“I wish it was her on the other end of that shot instead of Frank.”
– Bednarik on Gifford’s wife Kathie Lee, who once wondered if Bednarik was a type of pasta.
Chuck Bednarik figures it happens at least five times a week. Someone stops him – on the golf course, at the grocery store, walking down the street – and asks about The Hit.
“Wherever I go, they say, ‘That’s Chuck Bednarik. That’s the guy who put Frank Gifford out of football,'” Bednarik said last week.
It is perhaps the most famous tackle in NFL history. Forty-five years ago today on Nov. 20, 1960 at the old Yankee Stadium, Bednarik, the Philadelphia Eagles’ bruising middle linebacker, drilled Gifford, the New York Giants’ superstar, with a hit that would knock Gifford out and cement “Concrete Charlie’s” legacy as one of the toughest players ever to wear shoulder pads.
“I made many, many good tackles,” Bednarik said. “It just so happens that one was in the right place, at the right time and against the right person. It’s carrying on for eternity, it seems like.”
The hit lives on for a variety of reasons. For one, it occurred in New York and against Gifford, a star who would go on to become a famous broadcaster and marry a famous wife. Then there’s the photo. John Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated captured the moment just after contact with Gifford lying unconscious on the ground and Bednarik with his fist drawn high in the air celebrating over him.
“It’s not just the tackle,” NFL Films president Steve Sabol said. “It’s who he hit. How often do you have two Hall of Fame players collide in a play that violent and at a decisive moment of the game? Then there’s the photograph. It’s one of the most famous photos in the history of the NFL. Sometimes photos have a way of enlarging the myth.”
Bring the topic up to Bednarik, and he’ll regale you with stories about the tackle and its aftermath. Gifford, on the other hand, is sick of hearing about it from fans, media and Bednarik. He declined to be interviewed for this story, and friends say he resents the fact that the tackle is viewed as the defining moment of his career for many people.
“It was Eagles-Giants,” said Sam Huff, the former Giants linebacker. “It was Yankee Stadium. It was Frank Gifford. I guess it was the shot heard around the world.”
The tackle’s severity sometimes overshadows its importance. For the Eagles, the hit and Gifford’s subsequent fumble sealed a 17-10 victory, the team’s first in Yankee Stadium since 1952, and sent them on their way to winning the NFL championship.
The Giants were driving down the field with less than two minutes left to play, hoping to tie the game. George Shaw (not Charlie Conerly, as many people believe) threw the ball behind Gifford, who came across the middle of the field. He reached back to grab it and when he turned around, Bednarik met him with the impact of a knockout punch.
“He caught him as flush as you could catch him,” said Tom Brookshier, who was playing defensive back for the Eagles that day. “Giff never saw him coming. It was amazing.”
The ball popped loose and Chuck Weber recovered it for the Eagles at their own 30-yard line. Bednarik maintains it was the fumble recovery that caused him to celebrate, not the fact that Gifford was knocked cold.
“I didn’t even know he was there,” Bednarik said. “My eyes were closed and I yelled, ‘This [bleeping] game is over.’ If he doesn’t fumble, they beat us and the Eagles would not have won the championship.”
Gifford, 30, was out cold.
“I was one of the first guys who went by him,” said Huff, who said it was the best hit he ever saw. “I really thought he was dead. His eyes rolled back into his head. He was really unconscious. It was a great hit. I’ve hit some guys like that, but not that good. That’s the kind of hit linebackers dream about.”
Others are not so sure the hit was clean. Dick Lynch was on the sideline when the tackle occurred. He thinks Bednarik hit him with his elbow.
“He brags about that hit to this day,” said Lynch, the long-time Giants radio analyst. “That was the cheapest shot ever. There should have been a flag.”
A funereal silence came over the crowd as Gifford was carried out on a stretcher. The star halfback would not play again in 1960 and would miss the entire 1961 season with a “deep concussion.” He would play for three more years.
After the game, Huff was dressing at the Yankee Stadium locker he shared with Mickey Mantle when he saw a ghastly sight. Paramedics were carrying a body out of the locker room with a sheet draped over it. Huff immediately thought it was Gifford.
“Mo, I told you he was dead,” Huff said to Dick Modzelewski at the locker next to him. “Bednarik killed him.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Modzelewski replied.
“Well, there goes the body,” Huff countered.
In fact, the body was of a security guard from Brooklyn, Henry Cooper, who died of a heart attack in the stands. As rumors spread that it was Gifford, Giants owner Jack Mara sought out Gifford’s wife in the stands to reassure her that her husband was already at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.
Because of a scheduling quirk, the Giants and Eagles squared off again a week later in Philadelphia. All week, there was talk of revenge on Bednarik. New York took a 17-0 lead, but the Eagles rallied behind quarterback Norm Van Brocklin, winning 31-23.
Bednarik still gets copies of the famous photo sent to his house near Allentown, Pa. asking for autographs.
“I like the ones that also have checks,” he said.
The 80-year-old signs the photos with the phrase he said that day, “This game is [bleeping] over.” Below that he signs his name and “HOF [Hall of Fame] 60.” And just above the supine Gifford he writes, “Sorry, Frank.”
The two men see each other on occasion. Gifford once invited Bednarik to play golf with him, and both have been at banquets together. Bednarik says he holds no ill will toward Gifford. Kathie Lee Gifford is a different story. Gifford tells a story of when he first met his current wife that irks Bednarik. On one of the first dates, Gifford warned her she would hear the name “Bednarik” quite often. She asked, “Bednarik, is that a type of pasta?”
“That [ticked] me off,” Bednarik said. “I wish it was her on the other end of that shot instead of Frank.”
That’s Bednarik – as crusty as stale bread.
The day after the big hit, a fruit basket was delivered to Gifford at St. Elizabeth’s. The card read, “Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Chuck Bednarik.”
The New York newspapers reported it in the next day’s editions. Maybe Bednarik was not such a bad guy after all.
Only problem is Bednarik never sent the fruit. A friend did, knowing the publicity it would generate.
One day last week, Bednarik chuckled at the memory and said, “I hope the people of New York City still love me a little bit.”
Before & after
A look at Frank Gifford’s stats as a running back from 1952 until the devastating hit by Chuck Bednarik on Nov. 20, 1960, and the numbers he compiled as a flanker from 1962-64
BEFORE AFTER
BEDNARIK BEDNARIK
95 GAMES 31
837 RUSHES 7
3,579 RUSH YDS 30
34 RUSH TDS 2
257 RECEPTIONS 110
3,552 REC. YDS 1,882
26 REC. TDS 17