Tolan was born in 1929 in Denver and came to Detroit from Salt Lake City. They said Eddie would never walk again and he was on crutches for a long time. It's the only thing he ever mentioned. Every four years on the eve of the Olympics, Tolan Brown is accustomed to getting calls from newspapers around the country, especially Los Angeles, the venue for his brother's greatest triumphs, to recount those accomplishments. The first two Lions games have done monster ratings.
Nothing draws viewers to TV on a sustained basis like pro football.
The 1 p.m. game between Tampa Bay and Chicago had an 11 rating and 24 share. Even toward the end of the game, the ratings got up to 35 for the last quarter-hour. It's pretty substantial stuff. A ratings point equals 18,000 households in Metro Detroit. Fox 2 helped buy up the last 1,300 tickets to guarantee a sellout.