Chuck Bednarik

Tom Brookshier, according to his friends, knew how to tackle. Whether on the football field or as a television and radio personality, his impact was equally immense and intense. He was an all-pro on the last Eagles team to win an NFL championship, in 1960, and was part of CBS's top NFL broadcast team during the 1970s along with his close friend Pat Summerall. In the late 1980s he hired Angelo Cataldi, launching the 610 WIP sports-talk format that remains in place today. Mr. Brookshier, 78, died Friday of cancer at Lankenau Hospital.

3 Chuck Bednarik. In 1960, plenty of players in the NFL might have thought they could play both ways, but one did, and excelled. Chuck Bednarik was the last iron man of pro football. When linebacker Bob Pellegrini pulled a groin muscle against Cleveland in the fifth game of the season, coach Buck Shaw looked at the 35-year-old Bednarik and said, "Get in there, Chuck, but don't pull any hero stuff. " Because he played both ways to help lead the Eagles to the 1960 world championship - the franchise's last - Bednarik solidified his spot among the greatest Eagles of all time.

Neither an angry Chuck Bednarik nor an AWOL Harry Kalas dimmed the enthusiasm last night when the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association held its 100th awards banquet at the Hilton Hotel in Cherry Hill. Braving 20-degree temperatures more chilling because of a gusting wind, the earliest sellout crowd in association history responded with warm affection for notables Julius Erving, Bob Clarke, Billie Jean King, Carl Lewis, Tom Lasorda, Ken Hitchcock, Randy Ayers, John Chaney, Bill Bergey, Bernard Hopkins, Larry James and other sports heroes they cheered in the past.

There's no truth to the rumor that Jim Taylor is buried under the artificial turf at Franklin Field. It just seems that way. It's been 37 years now since Taylor, a Hall of Fame fullback for the Green Bay Packers, got up. But, like Willie Wilson of the Kansas City Royals in his final, futile swing in the 1980 World Series, Taylor will always be down for the count in Philadelphia - frozen under Chuck Bednarik as the last seconds of a season disappear...

In Chuck Bednarik's opinion - which he is not afraid to offer - being honored with a statue is similar to taking a step toward sainthood. No wonder Bednarik was in such high spirits on Saturday afternoon. As a Franklin Field crowd that included many former teammates looked on, a 9-foot bronze statue of Bednarik was unveiled at halftime of the Penn-Cornell football game. "Statues are saints; they go to heaven. You're putting me in heaven while I'm still alive," Bednarik said.

When the caller ID flashed "Charlie Bednarik," Bethlehem Catholic quarterback Adam Bednarik knew he was hearing from both a boyhood idol and a distant relative. Adam Bednarik grew up in Bethlehem, about a one-hour shot up the turnpike from Philadelphia, entranced by his father's stories about former Philadelphia Eagles center and linebacker Chuck Bednarik. His bone-rattling hits, bulldozing blocks, and blue-collar work ethic landed him in the Hall of Fame and in Adam's highest regard.

Eagles legend Chuck Bednarik is expected to remain in a Lehigh Valley hospital for a few more days, according to his son-in-law, Ken Safarowic. Bednarik, 85, ate solid food yesterday and is continuing to undergo tests as doctors try to determine why he had shortness of breath and a drop in blood pressure and felt faint Tuesday. Safarowic had told the Daily News on Wednesday night that Bednarik has no ongoing conditions and he is "about as healthy as you can be at this stage" and doctors have determined his heart is OK. Safarowic reiterated that Bednarik is eager to get out of the hospital.

Eagles great Chuck Bednarik, who was admitted to St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem last week after suffering shortness of breath, is expected to be released later this week, his son-in-law said Monday night. "He was up and walking around today and eating more," said Ken Safarowic, who has been a spokesman for the Bednarik family. Safarowic said that tests had revealed no major problems for Bednarik, although he conceded that the 85-year-old Hall of Famer "needed to get retooled.

The NFL held a pep rally yesterday in front of the American Embassy. A couple of hundred people and a couple of television cameras witnessed this lunch-time spectacle on tony Grosvenor Square. Two things caught your eye: (1) The Eagles' cheerleaders. (2) An Eagles jersey bearing Chuck Bednarik's No. 60 that was hanging from an embassy window. "I figured that a jersey that had been retired ought to be displayed," said Jeff Garrison, the man who owns it and will be wearing it at Sunday's American Bowl game between the Eagles and the Cleveland Browns.

THE EAGLES who won back-to-back world championships in the late 1940s were a rugged bunch of birds - and one of the toughest was their star receiver, No. 35, Pete Pihos. The son of Greek immigrants, hardened by serving in World War II's Battle of the Bulge under Gen. George Patton, Pihos dashed his way into the Pro Football Hall of Fame not so much for his ability to catch a long pass as the way he flattened defenders on the way to the end zone. Like many NFL greats of postwar years, Pihos then galloped into retirement and relative obscurity, ending up as a construction manager in North Carolina.

