From the Desk of Eagles Outsider Barry Bowe
1960 CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON
My Facebook buddy John Roberts tagged me in a post on Monday. Seems the Eagles are inducting Maxie Baughn into its Hall of Fame next week and he wanted to spread the word to Eagles fans.
I was a senior in high school in 1960. That’s the year the Eagles drafted Maxie Baughn in the second round of the NFL draft. And I remember him well.
To begin with, it was a poor draft for the Eagles. Only two selections in 20 rounds ever amounted to anything:
- Linebacker Maxie Baughn, out of Georgia Tech, in the second round.
- Running back Ted Dean, from Radnor High and Wichita State, in the fourth round.
So it was quality rather than quantity as both rookies played in all 12 games – plus the championship game against the Packers. And Baughn started every game.
Note Bene: That was the last year the NFL played 12 games per season. The following year’s schedules were expanded to 14 games.
John Roberts’ post triggered memories about something called the Playoff Bowl back then. As I remembered it, Maxie Baughn broke a leg in the Playoff Bowl against the Baltimore Colts in which several Eagles suffered injuries. But I wasn’t sure what year that happened.
Doing a little research proved my memories to be somewhat muddled. Quarterback Sonny Jurgensen and right tackle J. D. Smith were injured in that game, but not Baughn. Plus, that game was played against the Detroit Lions and not the Colts. The Eagles did face the Colts in the Playoff Bowl, but that game was played in 1966 and Baughn was playing for the Los Angeles Rams by then.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Playoff Bowl, I’ll get to that in Part II. In the meantime, there’s enough information to break this down into two parts. So here goes the rest of Part I.
MISSED THE GAME
The Eagles won the NFL championship by beating the Green Bay Packers 17-13 one day after Christmas in 1960. A full house of 67,325 fans filled Franklin Field – but I wasn’t one of them.
Oddly, I attended every Eagles home game with my dad from 1958 thru 1966 – except that one. As it worked out, I was a senior at Clifton Heights High School and we were playing in the annual Kiwanis Basketball Tournament at Swarthmore College at the same time that the Eagles were playing. So my dad and I missed that game.
Because of the blackout rules in effect at that time, the game wasn’t televised live in the Philly market. We had to wait until after the 11 o’clock news to see a delayed replay of the game.
Like I said, the Eagles beat the Packers 17-13 – the only post-season loss suffered by Vince Lombardi as head coach of the Packers.
WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR
Van Brocklin, Buck Shaw, and Bednarik
When that game ended, there was no doubt in my mind that the Eagles would return to the championship game the following season. Other than head coach Buck Shaw – who’d already announced his retirement – everyone was coming back.
And Norm Van Brocklin and Tommy McDonald were on top of their games.
At least in Norm Van Brocklin’s mind, a deal was already in place. He was going to replace Shaw and become a player/coach for the 1961 season. Which sounded good because Shaw had given Van Brocklin control of the offense when the Eagles acquired him prior to the 1958 season.
“Van Brocklin was like a coach. He ran the practices, not Buck. Every day we’d go to practice at River Field and the rookies had to get the blocking dummies out of the equipment shed. I had to do it, too, even though I was starting. That’s just how things were done. After practice we’d put them back.
Practice would end when Dutch (Van Brocklin) said so. He’d yell out, ‘OK, that’s it.’ Buck was fine with it and so were the players. It was an unusual setup. It was different than anything I saw in college playing for (coach) Bobby Dodd, but it worked because of the chemistry of that team. There was a closeness among those players that was unique.” – Maxie Baughn
PISSED OFF IN PHILLY
But then – pardon my French – the shit hit the fan when the Eagles reneged on their promise to Van Brocklin. Instead, ownership promoted offensive line coach Nick Skorich to succeed Buck Shaw.
More French – How pissed was Van Brocklin?
Pissed enough to end his playing career and walk away from the Eagles.
But he wasn’t out of work for very long. Just two weeks later, the expansion Minnesota Vikings hired Van Brocklin as its first head coach – and he coached in the NFL for 13 seasons:
- Six years with the Vikings.
- Seven years with the Atlanta Falcons.
His career coaching record was an uninspiring 66-100-7 – but he was coaching expansion teams at both stops. The Vikings were brand new and the Falcons were starting their fourth season.
Would Norm Van Brocklin have led the Eagles to another NFL championship?
There’s no doubt in my mind that the Eagles would’ve won the Eastern Division and returned to the title game. But I have no idea if they would’ve beaten the Packers for the second straight time. The Packers were much better than the year before and they were emerging as an all-time NFL juggernaut.
But I do know this for a fact: The hiring of Nick Skorich was a disaster that sent the Eagles on a downward spiral that would last for nearly two decades. After the Eagles finished 10-4 in his first year at the helm, they fell off to 3-10-1 and 2-10-2 for the next two years before getting fired and being replaced by an even worse coach in Joe Kuharich.
Here’s a short VIDEO of the 1960 NFL championship game.
Tomorrow I’ll get into the 1961 season and the history of the Playoff Bowl.
The header photo is Maxie Baughn fighting off a block by the Packers Larry Hickman during the championship game.
In addition to being the official Eagles Outsider for BlameMyFather.com, Barry Bowe is also the author of:
- Born to Be Wild
- 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant
- 12 Best Eagles QBs
- Birth of the Birds
- Soon-to-be-published sexy, police procedural Caribbean Queen
- Soon-to-be-published novel Stosh Wadzinski
- Soon-to-be-published novel Polish Widow
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