Eagles Nest In Hatboro

We’re accustomed to seeing Athletics’ blue and Phillies’ red at our functions, but on Saturday December 15 the museum and gift shop in Hatboro was swamped with people wearing green, to honor our contingent of Philadelphia Eagles. The occasion was a book-signing by writer Bob Gordon, author of the recently-published The 1960 Philadelphia Eagles: The Team They Said Had Nothing But a Championship. What drew a crowd in excess of three hundred mostly green-clad people was the appearance with Gordon of two Hall of Famers from that last Philadelphia NFL champion, Chuck Bednarik and Tommy McDonald. McDonald, an All-American from Oklahoma, was the star wide receiver on Buck Shaw’s squad, while Bednarik, a great player at the University of Pennsylvania, played his entire professional career with the Eagles, as a center and linebacker. In 1960, as everyone seems to remember, Chuck played both ways, on defense as well as offense.

The festivities kicked off at eleven a.m., but Bednarik, due to a scheduling mixup, was an hour late. Chuck made up for it, though, by patiently signing every requested autograph. McDonald, in the meantime, entertained the crowd, keeping everyone in good spirits while waiting for Bednarik.

The two football greats signed a wide variety of items, including jerseys and other items of apparel, but the piece presented for autographing most often to Bednarik was the photo of him standing over a fallen Frank Gifford late in an Eagles-Giants game in 1961, following a crushing tackle which separated Gifford from both the football and his senses. Both Bednarik and McDonald reminisced about their playing days, with Tommy talking about playing for the legendary coach Bud Wilkinson in college. Bednarik described the shocking 17-14 upset of his unbeaten Penn squad by Princeton in 1946. Next year, though, he said, “we went up to Palmer Stadium and kicked their butts.”