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It’s as easy as it is right for the 1960 Eagles to laugh, to savor the last franchise championship, a 17-13 victory over Vince Lombardi’s Packers. As champions then, they became champions forever, just as the current Birds have a chance to be should they follow the NFC’s No. 1 seeding into a Super Bowl victory.
As Brookshier knows, so much was different in the days before and after that NFL championship game in Franklin Field. Yet he and some of his 1960 teammates suspect there are significant on-field similarities between the their team and the one that will meet the Packers this weekend.
"We had three or four good leaders on that team," said Chuck Bednarik, a Hall of Fame linebacker and center. "Our No. 1 guy was Norm Van Brocklin, and we knew that how he went, so went the team. But we had other leaders, too, guys like Tommy McDonald who was only about 5-foot-10 but is in the Hall of Fame because he never dropped a pass. And our defense, especially the secondary, had mean, tough kids, who all did a good job.
"But where we had Van Brocklin, this team has Donovan McNabb. And I think he is pretty much equivalent to what Van Brocklin was for us. Because without Donovan, I don’t think this team would be as good as it is."
To a man, three of the more visible 1960 Eagles -- Brookshier, Bednarik and McDonald -- agree there was something intangible about their team and its drive to a championship. So, too, have the 2003-04 Eagles shown a dramatic resiliency in overcoming injuries to win 12 games and a division championship.
"We always knew that some way or another, one of us would step up," McDonald said. "That could be Van Brocklin, or Bob Pellegrini, Pete Retzlaff, Chuck Bednarik, Tom Brookshier, Jimmy Carr, Maxie Baughn. Look at all of us, after we finished pro football every one of us went off and was successful in life. It all boils down to leadership. We were tight, tight throughout the whole organization. Every one of us stuck up for one another. It was absolutely magnificent.
"This year, we have a great team and I am so proud of the players for a lot of the same reasons. Look at Donovan. I felt so bad for him when he had that bad thumb. It’s hard enough to throw a baseball with a bad thumb. Try throwing a football. But he came through like a champion. Van Brocklin was our spark plug. Donovan McNabb is the spark plug now."
McDonald caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from Van Brocklin in the championship game, which ended with Bednarik sitting on Jim Taylor after having played all 60 minutes.
"I will watch the game, but I have kind of lost interest in pro football," Bednarik said. "I can’t relish the fact that they make so much money compared to what we were getting. They are overpaid and under-played. I am old school, old school. I always felt everyone should stay on the field and play both ways. I call this pussycat football and I don’t respect it any more. I know some people think I am insane, but that’s the way I feel."
While Bednarik may watch the first Eagles-Packers playoff game in two generations through skeptical eyes, his former teammates will celebrate the similarities, not the differences.
"It’s amazing what this team has done," Brookshier said. "Our team had no injuries. I don’t even think one of us had a cold. This team has had to adjust 15 times since training camp and the coaches have done a great job.
"I remember after every game, Van Brocklin would go around to every locker and tell each player, ‘Nice job.’ Donovan does that, too. I also remember that Buck Shaw never said two words to us. If anyone had to be chewed out, it was the assistants doing it. Andy Reid is the same way. It is always his assistants doing the jumping up and down."
There will be jumping at the Linc Sunday, not unlike Dec. 26, 1960, when "The Easties" ripped down the goal posts in celebration.
"That’s what we called them, because they sat in the east stands at the end of the horseshoe," said Jimmy Gallagher, an Eagles’ Hall of Famer for his lifetime of front office contributions. "They were like the 700 level at the Vet. But I don’t remember any parade, just that we went back to the Warwick Hotel for a little celebration dinner."
That was then, when an NFL championship meant a good meal and a one-car non-parade. Chances are, not even the 1960 Eagles will be as calm should the Birds be as successful this time.
"I can’t wait for this game," Tommy McDonald said. "I am so excited, I want to suit up and play. I will be 70 years old in July, but I am ready to go. You look at the wrinkles upon wrinkles, maybe, and you know it’s been 43 years. But to me, it just doesn’t seem that long ago."
To contact Jack McCaffery, e-mail
sports@delcotimes.com
