Aaron Thomas, iconic Giants tight end, dies at 86 following battle with illness: ‘Early version of Travis Kelce’

Aaron Thomas, one of the most productive receiving tight ends in New York Giants history, died last week at the age of 86 after a long illness.

The Giants have announced this Thomas died Friday and said he died April 26 at his home in Corvallis, Oregon.

Thomas played 116 regular season games for the Giants between 1962 and 1970, missing only seven games due to injury in his career.

He ranks 17th in franchise history with 254 receptions, 14th with 4,253 yards and ranks sixth with 35 touchdown catches.

“He almost looks like the early version of (Kansas City Chiefs tight end) Travis Kelce,” his son Robb Thomas, who played in the league for 10 years, told the team’s website.

“He was a tight end and flanker, but he ran really good routes and had a good sense of getting into open space.”

Thomas, a fourth-round draft pick in 1961, was traded to the Giants after two games in 1962. Two years later, Thomas led the Giants with 43 receptions for 624 yards and six touchdowns and was selected to the Pro Bowl.

In 1967, he racked up career totals of 51 catches, 877 yards and nine scores. He retired after the 1970 season.

“He was very proud and loved his years with the Giants,” Robb added. “He really loved the Mara family. They were good to him. He was always a Giants fan.”

After his NFL career, Thomas became a stockbroker in Los Angeles before he and his father bought a restaurant/bar/bowling alley in Yreka, California.

Thomas later moved to Oregon, where he was the head football coach at Klamath Falls High School for three years in the early 1980s. He then returned to his alma mater, Oregon State, where he served as assistant director of the Beaver Club until 1989.

Thomas is survived by his wife Joan and children Troy, Robb, Lance and Leslie.