In Chuck Bednarik's opinion - which he is not afraid to offer - being honored with a statue is similar to taking a step toward sainthood. No wonder Bednarik was in such high spirits on Saturday afternoon. As a Franklin Field crowd that included many former teammates looked on, a 9-foot bronze statue of Bednarik was unveiled at halftime of the Penn-Cornell football game. "Statues are saints; they go to heaven. You're putting me in heaven while I'm still alive," Bednarik said.

IT HAS BEEN nearly 50 years since Chuck Bednarik last planted an opponent's face into the sod at Franklin Field, and yet his accomplishments have never been forgotten. As the greatest Eagles player of all time and the greatest college football player this city has ever seen, he's now going to be immortalized. Tomorrow, Concrete Charlie becomes Bronze Bednarik. A 7-foot bronzed statue of Bednarik will be unveiled during halftime of the Penn-Cornell game (1 p.m. kickoff). Bednarik played for the Quakers from 1945-48 and then went immediately to the Eagles with the No. 1 overall draft pick following his senior year.

CHUCK BEDNARIK arrived on the University of Pennsylvania campus midway through the 1945 football season, not long after being discharged from the Army Air Corps. He had not played football for 3 years. Within 2 weeks, he was starting. The next 3 years, he started at center and linebacker in the days when Penn used to draw 70,000 to Franklin Field. With the first pick of 1949 NFL draft (actually held on Dec. 21, 1948, not long after Bednarik's final game at Penn), the Eagles chose Bednarik.

BETHLEHEM - They filed past the tall, gaunt, old man in single file, most of the soldiers looking past him to the practice field ahead, where their clean, crisp uniforms were about to mingle with the muddy practice uniforms of the Eagles on Military Day at training camp. Every now and then, though, there was one who knew who the old man was, who would stop with an item to sign and a fervent wish to express, that the players of today were more like the white-haired fellow in the Pro Football Hall of Fame polo shirt, squinting through wire-rimmed glasses.

Eddie Khayat has called as many friends and former teammates of Chuck Bednarik as he can find to help with plans for a statue of the legendary Eagle at Franklin Field. Now, Khayat, a lineman on the 1960 NFL championship team, is turning to you. "I always felt that the Eagles fans were part of the team," Khayat said. "There were 67,000 fans at the 1960 championship game. If there are 15,000 of those fans still with us, and if we could get everyone to contribute $1, it would go a long way to help.

The back-page story in Friday's Daily News was about the organized effort to raise enough money to construct a statue of Penn and Eagles great Chuck Bednarik, which would be placed at Franklin Field, where he starred in college and in the NFL. That made us wonder which other Philadelphia sports legend might be deserving of a statue beyond those already immortalized. The results of a reader poll conducted on philly.com show that 27.8 percent of respondents thought Bob Clarke should be honored with a statue, followed by 20.6 percent for Smokin' Joe Frazier and 13.6 percent for Reggie White.

NO ONE LIVES forever, but some would say that the closest thing to immortality for sports heroes is to have their likeness cast in bronze. Less than a month ago, a statue of former middleweight champion Joey Giardello was unveiled in South Philadelphia. The next legendary Philly athlete to be so honored is likely to be Penn and Eagles great Chuck Bednarik, a former center and linebacker who is called the last of the 60-minute men. If and when the necessary money is raised and the oft-discussed project is completed, the Bednarik statue would be placed at Franklin Field as the centerpiece of a proposed sports museum that includes a large mural that pays tribute not only to the Quakers' football past, but to the days when the Eagles also called the 116-year-old stadium their home.

HAD A call the other day from a reader asking about Chuck Bednarik. The guy, who didn't identify himself, just wanted to pass along a note to Bednarik, who had a recent hospital stay after experiencing shortness of breath and feeling faint. Bednarik has much of his strength back, says son-in-law Ken Safarowic, and appreciates all the well-wishes he's received. If you'd like to pass along a note to Bednarik, send it to us here at the Daily News and we'll make sure he gets it. Our address: Daily News Sports Dept., c/o Chuck Bednarik, 400 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19130.

Chuck Bednarik was released from St. Luke's Hospital near Bethlehem, Pa., on Tuesday night, a hospital spokesman confirmed Wednesday. The Eagles great was admitted after suffering shortness of breath last Tuesday. On Monday, Bednarik's son-in-law Ken Safarowic said the 85-year-old had been cleared to return home after a battery of tests found no major problems. Safarowic said that Bednarik had begun walking, but may initially need the assistance of a walker. A message left with Safarowic, who has been acting as spokesman for the Bednarik family, was not returned on Wednesday.