Tommy O'Connell
Encyclopedia
Tommy O'Connell is a retired American collegiate and Professional Football
quarterback
who played in five NFL and two American Football League
seasons from 1953–1957 and 1960-1961 for 3 different teams. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
, Class of 1953, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity.
He started for the Cleveland Browns
in the 1957 NFL Championship Game
while coming off a severely sprained ankle and a hairline fracture of the fibula. 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
player and general manager Mike O'Connell
.
Professional football
In the United States and Canada, the term professional football includes the professional forms of American and Canadian gridiron football. In common usage, it refers to former and existing major football leagues in either country...
quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
who played in five NFL and two American Football League
American Football League
The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence...
seasons from 1953–1957 and 1960-1961 for 3 different teams. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
, Class of 1953, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity.
He started for the Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
in the 1957 NFL Championship Game
NFL Championship Game, 1957
The 1957 National Football League championship game was the 25th annual championship game. The NFL title game was held on December 29, 1957 at Briggs Stadium, Detroit, Michigan. The game was the fourth pairing of the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns in the championship game...
while coming off a severely sprained ankle and a hairline fracture of the fibula. 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
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
player and general manager Mike O'Connell
Mike O'Connell
Michael Thomas O'Connell 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 NHL regular season games between 1977 and 1990 and later served as the general manager of the Boston Bruins from 2000...
.