Thomas Dudley Harmon, known as Tom Harmon, as well as by the nickname "Old 98", was an American football player, military pilot, actor, and sports broadcaster.
70 Facts About Tom Harmon
2.
Tom Harmon led the nation in scoring and was a consensus All-American in both 1939 and 1940 and won the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, and the Associated Press Athlete of the Year award in 1940.
3.
Tom Harmon was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954.
4.
Tom Harmon later pursued a career in sports broadcasting and was the play-by-play announcer for the first televised Rose Bowl in the late 1940s and worked for CBS from 1950 to 1962.
5.
Tom Harmon later hosted a 10-minute daily sports show on the ABC radio network in the 1960s and worked as the sports anchor on the KTLA nightly news from 1958 to 1964.
6.
Tom Harmon handled play-by-play responsibility on broadcasts of UCLA football games in the 1960s and 1970s.
7.
Tom Harmon had five older siblings, Louella, Harold, Mary, Louis, and Eugene, all born in Indiana.
8.
At the time of the 1930 US Census, the family was living at 578 Van Buren in Gary, where Tom Harmon's father was employed as a real estate salesman, and his mother was employed as a clerk for the Census Bureau.
9.
Tom Harmon's three older brothers all excelled in athletics before him: Harold was a track star at Purdue University, Louis played basketball at Purdue, and Eugene was the captain of Tulane University's basketball team.
10.
Tom Harmon attended Horace Mann High School in Gary, graduating in 1937.
11.
Tom Harmon received 14 varsity letters in 10 sports at Horace Mann.
12.
Tom Harmon won the Indiana state championship both in the 100-yard dash and 220-yard low hurdles and won the national interscholastic scoring championship in football with 150 points.
13.
Tom Harmon ran the 100-yard dash in 9.9 seconds and 220-yard low hurdles in 22.6 seconds.
14.
Tom Harmon was a star basketball player and threw two no-hitters as a pitcher in AAU baseball.
15.
At the urging of his high-school coach Douglass Kerr, who played end for Michigan in 1927 and 1928, Tom Harmon enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1937.
16.
In November 1937, the Associated Press published a story that Tulane coach Bill Bevan had tried to lure Tom Harmon to transfer to that school, where his older brother was a student-athlete.
17.
Tom Harmon majored in English and speech at Michigan, aspiring to become a sports broadcaster, and, as a junior and senior, hosted a 15-minute program on the university radio station on Fridays.
18.
Tom Harmon gained 405 rushing yards, averaging more than five yards per carry, and completed 21 of 45 passes for 310 yards with only one interception.
19.
Tom Harmon began to draw national press coverage in the fourth game of the 1938 season, as he led a second-half comeback against Yale.
20.
Tom Harmon set up Michigan's first touchdown with a pass to Norman Purucker in the third quarter and then led the Wolverines on their final drive late in the fourth quarter.
21.
In that moment of despair for all those who cheer for Michigan, Tom Harmon came out of nowhere to dominate the field.
22.
Tom Harmon led the nation in scoring with 102 points on 14 touchdowns, 15 extra points, and one field goal.
23.
Tom Harmon's longest run of the day was for 91 yards.
24.
Tom Harmon has a wonderful change of pace and can dodge and cut on a dime.
25.
Tom Harmon's longest gain of the day was a 59-yard touchdown run on a reverse play around the left end.
26.
Tom Harmon finished second in the voting for the 1939 Heisman Trophy, garnering 405 votes, while Nile Kinnick won the award with 651 votes.
27.
Tom Harmon increased his scoring total to 49 points after two games.
28.
Tom Harmon ran 20 yards on a lateral from Evashevski for the first touchdown and passed 15 yards to Ed Frutig for the second.
29.
Tom Harmon was responsible for 155 yards from scrimmage, played the second half with his shirt "half ripped off his back", and reportedly "gave the dogged Quaker defense a going over that will never be forgotten".
30.
Tom Harmon scored 33 touchdowns, breaking Red Grange's collegiate record of 31 touchdowns.
31.
Tom Harmon led the nation in scoring in both 1939 and 1940.
32.
Tom Harmon was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954, the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1962, the Indiana Football Hall of Fame in 1974, and the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1978.
33.
In 2007, Tom Harmon was ranked 16th on ESPN's Top 25 Players in College Football list.
34.
Tom Harmon was ranked fifth on the Big Ten Network's program "Big Ten Icons", honoring the greatest athletes in the Big Ten Conference's history.
