The arrival of the Superbowl is bittersweet for football fans. The most eagerly-awaited game of the year is also the season’s swan song, and as the champagne corks pop for the winning team, viewers prepare to ride out the many months until the mini camps begin. Fans won’t have to wait until Fall to get their football fix this year, however, as former Philadelphia Eagle and Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik will be appearing at PhilCONEX 2001.
PhilCONEX 2001, the East Coast’s largest heavy equipment trade show, will be held Feb. 20-21 at the Fort Washington Expo Center, Fort Washington, PA, and will feature all of the latest makes and models of equipment plus related attachments, products and services.
PhilCONEX,which is approximately 90 percent sold out, will run each day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Most people remember Bednarik from his famous hit against Frank Gifford of the New York Giants forty years ago. The Eagles were battling the Giants for the Eastern Conference Championship November 20, 1960. Yankee Stadium was packed, having to turn away more than 20,000 ticket-seekers.
As the story goes, the famous hit didn’t come until the last two minutes of the game at the Philadelphia 35-yard line. The Giants had the ball on third and 10, and were marching down the field to close the Eagles’ 17-10 lead.
Gifford had to stretch behind him to reach the pass from George Shaw, and with a step and a pivot found himself crossing over the middle, only to be met all too suddenly by Concrete Charlie. The force of the blow was too much for Gifford and caused him to fumble the ball, which was immediately scooped up by Eagle Chuck Weber.
Some fans booed, but the hit was declared legal and the Eagles went on to win the game and, later that year, the World Championship.
“[It was like] a truck hitting a sports car,” Bednarik said in The Pro Football Chronicle. “He was going full speed and I was going full speed, and when I hit him, I knew one of us wasn’t going to get up.”
Born and raised in Bethlehem, PA, Bednarik developed the foundation for his uninhibited style of play early in his youth. The son of a Slovak immigrant who worked at Bethlehem Steel, Bednarik grew up poor and learned to be tough.
In 1949, Bednarik signed with the Philadelphia Eagles as a bonus first round draft choice for $10,000 with a $3,000 cash bonus. He played with Philadelphia for 14 years.
During his career with the Eagles, Bednarik was voted seven times All NFL; played in eight Pro Bowls; was voted MVP in the 1954 Pro Bowl game; played 58.5 minutes and made the game-saving tackle in the 1960 NFL title game; was named NFL’s All-Time Center in 1969. He later gained notoriety as the Last Iron Man or 60-Minute Man, meaning that he played the whole game, both on offense and defense.
Bednarik was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1967, exactly five years after his retirement, the minimum required for inductees.
When Bednarik played, may professional football players, including himself, worked part-time jobs. After practice, players would take off their pads, shower, and to their other jobs.
“I worked for Warner Concrete for twenty years,” Bednarik said. “That was a big job for me. I was working during the season. After practice, I’d be selling concrete in the afternoon. In the ’50s and ’60s, construction was in its glory. We had 260 trucks and seven plants with our own sand and gravel departments.”
With his ball-snapping and blocking days behind him, as well as his days selling concrete, Bednarik keeps busy answering fan mail, spending time with his grandchildren and playing golf.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “I still get on an average, forty to fifty pieces of mail a month from all over. I mean all over — Hawaii, every state.”
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