Bednarik's fondest memory from 1960 season: Eagles' QB Norm Van Brocklin pretending to use telegraph on Packers' sideline

The 1960 NFL Champion Philadelphia Eagles were honored on Sunday during the team's opening game of the 2010 season at Lincoln Financial Field. Between 18 and 20 members of the last Eagles' championship team were wined and dined all weekend before gathering at midfield before kickoff for a loud and sustained greeting from the wet 68,000 fans.

The current squad of Eagles donned the kelly-green uniforms in honor of the pre-Super Bowl league champions from fifty years ago. The kelly-green was a welcomed sight for the Delaware Valley, even for a brief, one-game appearance.

When asked to comment on the throwback uniforms, Chuck Bednarik, 85, the Pro Bowl linebacker and center for the Birds from 1949 to 1962 said, "I once dated a girl named Kelly Green. She was a nice gal from Allentown. Great smile. She worked at Bethlehem Steel making boiler plates."

On Saturday night, the seasoned alumni gathered in South Philadelphia for a welcome back dinner. The old-timers shared hugs, swapped stories, laughed, cringed, got teary-eyed, drew plays on cocktail napkins, bit the top of of beer bottles and tossed a Nerf football around the decked out banquette hall. The throwbacks reflected on their favorite memories of the dream season that was 1960.

Tommy McDonald, the Pro Bowl wide receiver, remembered when Koy Detmer performed "The Whip" dance after throwing a long touchdown pass versus Green Bay and then stared at the Packer sideline in Franklin Field. McDonanld's teammate Pete Retzlaff recalled, "Bill Bergy's tackle on Jim Taylor as time ran out in the championship game is my fondest memory. Although, I may be thinking of the wrong game." Maxie Baughan, a rookie linebacker on the team, described Seth Joyner's famous hit on the Giants' Frank Gifford in Yankee Stadium.

Bednarik, the hard-hitting linebacker, who was often was compared to concrete, also shared a couple of his favorite memories from that season.

"Our great QB Norm Van Brocklin made a nice run in the 3rd quarter of the [1960] title game and was shoved out of bounds around the 40-yard line and ended up near the Packers' bench where all the telegraphs were set up to communicate with the booth upstairs," explained Concrete Charlie. "Norm pretended to use the telegraph before coming back onto the field. He must have tapped that thing 30 or 40 times. It was priceless. Classic Norm Van Brocklin as I recall."

"It was just very out of character for Norm to do that," said the Hall of Famer McDonald. "But, that being said, it was hilarious. Vince was not too thrilled, though."

That Vince, would be the infamous Vince Lombardi, coach of the Packers. It was the iconic team leader's only playoff defeat.

The Van Brocklin stunt was very similar to a more recent incident in the Meadowlands. During a playoff game in 2008 against the Giants Donovan McNabb, after a big run, pretended to use the sideline phone near the Giants' bench (pictured below). The former Eagle quarterback would later admit that he was imitating Van Brocklin's mock telegraphing from 1960.

"My other greatest memory from that 1960 season was Koy Detmer's "The Whip" dance, which was also against the Packers," recalled Bednarik, seconding Detmer's bizarre dance celebration. "That Detmer was an interesting fella."