Looking forward to the Packers-Eagles game...

...this weekend? If so, you really ought to read this article in the Times today about the NFL championship game played on December 26, 1960, between the two teams. Here's a taste:

The 1960 championship game was played at Franklin Field [in Philadelphia]. Kickoff was moved from Sunday to Monday at noon, given the belief — now quaint in the era of ubiquitous television — that Christmas should be a day for devotion and family, not sports.

Snow ringed the field after a frigid week. The crowd reached capacity at 67,325 as portable bleachers seating 7,000 were installed around the stadium track. Still, a local television blackout was enforced, sending many Eagles fans driving to New Jersey or Baltimore to watch the game.

Philadelphia's defense was anchored by the ferocious Chuck Bednarik, known as Concrete Charlie, who at age 35 played both ways at linebacker and center.

The Eagles took a 7-6 lead in the second quarter on a 35-yard pass from [quarterback Norm] Van Brocklin to flanker Tommy McDonald. Tiny and fleet, McDonald was among the last players of that era to begin wearing a face mask. He slanted inside, broke toward the corner and caught the scoring pass before being pushed into a snowbank.

Flanker? Snowbank?

McDonald had a trick for holding on to the ball. On the road, he sometimes sandpapered the tips of his fingers. At home, he rubbed them briskly on the brick walls at Franklin Field.

“You didn’t make ’em bleed,” McDonald said. “You just made them more sensitive, made the skin stand up so it was a little more dedicated to leather.”
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Van Brocklin, the Hall of Famer known as the Dutchman and playing his final game, was a fierce and gruff leader who carried a coach’s authority on the field. At training camp, according to split end Pete Retzlaff, Coach Buck Shaw (middle, top) would diagram plays, turn to Van Brocklin and say, “That O.K. with you, Dutch?”

On the team’s weekly day off, many players, including Van Brocklin and his ever-present Camel cigarettes, would gather at Donoghue’s bar in West Philadelphia. A number of Eagles lived in a nearby apartment building. These gatherings led to a bonding among players. Tom Brookshier, the star defensive back, once told [Ray] Didinger, the sportswriter, “Where else would your wife wake you to get you to a bar?”
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On the game’s final play, [Green Bay quarterback Bart] Starr swung a pass to [Jim] Taylor, who bulldozed past two defenders to the Eagles' 8-yard line before Bednarik and safety Bobby Jackson tag-teamed him to the ground.

Taylor tried to get to his feet, but Bednarik sat on him until time expired. Then, using a choice modifier, he said, “You can get up now, Jim, this game is over.”

Bednarik thrust his hand into the air in celebration and screamed.

“I wanted to kill him,” [Packers guard Jerry] Kramer said, laughing. “I still call him Cement Head Charlie.”