Tommy Pryor Thompson was an American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 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...

 in the National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

. He was blind

Blindness

Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

 in one eye, from a childhood incident, but nevertheless served in the US Army for two years during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, which put his professional career on hold.

He was an off-and-on starter

Starting lineup

A starting lineup in sports is an official list of the set of players who will actively participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as starters, whereas the others are substitutes or bench players.The starters are commonly the best...

 for the Philadelphia Eagles

Philadelphia Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...

, and lead them to three consecutive NFL championship appearances, including the 1948

1948 Philadelphia Eagles season

The 1948 Philadelphia Eagles season, their 16th in the league, resulted in winning the NFL Championship.-Off Season:The Eagles travel to New York state to hold Training Camp at Saranac High School Field in Saranac Lake, New York in upper New York state near Lake Placid and in Adirondack Park-NFL...

 and 1949

1949 Philadelphia Eagles season

The 1949 Philadelphia Eagles season, their 17th in the league, resulted in winning the NFL Championship.-Off Season:The Eagles hold training camp for the 1st time at UM North Central Agriculture school in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.-NFL Draft:...

 title-winning seasons. His 25 touchdown passes lead the league in 1948

1948 NFL season

The 1948 NFL season was the 29th regular season of the National Football League. During the season, Halfback Fred Gehrke painted horns on the Los Angeles Rams' helmets, making the first modern helmet emblem in pro football. The season ended when the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Chicago...

.

Thompson is one of three inactive NFL quarterbacks with multiple championships who were not inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Pro Football Hall of Fame

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees...

, along with Jim Plunkett

Jim Plunkett

James William "Jim" Plunkett is a former American football quarterback who played college football for Stanford University, where he won the Heisman Trophy, and professionally for three National Football League teams: the New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers and Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. ...

 and Jack Kemp

Jack Kemp

Jack French Kemp was an American politician and a collegiate and professional football player. A Republican, he served as Housing Secretary in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1993, having previously served nine terms as a congressman for Western New York's 31st...

. Ray Didinger of CSNPhilly

Comcast SportsNet

Comcast SportsNet is a group of regional sports networks in the United States primarily owned by the Comcast cable television company....

 ranked him in the Top 5 all-time Eagles quarterbacks, citing his contribution to the championship teams.

He died in 1989 of brain cancer.