When I was a producer at NFL Films, Steve Sabol assigned me to do a feature about the 1948-49 Eagles. Sabol, the Films president and resident historian, wanted to showcase the true greatness of the team that won back-to-back World Championships.
I spent weeks going through the film archives, looking at the grainy black-and-white footage and gaining a better appreciation of how good those teams were. In their two championship seasons, the Eagles' combined record was 20-3-1 and they won both title games by shutout – 7-0 over the Chicago Cardinals and 14-0 over the Los Angeles Rams.
The 1948-49 Eagles dominated the post-World War II era. Their coach, Earle (Greasy) Neale, had a defense that was ahead of its time. He played a five-man line but the middle guard would drop into coverage sometimes and play like a third linebacker. Neale's creation was widely copied and evolved into what we know as the 4-3 defense.
The offense was built around Steve Van Buren, a 6-1, 215-pound halfback who combined power with sprinter speed. Van Buren led the league in rushing four times and twice topped the 1,000-yard mark, a rare feat in the 12-game regular season. End Pete Pihos led the league in receiving three years in a row and quarterback Tommy Thompson led the NFL with 25 touchdown passes in 1948.
Neale, Van Buren, and Pihos, along with center-linebacker Chuck Bednarik and linebacker Alex Wojciechowicz, all were inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, so in putting that feature together I had plenty to work with. Yet when I interviewed the men who played on that team, the name that was mentioned most often was Frank "Bucko" Kilroy.
Often, it was mentioned with a smile, sometimes with a laugh, but it was always mentioned.
"We intimidated a lot of teams," halfback Russ Craft said. "We intimidated them with our talent and Bucko intimidated them by just walking on the field. He intimidated me and I was on his team."
At 6-2 and 250 pounds, Kilroy was a Philly native who grew up in Port Richmond and attended Northeast Catholic High School before enrolling at Temple. He signed with the Eagles as a free agent in 1943. He got a $500 signing bonus and as a rookie he was paid $150 a game.
"The day they signed me, Greasy took me to the basement of the Eagles' offices," Kilroy said. "I had a reputation for being a hot head. I got in a little trouble here and there. Nothing bad, just stupid stuff, but Greasy knew about it. He said, 'I know your kind. You make just one false move and I'll kick you right off the team on your fat Irish haunches.' Only he didn't say haunches."
Kilroy played 13 seasons, all with the Eagles, as a two-way lineman, dividing his time between tackle and guard on offense and playing the key role as middle guard on defense. He earned All-Pro honors every season from 1948 through 1954. He was named to the NFL's All-Decade Team for the 1940s.
He was a powerful drive blocker on offense and, on defense, he used his brute strength to stop the run and he displayed surprising agility when he dropped into coverage. He had a reputation as a fierce – some would say dirty – player, which he also used to his advantage.
"Bucko was so big and naturally strong, people just couldn't handle him," Craft said in our 1999 interview. "He'd put those two big paws out there and he'd stop anything that came his way and if they were a little afraid of him besides, worried about what he might do, that just added to his advantage."
A Chicago sportswriter described Kilroy as "a knuckle-duster in knee pants who gives our fellows that boyish grin while kicking their teeth loose in a pileup."
When I was putting the film together, I went through all the available game footage of the 1948-49 Eagles teams. I paid particular attention to No. 76 and, yes, there was no doubt Kilroy earned his bad boy reputation. He was in the Jon Runyan mold of an enforcer type who would take out an unsuspecting opponent at the end of a play.
"I played to the whistle," Kilroy said, "and back then they didn't blow the whistles as fast as they do today."
On one play against the New York Giants, Kilroy hit the defensive end under the chin with an elbow that buckled his knees. The referee threw a flag and walked off 15 yards against the Eagles, but for the rest of the game, the defensive end kept his distance from both Kilroy and the football.
"Bucko knew what he was doing," Van Buren said. "He would have (opponents) looking out of the corner of their eyes wondering where he was. Sometimes he'd do stuff just to make them mad. They'd take a swing at Bucko and get tossed out of the game."
In 1955, Life Magazine did a cover story on violence in pro football. The title was "Savagery on Sunday" and it focused on Kilroy, who the story described as "the toughest of the bad men." Then NFL Commissioner Bert Bell sued the magazine for slander and when the case was heard in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, the league won and Kilroy won $11,600 in damages.
Kilroy felt his testimony about having been a choir boy at St. Anne's parish in Port Richmond was what swung the jury to his side. Also, having the trial in Philadelphia – more than half the jurors later admitted to being Eagles fans – didn't hurt either.
"After that," Kilroy said, "if anyone ever accused me of being a dirty player, I could say, 'I was acquitted by a jury,' which I was." As he said it, Kilroy giggled and rolled his eyes.
Kilroy was a player-coach with the Eagles in 1955, then retired to become a full-time coach. In 1960, he moved into the personnel department and became one of the NFL's shrewdest scouts. He worked for the Dallas Cowboys in the 1960s – he selected Navy ensign Roger Staubach in the 10th round of the 1964 draft – and it was his idea to create the annual Scouting Combine.
In 1971, Kilroy joined the New England Patriots as director of player personnel. In 1979, he was promoted to general manager and later served as vice president and consultant until he retired in 2006. His NFL career spanned 63 years and today he takes his place in the Eagles Hall of Fame.
When I interviewed Kilroy for the NFL Films piece in 1999, I asked what he saw as the biggest difference between the game he played in the 1940s and the game he administered in his later years.
"There is so much money now and, of course, free agency," Kilroy said. "Every year you lose players to other teams. Guys move around. You don't have the same loyalty. (Players) now are more loyal to themselves than they are to their teams. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. That's just how things are.
"In our day, it was like one big fraternity. We played because we loved the game. I loved playing it, I know that. Being part of that (Eagles) team, playing with those guys, that was the most fun I ever had."
Ray Didinger's new book, Eagles Encyclopedia: Champions II, was published by Temple University Press in October.
