There is Only One No. 60 - Chuck Bednarik
For nearly 60 years, there hasn’t been anyone in your Eagles program with the No. 60.
Chuck Bednarik made it obsolete. Concrete Charlie, as he was known, is arguably one of the top five players in team history, if not the very best.
Reggie White would be in that argument, and, like Bednarik, he is one of nine players to have their number retired by the Eagles.
Bednarik, though, spent his entire 14-year NFL career in Philly. White would have too, probably, if not for Norman Braman’s refusal to sign him.
Bednarik’s number is the fourth one that has come up since our jersey countdown to kickoff began that has been retired by the Eagles. The others we’ve come across are Jerome Brown (99), Reggie White (92), and Al Wistert (70). There are five more still to come.
Before Bednarik, there were four players who wore the number 60 and only one who had it more than one season and that was Eddie Michaels, who wore it as an offensive lineman from 1943-46.
That is why Chuck Bednarik is the top-ranked player to wear No. 60 – obviously – but also the only player ranked to wear No. 60.
He was the first player taken in the 1949 draft. He went to the University of Pennsylvania and grew up in Bethlehem, outside Philly in the Lehigh Valley.
Bednarik started 166 games for the Eagles, playing both sides of the line of scrimmage, and is considered one of the last of the two-way players after starting at center and linebacker.
Chuck Bednarik
The Philadelphia Eagles
He is a 10-time, first-team All-Pro, played in eight Pro Bowls and was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967, his first year of eligibility.
Bednarik also helped the Eagles win NFL Championships in 1949 and 1960.
His nickname originated not from his ferocity as a tackler or blocker, but in the offseason, he worked as a concrete salesman. A sportswriter for The Evening Bulletin inadvertently gave him the nickname when he wrote that Bednarik “is as hard as the concrete he sells.”
Bednarik and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie had a dispute that led to some hard feelings for the organization by Bednarik when Lurie refused to buy 100 copies of Bednarik’s new book in 1996 for $15. It was against the NFL rules to do so, however.
Bednarik and the organization made up, however, and Bednarik attended an open practice during training camp at Franklin Field during Chip Kelly’s second year as the head coach in 2014.
The following year, Bednarik passed away at age 89 after what was termed a “brief illness.”
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