chi Phi. The earliest of these organizations was for ...

. He started for the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conferenc ...

in the 1957 NFL Championship Game while coming off a severely sprained ankle and a hairline fracture of the

fibula The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity ...

. He retired from football after the 1957 season to go into coaching, but was lured back to the playing field when the American Football League started play in 1960. He is the father of former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

player and general manager

Mike O'Connell Michael Thomas O'Connell (born November 25, 1955) is the Director of Pro Development for the Los Angeles Kings. O'Connell was also a former professional ice hockey player and general manager. He played 860 National Hockey League (NHL) regular seas ...

. He died March 20, 2014, aged 83.

Professional career

O'Connell played backup duty in his rookie year of 1953, having 67 total passes that year in relief. He returned in 1956 to play with the Browns, and he went 3-2 as a starter while throwing four touchdowns to eight interceptions with 551 yards. He emerged as the Browns quarterback in 1956 after injuries to quarterbacks George Ratterman and Babe Parilli. In 1957, he was selected to the Pro Bowl and won seven of the nine games he started, leading the Browns to the Eastern Conference title. His performance that year was stellar. In nine games as the starter, he won seven of them while throwing nine touchdowns to eight interceptions while passing for 1,229 yards. He retired after the year only to return to football in 1960. He played for the Buffalo Bills in 1960 and 1961 and started seven combined games (winning just once), throwing seven touchdowns to fourteen interceptions before retiring again.

Coaching career

O'Connell was the 18th head football coach at

Drake University Drake University is a private university in Des Moines, Iowa. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, including professional programs in business, law, and pharmacy. Drake's law school is among the 25 oldest in the United States. Hist ...

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...

and he held that position for the 1959 season. His coaching record at Drake was 2–7. O'Connell died in 2014.

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnell, Tommy 1930 births 2014 deaths American football quarterbacks American Football League players Buffalo Bills players Chicago Bears players Cleveland Browns players Drake Bulldogs football coaches Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players Illinois Fighting Illini football players Sportspeople from Chicago Players of American football from Chicago

Professional career

Coaching career

Head coaching record

See also

References

External links