Tweet
My favorite Eagle in the early 60s was an all-pro middle linebacker named Maxie Baughn. Even back then, I loved to watch great defense.
It may have been the home opener but I know for sure it was an early-season game on a sun-splashed warm afternoon at Franklin Field, a day better suited for beisbol.
The Browns had a running back even the youngsters may have heard of, guy by the name of Jim Brown. I knew he was good but I had faith in #55 in green.
As I sat on the bench seat, next to my dad, we were right on top of the action. Franklin Field's legendary sightlines gave us a great view as Brown took a handoff and smashed through the line and up the gut...and then RAN RIGHT OVER MAXIE BAUGHN. As I absorbed that fact I absorbed something worse, a literal kick in the head from a man seated in the row behind us. He was apparently shifting in the uncomfortable bench seat and my head got in the way.
This is the way the game went. A handoff to Brown, a bruising run, Maxie Baugh flat on his back in his wake and then BOOM a kick to the back of the head.
It was sometime in the third quarter, probably 100-plus yards in the bank for Brown by then and a dozen boots to the coconut felt by me.
I finally worked up the courage to turn around and look at the guy.
He was pulling a bottle of hard stuff out of his sock and belting it down. Then putting it back in his sock. Suddenly everything made sense.
It's never easy being an Igglephan.
It may have been the home opener but I know for sure it was an early-season game on a sun-splashed warm afternoon at Franklin Field, a day better suited for beisbol.
The Browns had a running back even the youngsters may have heard of, guy by the name of Jim Brown. I knew he was good but I had faith in #55 in green.
As I sat on the bench seat, next to my dad, we were right on top of the action. Franklin Field's legendary sightlines gave us a great view as Brown took a handoff and smashed through the line and up the gut...and then RAN RIGHT OVER MAXIE BAUGHN. As I absorbed that fact I absorbed something worse, a literal kick in the head from a man seated in the row behind us. He was apparently shifting in the uncomfortable bench seat and my head got in the way.
This is the way the game went. A handoff to Brown, a bruising run, Maxie Baugh flat on his back in his wake and then BOOM a kick to the back of the head.
It was sometime in the third quarter, probably 100-plus yards in the bank for Brown by then and a dozen boots to the coconut felt by me.
I finally worked up the courage to turn around and look at the guy.
He was pulling a bottle of hard stuff out of his sock and belting it down. Then putting it back in his sock. Suddenly everything made sense.
It's never easy being an Igglephan.
Comment