Damn! You remember the 48-49- 60`s champs then... Lucky you
I did hoist:drunk: a few with Steve Van B, he was a good friend of a friend.. man he had some good stories to tell, if you could get him started.
I'm jealous of your opportunity with The Flying Dutchman. I have use that as my nickname for most of my life. Here I just shortened things to the Dutchman. On my favorite Iggles website I wrote a review of the 49 Eagles a few months ago. I'll copy it here for you and any other Eagles fanatics. The balance on O and D. The superiority and touhghness versus the rest of the league were hallmarks of the 49 team that I see in today's as well.
"My thoughts on the powerhouse Iggles team that won three straight Eastern Div championships from 47 to 49 and topped it off with two NFL titles in 48 and 49. The 49 team was the strongest of all with new additions like Bednarik, career years from a few players like Pritchard and great last hurrahs from others. When they were good they were VERY good. The following excerpts give a good picture of their talent;
"The 1940's was truly the decade of the Philadelphia Eagles. In later years, the Professional Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee chose All-Pro squads from each decade. The All-Pro squad from the 1940's included seven players from Philadelphia: Steve Van Buren, Alex Wojciechowicz, Al Wistert, Vic Sears, Frank (Bucko) Kilroy, Pete Pihos, and a player who would later coach Msgr. Bonner High School's football team to its first city championship. That player was Jack Ferrante. "
"I think the glory days of the N.F.L. were the late 1940's and early 1950's. The Eagles then were like the Raiders today. We were tough and we intimidated teams. We had a different mentality. It was survival of the fittest." (Bucko Kilroy)
http://www.footballresearch.com/articles/f...?topic=ferrante
To understand this team, first of all one has to allow that the season in "49" for example was just 12 games long. On the other hand The rules in those days allowed for much, much more punishment to be meted out than in the softie style of football played today. It was simply brutal, all-out physical attacks with relatively little protective equipment. On top of that most of the guys on O also played D and damn well as Greasy Neale's famous "Eagle Defense" (the original precursor to the 4-3) stunned the competition.
Lets briefly examine some of the stars of that 49 Iggles O.
QB: Tommy "One Eye" Thompson ( a converted tailback who could run and for two years, 48-49, was arguably the number 1 QB in the NFL.
RB: Steve "The Flying Dutchman" Van Buren, HOF (Only the greatest runner in the 40's and voted by the NFL as one of the three best in the first 50 years of football, he led the league in yards gained 5 times in the 40s. He retired owning 7 NFL records. In the 49 championship game he only set the then record of 196 yds).
RB: Bosh Pritchard, (little, but very fast,he averaged a league leading 6.6 yds per carry in 49 as he and The Dutchman formed pro-football's original version of Thunder and Lightening).
C: Vic Lindskog an All-Pro who got great relief from rookie sub sensation Concrete Charlie Bednarik.
LT: Vic Sears one of the all-time great Eagles lineman (a killer T on D as well)
RT: Al Wistert captain and another Eagles great (5 consecutive years as all-NFL)
RG: Bucko Kilroy: A two way terror who was often called "The dirtiest (ie. meanest/toughest) man in the NFL"
LG: Cliff Patton also regarded as one of the top kickers in the league.
FB: Joe Muha, one of the toughest eagles of all-time he was also an outstanding punter.
WR: Jack Ferrante an excellent receiver (who never went to college)
TE: Pete Pihos HOF, for my money still the best receiver to ever play in Phila. Pete was a former Indiana F, I believe, who had great moves and the power to flatten a tackler (his preferred way of moving downfield) FYI Pete made all pro 6 X, including 1 X in 52 when he (as equally adept at going both ways as was Bednarik), was asked by coach Trimble to play only DE. He then came back to playing E/WR and led the NFL in receiving 3 straight years before retiring in 55). Oh yeah, Pistol Pete NEVER missed a game in his entire 9 year career.
There you have it, (I did check the facts from various sources for my fading memory) the line-up that won the NFL title a second time in 49 and IMO still the (all things being relative) greatest O in Eagles history."