Drafts are a crapshoot. Sometimes the talent level that a player displayed in college isn't at the same caliber against NFL competition. On the other hand, there are times when a draft pick excels.

That was the case four times over for the Eagles in 1957 when they chose running backs Clarence Peaks and Billy Ray Barnes in the first and second rounds, respectively. Receiver Tommy McDonald in the third and Sonny Jurgensen, a quarterback from Duke, during the following round.

Barnes, an All-America halfback at Wake Forest was the first of the young quartet to shine for Philadelphia. The time that he needed to adjust to the pros took roughly about as long as it took to unpack his suitcase after arriving at the team's training camp in Hershey.

"It was a great place for training camp," said Barnes, a North Carolina native. "You smell a lot of chocolate, but we loved it up there. My roommate was Tom Brookshier, so I don't even remember being a rookie too damn much. Brookshier had already played and then went in the service and came back."

RB Billy Barnes

Philadelphia's rookie backfield of Barnes (529) and Peaks (495) combined for 1,024 yards. Two hundred seventy-one more than the previous year and more than twice as many as the Eagles posted only five seasons earlier. Barnes, who also led the team in receiving was selected to play in the Pro Bowl for the first of three consecutive years.

The team, with a 4-8 record, didn't fare as well. And they did even worse the following year. However, under new head coach Buck Shaw and newly-acquired veteran quarterback Norm Van Brocklin, the Eagles' future was promising. So promising, in fact, that in two years, they'd be on top of the league and win the '60 NFL title.

"Everybody sort of got together and I think that's the way we ended up winning a championship. We didn't start out very good, but we liked each other and we just played hard. We got Van Brocklin in '58 and he was going to be our savior, and then we lost more games than we did in '57. But he brought it all together," Barnes said.

"Van Brocklin was just like a C.O. in a bank. I mean, he ran the show. He was the most knowledgeable individual in football that I'd ever been around. On the football field, he was like another coach out there. He was a field general and if you made a mistake, you didn't want to come back to the huddle because you sure as hell heard about it. But if he made a mistake, you could get on him too. He made us all think that nobody could beat us."

Barnes continued. "And our defense, you don't hear a whole lot about the defense. I forgot exactly what they allowed in scoring that year, but I think they intercepted something like 25, 27 passes. They gave up yardage, but from the 20 to 20 they'd bend a little bit, but they played damn good defense all year. And I've never really seen that, even back then, published that our defense played that well.

"We gave Green Bay several chances in the championship (game) and they held them to 13 points. So we just jelled. The camaraderie of the team... Hell, we partied together, played together. Ran pretty hard and played hard."

A hard-running halfback for five years in Philadelphia, Barnes led the team in rushing his first three seasons, totaling 2,391 yards and 20 touchdowns. He added eight more scores on receptions. But finding the end zone and helping the Eagles win the NFL championship are only a couple of the memories he has from his playing days.

"Hell, to me, the fondest memory of everything up there is the fans," says Barnes, who went on to play for two seasons each with the Redskins and the Vikings. "I played there for five years, but I lived there year-round for about eight years. I still love the city. I still have friends that I talk to there. The people were just great to me in Philadelphia."

A few years after he hung up his helmet and shoulder pads, Barnes returned to the NFL in '69 as an assistant coach with the New Orleans Saints. Two seasons later, he rejoined Van Brocklin in Atlanta where the former quarterback was the head coach of the Falcons. His seven-year coaching career concluded back in New Orleans as an assistant on John North's staff.

"But then he got fired and after the '75 season. I got out of football and made some money. They didn't overpay us back then," laughed Barnes. "I was a homebuilder and built about 350 houses in Atlanta, Georgia. Then '88 to '91 came along and I don't know if you remember, but the house building wasn't very good. I lost a bundle of money so I decided to quit and I ain't hit a lick since then. I play golf pretty often. Up to four or five days a week."

Barnes hits the links near his home in North Carolina. He has twin adult daughters: Lani, an attorney in Charlotte, NC; and Billi, a Sheriff's Lieutenant in Atlanta, who has two sons: Cody, 11; and three-year-old Will.