Robert Porter "Buddy" Tinsley (August 16, 1924 – September 14, 2011) was a Canadian Football League offensive lineman for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1982, and was a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Hall of Fame, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and the Baylor University Hall of Fame.

Tinsley was born in Damon, Texas and played collegiately at Baylor. He spent one season with the NFL's Los Angeles Rams before joining the Blue Bombers, where he often played both ways at tackle.

Buddy Tinsley

He is noted for a story regarding the 38th Grey Cup, known as the "Mud Bowl" because of poor weather/field conditions. "As the legend goes, Tinsley, a rookie Bomber lineman, was face down in the muck and water, gasping for breath when an alert official pulled him from his murky grave".

Buddy Tinsley

Tinsley died on September 14, 2011, aged 87, from undisclosed causes, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Buddy Tinsley

Footnotes

1924 births

2011 deaths

American players of Canadian football

American football offensive linemen

Baylor Bears football players

Canadian football offensive linemen

Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees

Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame inductees

Los Angeles Dons players

Players of American football from Brazoria County, Texas

Players of Canadian football from Texas

Winnipeg Blue Bombers players