Former Notre Dame and Raiders Star Tim Brown Shares His Unlikely Rise to Football Fame

Tim Brown is one of only ten players in football history to win both the Heisman Trophy and earn a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He grew up in South Dallas, where he spent summers at a local recreation center trying different sports. Brown, now 60, recently spoke at a sports summit in Boston about what it really took for him to reach the top. He said his rise was not just about hard work — he believes luck played a big part, too.

Brown said the odds of any high school player making it to the NFL are extremely small. He told USA TODAY Sports, 'You can say it, but you can't really mean it because you've got to be lucky.' Brown didn't even think he had a real chance at the NFL until his junior year at Notre Dame. His path to football was filled with obstacles right from the start.

Brown's mother, Josephine, was a deeply religious woman who thought football was a bad influence on kids. His father, Eugene, worked in construction and was often too busy to focus on sports. Brown kept playing anyway, though his mom didn't always know about it. He was on the junior varsity football team his freshman year at Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, while also being in the marching band — and his mom thought he was only in the band.

When family friends told his mother that Brown had made the newspaper for football, she was completely shocked. He broke out as a star on the varsity team his sophomore year, but his parents still urged him to focus on education. When he left for Notre Dame, they told him, 'There's no future in football for you. You go up there and get that education and get on back home.' Brown carried those words with him throughout his college years.

Brown's start at Notre Dame was tough. The very first time he touched the ball, he fumbled the opening kickoff. For his first two seasons, he felt like just a regular player on a struggling team, going 7-5 his freshman year and 5-6 his sophomore year. He focused on enjoying the game and staying on track to graduate, following his parents' advice.

Everything changed when coach Lou Holtz arrived before the 1986 season. Holtz had a special talent for finding what motivated each player on his team. After watching Brown for just two days, Holtz pulled him aside and asked why he wasn't being used more in games. When Brown explained his parents valued education over football, Holtz told him, 'Son, you can have both,' and those words changed everything.

Holtz then told Brown something even more surprising — that he thought Brown could win the Heisman Trophy. Brown was so shocked that he actually turned around to see if Holtz was talking to someone else. Over the next few weeks, Holtz worked with Brown every single day, showing him what he was already doing well. 'Once I got the belief, literally, everything went through the roof after that,' Brown said.

Late that season, Notre Dame beat top-ranked USC 38-37. After the game, a famous sports writer named Jim Murray told Brown he would be his top pick for the Heisman Trophy. For the first time, Brown truly believed a professional football career was possible. He went on to play 16 seasons as a wide receiver for the Raiders and one season with the Buccaneers.

Brown developed his own life motto — 'conceive, believe, and achieve' — and tried to pass it on to his own children. He pushed his kids in sports but not so hard that it caused fights or made them dislike the game. His son Timmy Jr. now works in Notre Dame's recruiting department, and his daughters also played sports growing up. Brown says today's young athletes face a complicated world of social media, NIL money rules, and school transfers, and they need strong leaders to guide them.

Brown is now involved with the Captains Leadership Academy, a program that works with Heisman winners to help high school athletes become better leaders in sports and their communities. He believes the program will only succeed if students lead it themselves. 'The students are not gonna look at it as being real if somebody from the outside is coming in to do it,' he said. He wants young people to take ownership of their futures, just as he eventually did.