Chuck Bednarik

Chuck Bednarik, born Charles Philip Bednarik Jr. in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1925, was an American professional football linebacker and center who spent his entire fourteen-year National Football League career, from 1949 to 1962, with the Philadelphia Eagles. Nicknamed Concrete Charlie, he was one of the last two-way players in the league and is remembered as one of its hardest tacklers. After service as a B-24 waist gunner in the Second World War he starred at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Eagles chose him first overall in the 1949 draft. He won NFL championships with the Eagles in 1949 and 1960, and his November 1960 tackle that knocked Frank Gifford unconscious became known as The Hit. He entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1969.