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September 16, 2010

Riley Gunnels celebrates 50th anniversary of 1960 NFL title

By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist


It has been 50 years since the Philadelphia Eagles have won the NFL championship.

Enough about the bad news.

On Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field, the 2010 Eagles honored members of that championship team, including Riley Gunnels, the Ocean City resident whose family has had such a strong impact on sports at OCHS.

“Oh, man, it was fantabulous,” said Gunnels. “I really don’t have a word to adequately describe it. They treated us like kings.”

Gunnels was a 10th round draft choice by the Pittsburgh Steelers out of the University of Georgia in 1959. But he played for the Eagles from 1960-64, then for the Steelers from 1965-66 as a defensive end and defensive tackle. He had a successful high school career at Calhoun (GA) High School.

The 1960 Eagles defeated the Green Bay Packers, 17-13, at Franklin Field on the day after Christmas. They had finished the season 10-2, winning the Eastern Conference by one and one-half games over the Cleveland Browns. The Packers beat the Detroit Lions by one game to win the Western Conference. 1960 was also the first year of the Dallas Cowboys, who finished 0-11-1.

The Eagles fell behind in the title game, 6-0, after Paul Hornung kicked two short field goals. The Eagles went ahead when Tommy McDonald caught a 35 yard TD pass from Norm Van Brocklin and Bobby Walston kicked a field goal. Philadelphia led, 10-6, at the half.

After a scoreless third quarter, Bart Starr hit Max McGee from seven yards out in the fourth period to give the Packers a 13-10 lead. But Ted Dean ran five yards for a touchdown for the Eagles and Philadelphia stopped Jim Taylor on the eight yard line on the game’s final play to win it, 17-13. The Eagles had won two previous NFL championships. This loss would be the only post-season defeat in the coaching career of Vince Lombardi.

“I think the biggest thing on that team was camaraderie,” Gunnels said. “There were very few guys on the team who didn’t like all the other guys. Almost everybody was everybody’s good buddy and we spent time together, basically lived together.”

That team was quite a mixture of personalities who had different motivations and went in different directions. Head coach Buck Shaw and quarterback Norm Van Brocklin each announced before the season started that they would retire when it was over.

Starting safeties Bobby Freeman and Don Burroughs were added via trade just weeks before the season opener.

Those Eagles struggled to run the ball. They averaged just 3.2 yards per carry for the season and weren’t the same after leading rusher Clarence Peaks broke his leg at midseason and was lost for the year. As a result, they found themselves trailing in the fourth quarter in seven of the 13 games they played, including their 17-13 victory in the league championship game against Green Bay.

But they had pure leaders in Van Brocklin and two-way star Chuck Bednarik and playmakers on defense like Gunnels, who helped generate a staggering 45 takeaways.

Many of them moved into coaching, teaching or administrative positions following their playing days.

Three of them became NFL head coaches, two of them – defensive tackle Eddie Khayat, who was Gunnels’ roommate, and defensive end Marion Campbell – for the Eagles. Van Brocklin took over the Minnesota Vikings less than a month after beating Green Bay in his final game as a player.

Tight end Pete Retzlaff wound up becoming general manager of the Eagles in the late 1960s and early 1970s and Maxie Baughan went on to become head coach at Cornell.

Walston became an Eagles scout and later the player personnel director for the Chicago Bears. End Jerry Reichow also ended up as a player personnel director for the Vikings. Tackle John Wilcox (another Gunnels’ roommate) and Dean became schoolteachers.

“It was great being with all my old teammates,” Gunnels said. “Everybody moves a little slower but (my wife) Kay and I spent as much time with them as we could. We don’t know when we’re going to get together again.”

Gunnels owns Signal Graphics, a successful print shop, in Egg Harbor Township. His sons, John and Chris, were both successful football players at Ocean City High School. And his grandson, Chugger LaCasse, was also a key gridiron player for the Raiders, though his greatest claim to high school fame was the 400-foot home run he hit at Citizen’s Bank Park during the Carpenter Cup.

Last Friday, the Eagles sent a limo to pick up Riley and Kay. They stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in Philly and Kay took “at least two dozen photos” of the William Penn statue, which was almost right outside their hotel room window. There was a reception for the team on Friday night.

Saturday they went to a brunch at the NovaCare Center and watched the Eagles pre-game practice. After that, they headed to the scene of their great triumph – Franklin Field.

“I love that stadium,” Gunnels said. “I live around here so I’ve seen it many times in the last 50 years. But a lot of the guys have rarely been there since we won in 1960. We were there for more than three hours Saturday signing autographs. I’ve never written my name so much in my life. But it was great. The fans were great and it was fun to get together with all of them.”

Gunnels and his 1960 teammates were introduced at halftime before the 69,144 fans at The Linc. They received an ovation appropriate to their special place in Eagles’ history.

“I’ll never forget that weekend,” said Gunnels.


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