Chuck Bednarik

My dad took me to my first Eagles game in August of 1949. I was six years old. The game was played at Municipal Stadium.

The Eagles played their regular season games at Shibe Park back then, but they played some of their preseason games at Municipal Stadium. It was a night game and they used a white ball with two black stripes.

The Eagles opponents were the Los Angeles Rams with quarterback Bob Waterfield and receivers Tom Fears and Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch. The Rams also had a rookie backup quarterback on the squad. His name was Norm Van Brocklin.

The Eagles had a rookie of their own. His name was Chuck Bednarik. My dad went out of his way to point him out to me for three reasons:

(1) The Eagles selected Bednarik with the first overall pick in the NFL draft – making him the first lineman ever taken that high.

(2) Bednarik was a three-time All-American center from the hometown U of P.

(3) Bednarik was a military veteran.

In 1949, the U.S. was not far removed from defeating our two arch-enemies – Germany and Japan – in World War II. Old-fashioned American pride was still running rampant. Most of the fathers of my childhood buddies fought in the war and my dad was no exception. He made sure that I stood straight and tall and placed my right hand over my heart when the band played the Star Spangled Banner prior to the game.

My dad spent a year with the Army Air Corp stationed in France flying missions as a navigator in a B-24 bomber. The fact that Chuck Bednarik spent a year stationed in England flying missions as a gunner in a B-24 created a special kinship between Chuck Bednarik and my dad – even though the two men never met. It was the Band-of-Brothers syndrome.

Chuck Bednarik thus became my dad’s favorite Eagle – and mine as well – and we were fortunate to witness his entire career in Philadelphia. The fact that he became a star of such magnitude made it all that easier to idolize him as a player.

The Eagles finished that same season, 1949, in first place in the NFL East Division with a record of 11-1-0. By coincidence, the Rams finished the season in first place in the NFL West Division with a record of 8-2-2. Thus, the stage was set for a showdown for the NFL championship between the two teams we saw that night.

On December 18, the Eagles beat the Rams 14-0 on the strength of a 31-yard TD pass from Tommy Thompson to Pete Pihos in the first half and a 2-yard return of a blocked punt in the second half by defensive end Leo Skladany. Stout defense and a dominating ground game powered the win. The Eagles gained 264 yards on the ground – 196 of them by Steve Van Buren.

Chuck Bednarik played in ten games that rookie season – starting seven games at center. Norm Van Brocklin got into eight games for the Rams that season and passed for 601 yards and six TDs.

Obviously, there was no way of knowing that some 12 years later, on December 26, 1960, Chuck Bednarik would be snapping the ball to quarterback Norm Van Brocklin as the Eagles defeated the Green Bay Packers 17-13 to win the NFL championship – the last championship in Eagles’ history up to this point in time. It was on the final play of that game that Chuck Bednarik made one of the two most iconoclastic plays in Eagles history.

Let’s set the scene like so –

Paul Hornung kicked a pair of field goals in the first half to put the Packers in front 6-0. But the Eagles scored twice in the second quarter to take a 10-6 lead at the half on a 35-yard TD pass from Norm Van Brocklin to Tommy McDonald and a 15-yard FG from Bobby Walston.

After a scoreless third quarter, the Pack took a 13-10 lead in the fourth quarter on a 7-yard pass from Bart Starr to Max McGee. But the Eagles answered with a 5-yard run by Ted Dean to retake the lead at 17-13.

And that’s where the score stood as time was running out.

The Packers were out of time outs and needed a touchdown to win. But they were driving deep into Eagles territory.

The lead looked tenuous when the Pack reached the Eagles 22-yard-line. But there was only enough left time for two plays.

Bart Starr threw a swing pass to the powerful Jim Taylor – and Taylor smelled pay dirt.

“He got through a couple of our defenders,” Bednarik later described the play, “but he had to get through me. That wasn’t going to happen.”

Bednarik bulldogged Taylor to the ground at the 9-yard-line. Just nine seconds left – with the clock ticking.

To make sure the Packers couldn’t get off another play and score the winning TD, Bednarik pinned Taylor to the ground and refused to let him up until the clock reached the magic 0:00 mark.

“Okay,” Bednarik told Taylor, who was still trying to wiggle free, “you can get up now, Jim. The fucking game’s over.”

But according to my esteemed pal Baseball Giorgio – contrary to popular notion – no such dialogue transpired when Chuck Bednarik made his other iconoclastic play five weeks earlier. That happened on November 20 when the Eagles (6-1) met the New York Giants (5-1-1) with first place at-stake in the NFL East.

The Giants took a 10-0 lead at the half when Joe Morrison plunged into the end zone from one yard out in the first quarter and Pat Summerall kicked a 26-yard FG in the second quarter.

Norm Van Brocklin got the Eagles on the scoreboard in the third quarter with a 35-yard TD pass to Tommy McDonald.

In the fourth quarter, the Eagles pulled even at 10-10 when Bobby Walston converted on a 12-yard FG. And the Birds took the lead 17-10 when defensive back Jimmy Carr picked up a fumble and ran it in from 38 yards out.

But then the Giants started driving.

Near midfield, Giants quarterback George Shaw connected with running back Frank Gifford, and Gifford was trying to pick up as many yards as possible as he angled toward the sidelines to get out of bounds to stop the clock. Unfortunately for Gifford, his route ran him straight onto a collision course with Chuck Bednarik.

Bednarik pole-axed Gifford near the 40-yard-line.

Gifford’s body was leveled parallel to the ground and his head snapped back when he hit the ground. He was out cold – and best of all to suit the Eagles’ purpose – the ball flew into the air, landed not far away, and Eagles linebacker Chuck Weber fell on the ball.

The Eagles ran out the clock, the game ended 17-10, and the Eagles advanced to the aforementioned championship with the Green Bay Packers five weeks hence.

Those two plays were the most iconoclastic plays in Eagles history – and Chuck Bednarik was the perpetrator of both hits.

When Frank Gifford regained consciousness in the locker room after the game, he literally never knew what hit him. He had no recollection whatsoever of the play.

Gifford missed the rest of the season for the Giants, missed the entire 1961 season, and switched from running back to wide-out when he returned to action in 1962 to limit the number of hits he took.

Chuck Bednarik was as hard as they come on the football field. He was a no-nonsense guy with the single-minded ambition to win the game. My dad and I saw every game he ever played in Franklin Field with the Eagles – except one. We missed the championship game against the Packers. By then I was a senior in tiny Clifton Heights High School and we were playing in the annual Kiwanis basketball tournament at Swarthmore College.

The NFL championship game was blacked out locally. So we had to watch a replay of the game that night after the 11 o’clock news. We already knew the outcome, but we didn’t care. We watched it with passion from beginning to end.

Maybe some day I’ll be able to watch the Eagles win another championship – but you never know. It’s going on 55 years since the last one.

As we all know by now, Chuck Bednarik passed away in the early morning hours on Saturday, March 21. It sounds cliché to say he’s gone but will never be forgotten. But like most clichés, it’s a fact.