The Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles square off on this week’s NFL schedule, harkening back to another meeting between these two franchises that will be this week’s Throwback Thursday feature. That meeting was the National Football League championship game of the 1960 season, and was historic in the fact that it was the only post-season loss in the head coaching career of Packer legend Vince Lombardi. The decade of the 1950s had been dominated by the likes of the Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Colts, as those three clubs won 7 titles between them. So when the Packers and Eagles qualified for the title game in ’60, it was a matchup of “new blood”. Green Bay hadn’t played for a league title since 1944, while the Eagles were making their first championship appearance since 1949. There were some quirky things about the game – it was played on a Monday – December 26th, because the NFL didn’t want to play on Christmas, and was scheduled for a noon start time, because Philadelphia’s home stadium, Franklin Field, had no lights and the league was concerned that there could be sudden death overtime, which had happened two years previous in 1958. The Packers had been a losing franchise in the ’50s, and Lombardi took over as head coach in 1959 and produced a winning season, then got his club into the title game in 1960. The Packers were an unknown quantity at the time. Bart Starr was on the roster, but he shared quarterback duties with Lamar McHan. In fact, the Packers got to the title game with an 8-4 record, and were 4-0 in McHan’s starts and 4-4 in Starr’s. Other future Packer legends, like Paul Hornung, Jim Taylor and Ray Nitschke, were in the early stages of their careers. The Eagles, on the other hand, were pretty much a one-year wonder. They were led by veteran QB Norm Van Brocklin, who would retire after the title game, and coach Buck Shaw, who turned the Eagles from chronic losers into NFL champs in three seasons. The title game would be Shaw’s last with Philly also. Philadelphia wound up winning the game 17-13, and the game ended with Green Bay driving deep into Eagle territory. With only 22 seconds left and no timeouts, Starr threw a short pass to Taylor and he was tackled at the ten by Philly’s Chuck “Concrete Charlie” Bednarik. The rules were a lot different in that era, and Bednarik, after making the tackle, held Taylor down as the clock wound down. As the final gun sounded, Bednarik snarled “You can get up now, Taylor. This damn game’s over!” Winning the title was a bit of a crowning achievement for players like Bednarik, Van Brocklin and veteran receivers Tommy McDonald and Pete Retzlaff, who all played well. Ted Dean, an Eagle rookie phenom, scored what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown on a five yard run.
For Green Bay and Lombardi, the game was not their greatest moment. Lombardi, in fact, made some tactical mistakes, including going for it on fourth down (and failing) on several occasions deep in Eagle territory. The Packers outgained Philly 401 yards to 296, but couldn’t finish the job. In typical Lombardi fashion, the coach took the brunt of the blame, claiming afterward “When you get down there, you have to come out with something. I lost the game, not my players.” Lombardi also exhorted his players to remember the feeling they were experiencing in that losing locker room, and told them they wouldn’t ever feel it again. His words were prophetic, as the Packers grew into a dynasty that dominated the 1960s, winning the NFL championship 5 of the next 7 seasons, including the first two Super Bowls.
From left, Norm Van Brocklin, coach Buck Shaw and Chuck Bednarik celebrate winning the 1960 NFL title