35.
In December 1940, Tom Harmon was selected by the Chicago Bears with the first selection in the first round of the 1941 NFL Draft.
36.
However, Tom Harmon declined to sign with the Bears, initially stating that he was through playing football and instead planned to pursue a career in radio and the movies.
37.
In May 1941, the draft board in Lake County, Indiana, announced that Tom Harmon had been classified as 1-B and deferred as a student until July 1,1941.
38.
In July 1941, Tom Harmon was granted a further 60-day deferment based on his claim that he was the sole support for his parents.
39.
Tom Harmon's request was denied, and he was classified as 1-A.
40.
Tom Harmon, then working as a radio announcer in Detroit, stated that he intended to appeal the ruling.
41.
Tom Harmon's appeal was denied in October 1941, and he was given until November 1941 to enlist.
42.
Tom Harmon applied to enlist as a cadet in the United States Army Air Corps in early November 1941.
43.
Tom Harmon was granted permission to enlist as a cadet in March 1942.
44.
Tom Harmon was commissioned as a second lieutenant and a twin-engined bomber pilot and assigned to Williams Field in Arizona in October 1942.
45.
Tom Harmon reported that he had been flying through heavy rain turbulence for two hours.
46.
When Tom Harmon tried to fly the plane to an opening in the weather, there was a sharp crack from the right wing and engine, and Tom Harmon was unable to pull the plane from a steep dive.
47.
Tom Harmon ended up in a tree 20 yards from where his plane crashed.
48.
Out of a crew of six, Tom Harmon was the sole survivor of the crash and spent several days working his way through jungle and swamp.
49.
Tom Harmon ultimately came upon natives in Dutch Guiana who escorted him in a dugout canoe to a village, where he was taken by outrigger canoe to a base of the Antilles Air Command.
50.
Tom Harmon was awarded the Purple Heart and the Silver Star for his actions with the 449th Fighter Squadron.
51.
Tom Harmon was promoted to the rank of captain in April 1945, and he was discharged from the military at the end of the war on August 13,1945.
52.
In September 1945, Tom Harmon returned to Detroit's WJR radio to broadcast Michigan football games for the 1945 season.
53.
In October 1945, Tom Harmon was hired to do a Saturday evening sports-feature program to be broadcast on the Mutual Radio Network.
54.
Tom Harmon said at the time that his playing days were behind him and that he intended to move to California after the football season was over.
55.
Tom Harmon later recalled that his return to the playing field was reluctant and made necessary by a $7,000 tax bill he received for his prewar earnings.
56.
Tom Harmon appeared in 10 games for the Rams during the 1946 NFL season, rushing for 236 yards on 47 carries, and catching 10 passes for 199 yards.
57.
Tom Harmon had an 84-yard run against the Chicago Bears on October 14,1946, that was the longest in the NFL in 1946.
58.
Tom Harmon gained 135 yards on 18 carries in a 1946 game against the Green Bay Packers.
59.
Tom Harmon believed that his talents did not fit with the T-formation offense run by the Rams, and having broken his nose 13 times, he retired for good from his playing career after the 1947 season.
60.
Tom Harmon later recalled that he went from a $1,500-a-week job as a player to a $100-a-week position as an announcer in Glendale, California.
61.
Tom Harmon attributed his successful career in radio and television to the early education he received from his drama teacher, Mary Gorrell, at Horace Mann high school.
62.
From around 1950 to 1962, Tom Harmon worked as a sportscaster for the CBS network.
63.
Tom Harmon handled the nightly sport report on KTLA television in Los Angeles from 1958 to 1964.
64.
In 1962, Tom Harmon joined the sports staff of the ABC radio network.
65.
Tom Harmon developed a concept for a 10-minute daily sports program.
66.
Tom Harmon hired the crew, purchased the equipment, found sponsors, and then sold the program to ABC.
67.
Tom Harmon worked as the play-by-play announcer for UCLA Bruins football games on KTLA during the 1960s and 1970s.
68.
Tom Harmon saved his silk parachute from the crash of his P-38, and it was used as the material for his wife's wedding dress.
69.
On March 15,1990, Tom Harmon suffered a heart attack at the Amanda Travel Agency in West Los Angeles after winning a golf tournament at Bel Air Country Club.
70.
Tom Harmon was taken to UCLA Medical Center, where he died at age 70.