By Tracy Gupton

A state champion in high school and a Hall of Famer in college and pro football, Damon native Robert Porter Tinsley Jr. made a name for himself playing the sport he loved north of the United States border. And it was there, in Winnipeg, Canada, that Buddy “Big Daddy” Tinsley’s memorable life ended September 14, 2011.

Buddy lived to the enviable age of 87. His family had the former football great interred at historic Columbia Cemetery next to his first wife, Hazel George Stevens Tinsley, who passed away in her early 60s in 1993. Buddy is also buried near his parents, Robert Porter Tinsley Sr. and Effie Viola Curtis Tinsley. His Dad died in 1962 in his mid-70s while his Mom’s life ended the same year as Buddy’s first wife. Effie Tinsley died in 1993 at the advanced age of 88.

The elder Robert Porter Tinsley was an oilfield worker supporting his family through hard work. He toiled alongside the many who found work in the West Columbia area during the oil boom days. The Tinsleys were living in Damon when Buddy was born August 16, 1924. Buddy’s older sister, Lucille Virginia Tinsley Brown, was born three years earlier in 1921. Lucille died in 1985.

According to his newspaper obituary, “Bud’s family moved to Barbers Hill, Texas, when he was quite young and he subsequently attended Barbers Hill High School where he was introduced to organized football. He played on the 1941 Texas High School State Championship team and has been inducted into the Barbers Hill High School Hall of Fame.

“His athletic ability led to a football scholarship to Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He volunteered for wartime service joining the U.S. Navy when he turned 18 years of age and was stationed in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the Seaman Guard. In 1945, he was granted an Honorable Discharge with the rank of Sergeant-At-Arms. He returned to Baylor and continued playing for the Baylor Bears until 1949. He was the first member of his family to graduate from college. He was later inducted into the Baylor University Hall of Fame for his outstanding years of football while in college.”

In June of 1949 Buddy married Hazel Stevens at Danciger near West Columbia where both families were then residing. So, he kicked off his pro football career as a married man. “Bud was drafted to the Los Angeles Dons of the All-American Football League and played his rookie year in professional football living in Hollywood with his new bride,” it was stated in Buddy’s obituary. “At the end of the 1949 season, the professional football leagues were re-structured. By then, Bud’s reputation as a fearsome tackle was far reaching. He was contacted by the Winnipeg Blue Bomber organization and was lured to Canada with the promise of wonderful hunting and fishing.”

Buddy Tinsley played offensive and defensive tackle for the Blue Bombers from 1950 through 1960, “serving as the perennial team captain and saw Grey Cup championships in 1958 and 1959.” The Grey Cup winner is to the Canadian Football League what the Super Bowl winner is to the NFL. A story in The Canadian Press announcing Tinsley’s passing in 2011 said Buddy was a seven-time Western all-star who was inducted into the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame in 1982 and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ Hall of Fame in 1984.

“Buddy was a tremendous player on the football field and was an important member of this organization’s rich history,” Blue Bombers president Jim Bell said in a 2011 Canadian Press interview. “He will be remembered as not only a great football player, but as a great individual.”

The numerous awards bestowed upon the former Danciger resident included induction into the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Hall of Fame, the Canadian Football League Hall of Fame and a four-time inductee into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame as a standout Blue Bomber player, two-time championship team member, and lastly as coach of the Canadian Champion 1963 St. James Rams of the Manitoba Senior Football League. Buddy Tinsley was a player on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ 1958 and 1959 back-to-back Grey Cup championship teams.

Buddy “Big Daddy” Tinsley’s Wikipedia page states that he was drafted out of Baylor University in the seventh round of the 1948 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. However, Tinsley opted to play instead for the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference which folded at the conclusion of the 1949 season, which was Buddy’s only year in Hollywood. The Dons, who played their home games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, were co-owned by Hollywood notables Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Don Ameche and Louis B. Mayer. In 1957, Crosby would marry another well-known West Columbian, movie star Kathryn Grant, better known locally as Kathy Grandstaff, the daughter of former West Columbia Roughnecks head football coach D.E. Grandstaff and longtime elementary school teacher Olive Grandstaff.

Following his retirement from pro football, Buddy Tinsley worked as the Western sales manager for Melchers Distilleries and also partnered with his wife Hazel in Tinsley Agencies, his obituary stated.

In 1993, Buddy Tinsley lost his beloved wife Hazel to cancer after 44 years of marriage. He married Jean Laughlin in 1994 and “spent many happy years being a ‘snowbird,’ enjoying the Texas climate in winter and the Manitoba summers at Brereton Lake,” it was stated in his obituary. “He had been unable to continue travelling since 2009 due to his declining health.”

After several months of experiencing poor health, the great “Big Daddy” of Canadian Football League lore passed away September 14, 2011, at the Tache Center in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. “His death marks the passing of another noble old Texan,” his family wrote in Buddy Tinsley’s newspaper obituary. “Our Dad was a devoted family man and gave tirelessly of himself and his time. He was loved and respected by those who knew him in his many roles … friend, Dad, mentor, coach, water skiing instructor, oil painter, hunting dog trainer, archery and shooting instructor, golfer, crib player, gardener, barbeque chef and scratch biscuit maker and so much more.”

Buddy Tinsley was survived by his children, Cindy (and husband Wayne Thompson) and Jack (and wife Theresa), and his second wife, Jean Tinsley, of Ace, Texas.