Notre Dame football: Top 5 wide receivers in school history
There is no debate as to who the best wide receiver in the history of Notre Dame football is, and it’s Tim Brown. Brown was the first of two wide receivers to ever win the Heisman Trophy. To go along with his 1987 Heisman Trophy, Brown also won the Walter Camp Award, Sporting News Player of the Year, UPI Player of the Year, and was a unanimous All-American.
That’s not bad for the trophy case.
In that 1987 season, Tim Brown had 39 catches, 846 yards, and three touchdowns. While those aren’t exactly mind-blowing numbers, they were enough to win the Heisman Trophy nonetheless. It certainly did help that Brown returned kicks, and had 34 carries on the ground.
Behind him in the Heisman voting was Don McPherson of Syracuse and Gordon Lockbaum of Holy Cross. So, it wasn’t a great year for the Heisman Trophy, but it’s still a great achievement.
Over the course of his entire career, Brown had 137 catches, 2,493 yards, and 12 receiving touchdowns. He also had 98 carries for 442 yards and 4 touchdowns. Tim Brown also had three kick returns for touchdowns over the course of his career.
His numbers may not have stood the modern surge in passing offenses, as despite his success his marks are only still top-10 in receiving yards for a career. Meanwhile, none of his single-season marks are in the top-10 at all. It should be mentioned, however, that at the time Brown graduated he held 19 school records.
Those are numbers of a run-first era. This limited Brown’s chances of putting up huge numbers like he would go on to do in the NFL. In fact, it’s a little cruel how Notre Dame was never a National Champion team for Brown. His career, which began under Gerry Faust, ended under Lou Holtz, a year before the 1988 National Championship.
Despite this lack of on-field success, Tim Brown’s legacy is insurmountable for any other wide receivers in program history. When anyone thinks of great Notre Dame wide receivers, Brown is the first one that comes to mind for any of them. He is the definition of a program defining player.