Friday, January 07, 2011

A Game in Philly to Forget

No, we’re not referring to the “4th and 26” game of several years ago in today’s blog title. The 1960 N.F.L. championship game between Green Bay and Philadelphia was held on December 26, 1960. A capacity crowd of 67,325 Philadelphia fans gathered at Franklin Field, then (as now) the home field of the University of Pennsylvania football team, with 7,000 temporary seats having been added. The Eagles were major underdogs going into the Championship game.

Philadelphia won 17-13 despite being outgained 401-296, with only 13 first downs to the Packers' 22. Chuck Bednarik tackled Jim Taylor on the final play of the game at the Eagles' eight yard line (Bednarik was the last Eagle between Taylor and the end zone), and remained atop Taylor for several seconds as the final seconds ticked off the clock, ensuring the Packers could not run another play. It would prove to be Packers' coach Vince Lombardi's sole career playoff loss as a coach, and is the Eagles' most recent championship.

The ticket above is from that fateful Sunday.