Chuck Bednarik

My favorite part of "Philadelphia's Fabulous Sports Memories" is Chuck Bednarik reflecting on two of his greatest tackles with Eagles. On the show, which airs tomorrow on Channel 12 at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m., viewers see Bednarik's famous knockout tackle on the Giants' Frank Gifford during the 1960 championship season. It was a clean hit, but Bednarik says Giants quarterback Charlie Conerly hurled a "cheap shot" accusation at him from the sideline. "I told him, 'I'll get you next week,' " Bednarik recalls.

On this first day of what figures to be a winter of discontent for Eagles' fans, some words by Dante might best express the feelings of those elders who still remember the glory of former times. No, not Dante Pastorini, the shopworn quarterback who played out the string here after a decent career with the Houston Oilers, but Dante Alighieri, who composed masterpieces in the world's most musical language. You don't have to know any Italian to appreciate the sheer euphony of the Fifth Canto from Dante's "Divine Comedy.

The first time Pat Summerall met Tom Brookshier, at Franklin Field, it was a violent greeting. "He just about split my face mask away from my helmet," Summerall said yesterday, eulogizing his friend and longtime broadcast partner at a memorial service at the Ardmore Presbyterian Church. Brookshier, 78, died Jan. 29 after a battle with cancer. At a memorial service filled with local and national sports luminaries, eulogies were given for the former Eagles star defensive back by his friends Summerall, Dick Vermeil, Jack Whitaker, and Billy Cunningham, as well as Brookshier's daughter Betsy.

Brian Dawkins posed a simple question: If all those fans who wear No. 20 to Eagles games could play one football game, how would they play? How would they react? "Would you do a flip? Would you crawl? Would you do those things?" Dawkins said. "Probably so. Because you're so excited to play those games. " That was Dawkins' approach when he played safety for the Eagles from 1996 to 2008 - 13 seasons in which he delivered ferocious hits and inspirational locker room speeches and became one of the most beloved Philadelphia athletes the city has ever cheered.

GREAT MOMENTS are born from great opportunity. Or so they say. Situated just 90 miles apart, the sports teams from Philadelphia and New York have had plenty of them. Here are some memorable moments, Philadelphia vs. New York: 1. Chuck Bednarik knocks out Frank Gifford - Nov. 20, 1960. Concrete Charlie says that it was like any other. But because of Frank Gifford's stature, the opponent, and the severity of the outcome - it is one that will live forever. "It was one of those typically tough games between the Giants and Eagles in the middle of November," Bednarik explained to Football Digest . "He was doing a down-and-in pattern, and I saw him coming; I just hit him high in the chest about as hard as I could.

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.

STEVE Van Buren, the Hall of Fame running back who propelled the Eagles to the 1948 and '49 NFL titles, died Thursday evening in Lancaster of pneumonia at 91. Few fans alive today ever saw him play, but Van Buren might have been the best NFL player of the postwar '40s. Barroom historians like to debate whether Van Buren or center/linebacker Chuck Bednarik is the greatest Eagle of all time, with modern-era defensive end Reggie White polling well in some precincts. Certainly, Van Buren dominated his peers as no other skill-position Eagle ever has. Van Buren won four league rushing titles from 1945 to '49. To a franchise that has experienced so few championship celebrations - three, the most recent in 1960 - Van Buren was a cherished link through the years to the days when head coach Greasy Neale's Eagles were the undisputed class of the league.

A BRONZE BUST sat on a table in the sanctuary of the chapel. It was the replica that the Pro Football Hall of Fame gives to its inductees, the one they gave to Steve Van Buren. A bust, an urn, a photograph, a football, a single red rose - and, on the other side of the space, a portrait of No. 15, carrying the ball. The arrangement was simple and dignified, like the man. More than 100 people came to The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, at the Navy Yard - family, friends, fans. Steve Van Buren, arguably the greatest player in Eagles history, the hero of their 1948 and 1949 NFL championship teams, died last month at the age of 91. The memorial service was arranged as a final goodbye, open to the public.

For Jeremiah Trotter, it will be like stepping through his TV screen and into an old NFL Films highlight show. The Eagles will play the Chicago Bears tomorrow afternoon at Soldier Field, where Butkus and Singletary hunted running backs and snarled in the face masks of hapless quarterbacks. Where Trotter's breath will billow in clouds as he leans over and prepares for the snap of the ball. Where collisions are made all the more brutal by the frozen air and the rock-hard ground. "To me," the Eagles' middle linebacker said, "that's football weather.

In the wacky world of championship-craving Eagles enthusiasts, the Rozanskis of Glassboro rest near the top of the heap. They not only bleed Eagles green, but for 50 years and three generations they've also inhaled it, chewed it and absorbed it through their pores. They own season tickets. They tailgate, collect memorabilia, and try to schedule family events around games. When they did have to attend a church wedding during an Eagles game, they took a television. None of which makes them unique among the legions of never-say-die Eagles addicts who endure season after season of tears, fears, jeers and cheers.