Two Eagles Legends Among Hall of Fame Senior Semifinalists
With the Pro Football Hall of Fame announcing its semifinalists in the Seniors category on Wednesday, two Philadelphia Eagles greats are one step closer to Canton.
The two players in question are lineman Al Wistert, who played with the Eagles from 1943 to 1951, and linebacker Maxie Baugh, who was with the team from 1960 to 1965. Both players are already members of the Eagles' Hall of Fame, and now have a shot at a long-awaited gold jacket.
Wistert was a fifth-round selection by the Eagles in 1943, the same year they operated as a merged team with the Pittsburgh Steelers due to World War II. He played on both sides of the trenches for the Eagles, and in his nine-year career, was a four-time All-Pro selection and captained Philadelphia to back-to-back NFL championships in 1948 and 1949. His No. 70 is one of just nine retired numbers by the Eagles, and he was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame in 2009. Unfortunately, Wistert passed away in 2016 at the age of 95.
Baughn was a second-round pick by the Eagles in 1960 and immediately helped the team win the NFL championship that year. In six years in Philadelphia, he started 80 games and earned five Pro Bowl selections. After leaving the Eagles in 1965, Baughn spent five years with the Los Angeles Rams, then retired for three years before coming back for a final season with the Washington then-Redskins in 1974. Baughn, 84, was inducted into the Eagles' Hall of Fame in 2015.
Both players still have a long way to go before being officially inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Hall's 12-person Seniors Committee will next narrow the list of 31 semifinalists down to 12 finalists, who will be revealed on July 27. After that, the committee will meet again on Aug. 22 to select up to three Seniors for final consideration of the Class of 2024.
Both Wistert and Baughn have made great contributions to the Eagles and the NFL as a whole, and soon they could be the latest Philadelphia icons to don the gold jacket.
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