Terry Beasley was remembered Thursday for his work ethic, toughness and the jaw-dropping speed and athletic ability that still has his name etched in the Auburn record books more than 50 years after he played his final game for the Tigers.

Beasley died Thursday at age 73, following decades of health problems that began with the numerous concussions and head injuries that he suffered during his football career. Authorities in Moody, where Beasley resided for the last several years of his life, are investigating his death as a possible suicide.

However, those who knew Beasley chose to remember him not as the man who was “sick for 40 years” — as former teammate Terry Henley described it — but as one-half of the famed “Sullivan to Beasley” connection that defined Auburn football from 1969-71. Sullivan won the Heisman Trophy as the Tigers’ quarterback in their senior season, with a major assist from Beasley at wide receiver.

“The only person I can put even close to Terry Beasley is (NFL star) Tyreek Hill down there at Miami,” said Henley, an All-SEC running back at Auburn who was a year behind Sullivan and Beasley. “He was about 5-foot-10, 5-11 and just muscles from his ears all the way to his ankles. If you saw him in the dressing room in just a pair of shorts, you wouldn’t believe it. He looked like a bodybuilder — and he didn’t even lift weights.

“It was just God-given. He was so explosive off the line. He didn’t take two steps to leave you. It was just one step and he was gone, buddy. He was just a fantastic talent.”

Beasley and Sullivan — who died in 2019 — re-wrote the Auburn record books during their three years of varsity play with the Tigers. Though many of Sullivan’s passing records have been surpassed in the high-offense era of recent years, Beasley — a Montgomery native who starred at what was then Robert E. Lee High School before joining Ralph “Shug” Jordan’s Tigers — remains atop numerous receiving categories.

Beasley is still Auburn’s all-time leader in receiving yards (2,507) and touchdown catches (29) — 11 ahead of second-place Ben Obomanu in the latter category — and ranks fourth in receptions (141). His 12 touchdown receptions in 1971 are still the Tigers’ single-season record, with his 11 in 1970 the second-highest total in program history.

“We didn’t throw the ball but about probably 20 times a game back then,” Henley remembered, “and he probably caught 19 of them.”

It’s also worth remembering, as former Auburn sports information director and athletics director David Housel notes, Beasley set many of his records during a time the Tigers played only 10 regular-season games per year (as opposed to 12 for most teams nowadays). Bowl games also didn’t in official statistics at the time.

But Beasley’s impact went beyond pure numbers, Housel said. He was best-known for making “over the head” catches, leaning back in full stride to snare a long pass from Sullivan, whom he was confident would put the ball in a catchable position.

“He used to tell Pat ‘you throw it, I’ll catch it,’ and that was pretty much true,” Housel said. “He just went to the spot, never looked, threw his hands up, and caught the ball. Of course, Pat threw it to the right place and he was at the right place, but to catch that ball without ever looking at it, that’s not normal. And he didn’t do it once or twice, he did it quite often.”

Beasley and Sullivan helped the Tigers to a 26-7 record and three consecutive bowl games during their time together, and they went 2-1 against Alabama (3-1 counting a freshman team victory in 1968). Beasley had nine receptions for 121 yards in Auburn’s 33-28 win over Alabama in 1970, and also set up a touchdown with a 42-yard run in which Housel said he “wormed and squirmed” his way through the Crimson Tide defense.

Beasley and Sullivan had perhaps their finest day together in the 1971 Georgia game, in which Sullivan threw four touchdowns passes, two of them long bombs of 70 and 33 yards to Beasley in a 35-20 Auburn victory. It was that performance that likely locked up the Heisman Trophy for Sullivan, with a major assist from the receiver Auburn radio announcer Gary Sanders called “the Mechanical Man.”

“I thought they should have given out two Heismans that year,” Henley said.

Beasley received his accolades, however. He was a unanimous All-American in 1971 and was later elected to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1986 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

Beasley’s No. 88 is also among three numbers retired by the Auburn football program. Sullivan’s No. 7 and Bo Jackson’s No. 34 are the others.

“Auburn has been very, very careful not to make Terry Beasley go unrecognized,” Housel said. “They retired both of their numbers. … And they took Terry to the Heisman Trophy presentation dinner. They made sure Terry was not forgotten. He was in the limelight too and it was appropriate that it be that way. Pat knew that, too, I think.”

Beasley played in an era when receivers were expected to work in the middle of the field, and when they weren’t protected by rules preventing “headhunting” from opposing defenders. There were multiple instances where Beasley was knocked unconscious during a game — including in the 1970 Iron Bowl at Legion Field and the 1971 game at Tennessee, both games played on unforgiving Astroturf.

Beasley was a first-round pick of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers in 1972, but played in only 29 games across four seasons before retiring due to injury. It is believed he suffered at least 19 concussions during his football career, leading to what he later described as “memory loss, headaches, anxiety and sleeplessness.”

“Our equipment in those days didn’t offer much protection, and the rules of the way you can hit someone back then versus now were totally different,” Henley said. “If you came across the middle back when we played, people were trying to cut your lights out. Then if you hit the ground and you bounced on that old Astroturf, two or three others would dive in and spear you (with their helmets).

“The licks he took were just vicious licks. In that game up at Tennessee, I thought they’d killed him. He was laying face down on that turf, but he came back in and played with a vengeance. And he did the same thing the year before against Alabama.”

Ralph Jordan Jr., the legendary Auburn coach’s son, said he last saw Beasley in 2011 following the death of his mother Evelyn Jordan, who worked as a counselor for married students at Auburn for many years. Both Sullivan and Beasley were married for much of their Auburn careers, which was then more common among college-age students.

The younger Jordan said he thought Beasley looked relatively well the last time he saw him, though his health apparently took a turn for the worse not long after. Beasley was hospitalized for several weeks in 2013 for health problems his family believed were related to concussions suffered in football, and was among several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the NFL for its treatment of brain injuries that was settled in 2016.

“We knew them as a family and as football players and you just couldn’t find two better individuals to represent the Auburn spirit and the Auburn family at that time than Terry Beasley and Pat Sullivan,” Jordan said. “They were gentleman in every sense of the word and fierce competitors with great athletic skills. It’s a tremendous loss for the Auburn family and certainly for the Beasley family and all of our hearts go out to them.

“The Beasley-Sullivan era was a special time at Auburn. They’re both gone now and it’s such a shame, but they’ll live on in the annals of Auburn football history for the people they were and the records they achieved. It’s just a real loss for the Auburn people.”

If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, reach out to the 24–hour National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255; contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741; or chat with someone online at suicidepreventionlifeline.org. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours.