Saturday, March 21
I know he probably was before your time, but Chuck Bednarik died today at 89. Bednarik may have been the toughest football player of all time. I regard him as the greatest player in Philadelphia Eagles history.
Bednarik was All-Pro at linebacker AND center. He was the last of the two-way players. He was instrumental in the Eagles beating the Packers in the 1960 championship game. That was just Vince Lombardi's second year with the Packers. The Packers were just becoming great in 1960. Lombardi vowed never to lose another title game after that - and he never did.
I remember watching that championship game as a young boy in my hometown of Racine, Wis. The second the game finished everyone's TV set - ours was a black and white - went blank.
Later I found out why that happened. It was a freezing late December day when the game was played. It was so cold that some underground pipes broke that would have prevented people from watching the game on TV.
City workers wouldn't have time to repair the pipes before the game finished. So for around three hours they took turns holding up replacement pipes in frigid weather so everyone could watch the game. The second the game finished they put the pipes down so they wouldn't freeze to death. When they put the pipes down, everyone's TV went fuzzy and blurry.
As for Bednarik, as a Packer fan I hated him. Jim Taylor was my favorite player. But I sure respected the heck out of Bednarik.
RIP to a true legend.