1960 remains the most celebrated year in Eagle history. Shaw, Van Brocklin and Bednarik (each in his last season before retirement) led a team more notable for its grit than its talent (one observer later quipped that the team had "nothing but a championship") to its first division title since 1949. On December 26, 1960, one of the coldest days in recorded Philadelphia history, the Eagles faced Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers in the NFL title game and dealt the mighty Lombardi the sole championship game loss of his storied career. Bednarik was the last NFL player to play an entire game without leaving the field in that game, lining up at center on offense and at linebacker on defense. Fittingly, the game ended as Bednarik tackled a struggling Jim Taylor and refused to allow him to stand until the last seconds had ticked away.
Flush with excitement from the 17-13 victory, with the talented Jurgensen poised to take the reins of the offense, the future looked promising indeed.
That promise, however, proved illusory.
In 1961, the Eagles finished just a half-game behind the New York Giants for first place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 10-4 record. Despite the on-the-field success, however, the franchise was in turmoil. Van Brocklin had come to Philadelphia and agreed to play through 1960 with the tacit understanding that, upon his retirement as a player, he would assume the mantle of Head Coach. Ownership, however, opted to hire Nick Skorich upon Buck Shaw’s retirement, and Van Brocklin quit the organization in a fit of pique. In 1962, the bottom dropped out as the team was decimated by injury and managed only three wins. The off-field chaos would continue through 1963, as the remaining 65 shareholders out of the original Happy Hundred sold the team to Jerry Wolman, a 36-year-old Washington developer who outbid local bidders for the team, paying an unprecedented $5,505,000 for control of the club. In 1964, Wolman hired former Cardinals and Washington Redskins coach Joe Kuharich to a 15 year contract.
Kuharich would prove utterly unworthy of the honor, wasting top-tier talent such as Timmy Brown, Ollie Matson, Ben Hawkins and Jurgensen and effectively running the franchise into the ground. At Kuharich’s insistence, Jurgensen was traded to the Redskins for Norm Snead in 1964: Jurgensen would go on to a Hall of Fame career while Snead, although serviceable, lacked the talent to lift the team out of mediocrity. By 1968, fans were in full revolt. Chants of “Joe must go” echoed through the increasingly empty bleachers of Franklin Field. Adding insult to injury, the Eagles managed to eke out meaningless wins in two of the last three games of the season, costing the franchise the first pick in the draft, and with it the opportunity to add O.J. Simpson to the roster. (With the second pick, the Eagles chose Leroy Keyes, who played only four years in an Eagles uniform.) The last game of 1968 helped cement the rowdy reputation of Philadelphia fans when they booed and threw snowballs at depiction of Santa Claus. By 1969, Wolman, a former millionaire, was bankrupt and the franchise under the administration of a federal bankruptcy court. At the end of the bankruptcy proceedings, the Eagles were sold to Leonard Tose, the self-made trucking millionaire and original member of the Happy Hundred. Tose's first official act was to fire Kuharich.
With an earned reputation as a fast-living high-flier, Tose infused the organization with some much-needed panache. Initially, however, he ran the team with more enthusiasm than ability, as was exemplified by his choice to replace Kuharich, the hapless Jerry Williams. Tose also selected former Eagles great Pete Retzlaff as General Manager.
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