Philadelphia's record was 3-8-1 in 1956. However, by acquiring Pete Retzlaff, as it would turn out, the Eagles could claim four victories that season.

Selected off waivers from Detroit where he had been a fullback, first-year head coach Hugh Devore moved Retzlaff to receiver. Two seasons later, that move proved to be brilliant when Retzlaff co-led the league with 58 receptions and earned his first of five trips to the Pro Bowl.

One of the keys to his success arrived via a trade with the Rams -- veteran quarterback Norm Van Brocklin.

"He was like a coach on the field, and not only that, back then, the quarterback had to execute his own strategy. It wasn't just being a mechanic with the plays being called by somebody in the press box," says Retzlaff. "One of the big differences between then and now is the fact that everybody on that field was helping to develop strategy.

TE Pete Retzlaff

"The quarterback, often in the huddle, would talk to the offensive linemen or the receivers and say, 'What do you see out there? What can you get?' It was a different way of applying the strategy that you were going to use for that particular game.

"He once told a teammate of mine that he thought I ran pass patterns a lot like Elroy 'Crazy Legs' Hirsch, who he used to throw the ball to in L.A.. If the quarterback has confidence in you, why I guess you're going to get your share of receptions. Just like Terrell Owens is now."

Owens and the Eagles hope they can enjoy the same success that Retzlaff and his teammates had in 1960, when Philadelphia won the NFL Championship title.

"I think that we had some pretty good ballplayers in key positions, that's No. 1, because it's often said that the best coaches have the best players," Retzlaff said. "But more than that, I think it was really the fact that so many of us had confidence in Van Brocklin. We felt that if we just kept working at it, that eventually, he would find a way to solve the defense that we were up against.

"And when you know that we were trailing at halftime every game that we played that year except one, it was just a commitment to knowing that if we gave him enough time to get the job done, he would do it."

Retzlaff did his job very well for six more seasons after the Eagles won the championship, 11 seasons altogether. In a span of four seasons ('63-66) when he was playing primarily tight end, Retzlaff led the team in receptions each year, totaling 214 catches for 3,593 yards and 28 touchdowns. That includes the '65 campaign when he caught 66 passes for a team-record 1,190 yards.

During that period, Retzlaff looked after his teammates off the field as well.

"I was a player's (union) representative for the Eagles for a couple years and then I became president of the Players Association for two years," said Retzlaff. "I had complete cooperation with the Eagles management. The only difficulties that I had were the same difficulties that every other person in the Players Association seemed to have, and that was with the hierarchy in the league office.

"We wanted a pension program for the players. We wanted health benefits for the players. We wanted written into the contract that when a player got hurt while performing his duty under his contract, that the club had the responsibility to make sure that he was given the proper health care to be back to 100 percent. Some of those things weren't written into the contract back then. They are now."

In 1969, three years after Retzlaff retired from the Eagles as the club's all-time leader in receptions (452) and yards (7,412), he returned to the team as the general manager.

"(Eagles owner) Leonard Tose asked me if I'd consider coaching. I didn't think that I was qualified at the time to be a head coach. And I suggested to him, that I could help put together an organization that would lead to success on the field," says Retzlaff, who held the position for four years.

"I knew what it takes to win in the league. I was around football long enough and often enough to know. Unfortunately, it just didn't turn out the way I thought it would. I found it very difficult to work under Leonard. He wanted to be more involved, I guess, than the average owner would be, and it just didn't work."

Now, 38 years removed from his last season on the gridiron, Retzlaff is second to only Harold Carmichael in career pass receptions and yards in Eagles' franchise history. He ranks fifth all-time on the club in touchdown catches.

A member of the Eagles Honor Roll, he is one of only six players to have had their numbers retired by the team.

"It's a great honor, it really is," Retzlaff said. "When you look at the names you're associated with, you cant's help but feel very proud of it. Plus the fact that when they retired my jersey number, that also puts you in a very special category. Justifiably, I'm very proud of the fact that people felt that your performance merited that."

Now making his home in Gilbertsville, PA, with his wife, Patty, the Retzlaff's have three daughters: Kris, Daniene and Carol; a son, Jim; and nine grandchildren. For the past 30-plus years he has owned and is the president of Southwest Grain Co., in McAllen, TX.

"We have a ranch in south Texas where we grow sorghum and corn," Retzlaff said. "Sorghum is sometimes called mace. It's a feed grain that's used for the poultry industry, the dairy industry, the beef industry, that sort of thing. And we have a facility which exports grain into Mexico."