It was Dec. 26, 1960, and the world would never be the same again.
"We got $3,500 each for winning that game. That was a hell of a lot of money," Bednarik says. "I bought a car."
Those were the last championship checks cashed by the Eagles, and even that group fell quickly back to earth. Quarterback Norm Van Brocklin left to coach the expansion Minnesota Vikings the following season. Coach Buck Shaw retired, and no Eagles head coach would record a winning record during his tenure until Dick Vermeil.
Picking out one play from 75 years of football to stand as the shining moment for a franchise is an illusory task. The perspective is different for each generation, the sand of what constitutes greatness shifts beneath the feet.
Was it a great individual play . . . Randall scrambling around forever before finding a receiver 70 yards downfield in an otherwise meaningless game . . . a great combination of teamwork . . . a season-altering play, even if not that amazing itself . . . What would be the best? All those years, all those plays.
Every list is different, and every one yields a legitimate argument. For me, make it 1960. Make it the championship game. Make it Bednarik.
The Packers were a team becoming. Their young head coach, Vince Lombardi, had taken a doormat team in 1959 and made it into the surprise Western Conference champions of 1960. That decade, the Packers would go on to win five NFL championships (and the first two Super Bowls against the as-yet unabsorbed AFL).
The roster of accomplishments would not begin against the Eagles, however.
The championship game went back and forth. Green Bay led the statistical battle but trailed with just over five minutes to play when Ted Dean scored on a short run to give the Eagles their 17-13 lead.
