1 Steve Van Buren. The best ever. How do you judge? How do you cross eras and compare? Just what is universal, what is the tipping point, what is the criteria for such an honor as being named the best ever for a franchise that has existed for more than seven decades?
Championships.
When it comes down to it, the game of football is about winning championships, and no one was more instrumental in bringing not one, but two championships to the city of Philadelphia than Steve Van Buren.
Yes, it is speculative. It is neither foolproof nor scientific, and it certainly isn't free from argument. There will be those who favor the incomparable Reggie White, who moved men with precision timing and his revolutionary "hump" move. There will be those who favor the rock Chuck Bednarik, the last of the two-way ironmen who was a rookie in 1949 and brought a title to this town in 1960, the final time the Eagles have hoisted a championship trophy.
But the 6-foot, 206-pound Van Buren, with his punishing running style, his goal-line effectiveness, even his horrible eyesight, could have crossed eras. He played in the 1940s and '50s, but those who saw him then say he could have played now. He had the size, the speed, the mentality, the power, the will.
Call Van Buren, as they did in the day, "Wham Bam," "Supersonic Steve," "The Bayou Bombshell," "The Movin' Van," "Weavin' Steven" or "Louisiana Lightning," but also call him this: the greatest Philadelphia Eagle of all time.
His numbers for his time were phenomenal - eight seasons, 5,860 rushing yards (including a then-record 1,146 yards in 1949), 1,320 attempts, four rushing titles, six league records and two championship playoff records. The team's first-round draft pick in 1944, Van Buren helped the Eagles to consecutive world championships in 1948 and '49.
He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965.
"I've seen them all - Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, Bronko Nagurski," Greasy Neale, Van Buren's coach with the Eagles, told The Daily News in 1957, "but he's the greatest."
"Steve Van Buren was maybe the greatest running back of all time," said former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski, one of the most respected analysts on the NFL. "We're not just talking about a Jim Brown-type player, or an Emmitt Smith. . . . Although we probably are not acclimated to seeing him run and play, those that are historians understand the impact that he had on the game. He was a great player. He is a Hall of Famer. And they won championships."
