23 Facts About Chuck Bednarik

1.

Chuck Bednarik has been ranked one of the hardest hitting tacklers in NFL history and was one of the league's last two-way players.

2.

Chuck Bednarik was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on May 1,1925.

3.

Chuck Bednarik's parents emigrated from Siroke, a village in eastern Slovakia, five years earlier, settling in Bethlehem and working for Bethlehem Steel.

4.

Chuck Bednarik attended Liberty High School in Bethlehem, where he played football.

5.

Chuck Bednarik flew on 30 combat missions over Germany and was awarded the Air Medal, four Oak Leaf Clusters, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, and four Battle Stars.

6.

Chuck Bednarik subsequently attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he was a 60-minute man, excelling as both center and linebacker, and sometimes as a punter.

7.

Chuck Bednarik was a three-time All-American and was voted entry into the College Football Hall of Fame along with two of his teammates on the 1947 Penn team, George Savitsky and tailback Tony Minisi, and his coach, George Munger.

8.

At Penn, Chuck Bednarik was third in Heisman Trophy voting in 1948 and won the Maxwell Award that year.

9.

Chuck Bednarik was the first player selected in the 1949 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, where he went on to start on both offense and defense for the Eagles.

10.

Chuck Bednarik was a member of the Eagles' NFL Championship teams in 1949 and 1960.

11.

On November 20,1960, Chuck Bednarik knocked New York Giants running back Frank Gifford out of football for over 18 months with one of the most famous tackles in NFL history, sometimes referred to simply as The Hit.

12.

Chuck Bednarik was criticized after the game by Giants players and fans for apparently celebrating Gifford's injury and a picture from Sports Illustrated became iconic, showing Chuck Bednarik in mid-celebration, right above Gifford as he laid on the field, unconscious.

13.

Chuck Bednarik defended himself by saying that he was celebrating the fumble caused by the hit, which the Eagles recovered and was going to clinch the game for them, and the right to play for the NFL Championship.

14.

Chuck Bednarik proved extremely durable, missing just three games in his 14 seasons.

15.

Chuck Bednarik was named All-Pro eight times and was the last of the NFL's "Sixty-Minute Men," players who played both offense and defense on a regular basis.

16.

In 2010, Chuck Bednarik was ranked number 35 on the NFL Network's "The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players".

17.

Chuck Bednarik was not the highest placed Eagle on the NFL Network's list.

18.

Chuck Bednarik even criticized Troy Brown of the New England Patriots and Deion Sanders of the Dallas Cowboys, two players who have played both offense and defense.

19.

Chuck Bednarik noted that Brown and Sanders saw time at both wide receiver and cornerback, positions that did not require as much contact as he endured while playing both center and linebacker.

20.

Chuck Bednarik quarreled with current Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie in 1996.

21.

Chuck Bednarik was a consistent critic of several league issues, including his pension, today's salaries, and one-way players.

22.

On March 26,2011, Chuck Bednarik was reportedly taken to St Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem.

23.

Chuck Bednarik's son-in-law stated that he had passed out from shortness of breath and low blood pressure but did not suffer a heart attack or anything related and was expected to make a full recovery.