Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

JuggernautJ wrote:How about some stories about my favorite player in a thread devoted to his passing?

RichS wrote:Just a little surprised. Most sites/forums caution against if not outright ban soliciting or promoting your own work.

As mentioned earlier, trying to understand the lay of the land here.

Reaser wrote:

JuggernautJ wrote:How about some stories about my favorite player in a thread devoted to his passing?

I always think it's cool when a player plays his entire High School, College and Pro career in the same state.

rhickok1109 wrote:I believe I posted about this before, on the old forum, but it seems apropos now.

I got a very up close and personal look at Bednark during a 1956 exhibition game between the Eagles and the Packers at Milwaukee County Stadium. I was working the Packer sideline, recording where the ball was spotted, the down, and the distance, after each play, a job which I was given only two or three times.

It was the first exhibition game of the year and among the rookies making their NFL debuts were the celebrated Paul Hornung and the little-known Bill Roberts, both playing halfback for the Packers, although Roberts was used only as a punt returner.

On Hornung's very first carry as a Packer, he was trying to come around right end and he was confronted by Bednarik while still behind the line of scrimmage, not far from the Packer bench. Hornung slowed, faked left, faked right ... and then Bednarik hit him like a bulldozer, knocking him onto his back and landing on top of him. Bednarik got to his feet, grinned down at Hornung, and said, "You can't dance like that in the NFL, kid."

Later, near the end of the first half, Roberts fielded a punt and made a pretty good return along the sideline. As Bednarik closed in on him, Roberts decided to step out of bounds to stop the clock. He slowed and, just before his foot touched the ground beyond the sideline right at the Packer bench, Bednarik clobbered him, knocking him over the bench and almost all the way to the fence separating the track from the field.

Packer Coach Lisle Blackbourn was furious. He was normally a mild-mannered guy, but he barked some obscenities at Bednark for hitting Roberts like that when he was stepping out of bounds.

Bednarik flashed the same grin and said, "Hey, coach, he's gotta he ain't in the Ivy League any more."

Of course, the irony was that Bednarik was a product of Penn, also an Ivy League school.

RichS wrote:Is it just my Metamucil kicking in or was there some posts in this thread I read yesterday that aren't here today?