{"id":804047,"date":"2026-08-06T00:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T00:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/804047\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T00:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T00:34:10","slug":"norris-brown-georgia-football-national-champion-dead-at-65","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/804047\/","title":{"rendered":"Norris Brown, Georgia football national champion, dead at 65"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Georgia Bulldogs tight end Norris Brown, who was a part of the 1980 national championship team, has died at age 65.<\/p>\n<p>Brown died last Friday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golaurens.com\/sports\/former-laurens-raider-georgia-bulldog-national-champion-norris-brown-dies-at-65\/article_11608c2a-68f6-4f6b-a1f7-1b6883e4a57d.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to GoLaurens.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He starred at Laurens District High School in South Carolina before heading to Athens in 1979, where he helped capture three consecutive SEC titles from 1980-82 in one of the most glorious eras in Bulldogs history under head coach Vince Dooley.<\/p>\n<p>The 1980 championship season saw the Bulldogs go a perfect 12-0 and defeat Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl to clinch their second national title in program history.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.77777778;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"40208087\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1980-died-july-31-according-136577196.jpg\" alt=\"Norris Brown, an African American man with a gray beard and a gray fedora, smiles at the camera.\" class=\"wp-image-40208087\"  \/>Norris Brown, who played tight end for the University of Georgia\u2019s national championship squad in 1980, died on July 31. Mack Rice Funeral and Cremations<\/p>\n<p>Brown caught 12 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns en route to the 1980 championship. He ended his Georgia career with 44 catches for 832 yards and 10 touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>Brown was teammates with several Georgia football legends, including Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker.<\/p>\n<p>Buck Belue, who was Brown\u2019s quarterback during the perfect season, expressed his condolences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHeavy heart this weekend hearing about the passing of former UGA teammate TE Norris Brown. Talented &amp; skilled athlete &amp; a wonderful teammate. I will miss him!\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/buckbelue8\/status\/2083956520274808977\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Belue wrote<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n<p>After his run with the Bulldogs, Brown was selected 213th overall by the Vikings in the eighth round of the 1983 NFL Draft. That year, he played in two games for the Vikings before moving on to the USFL, where he saw time with the New Jersey Generals and the Jacksonville Bulls before his professional career ended in 1985.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNorris Brown was smiling all the way home,\u201d Belue reflected on Brown\u2019s touchdown in the SEC-clinching game against Auburn in 1980. \u201cRIP Norris Brown.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No cause of death was listed in Brown\u2019s obituary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Georgia Bulldogs tight end Norris Brown, who was a part of the 1980 national championship team, has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1607,399,6341,398,396,397,10756,99,9237],"class_list":["post-804047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-college-football","tag-football","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-obituaries","tag-sports","tag-university-of-georgia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}