Of Franklin Field and the Two Chucks— Bednarik and Berry
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Of Franklin Field and the two Chucks— Bednarik and Berry Betsy Kleeblatt: FYI. Did anyone else see the THE INTIMATE. ROOSEVELTS? Thrilled to see that FDR accepted his nomination for President at FRANKLIN FIELD in front of 100,000 peeps! Wow. More than any football game I attended! ("A rendezvous with destiny") And so the Franklin Field conversation began….. Donald Morrison: For Roosevelt, it would have been standing room only Frank Boka: Just looked it up. Capacity of Franklin Field 52,593. maybe at one time with bleachers in the open end zone could have been closer to 70,000? And…..probably the person who spent the most time in Franklin Field was Ricky Owens who was an outstanding track man as well as a great receiver on the football team. I as well as some of our class mates like Earl Andrews, Brian Riley, Phil Lesko, John Smigelski, Dave Webb were on the track and field team which meant fall informal practice or cross country, indoor track in the bubble or spring track with the Penn Relays the highlight of the year. Needless to say, Franklin Field felt like my second home. The high light of my career was a third place finish in The Penn Relays Championship of America Shuttle Hurdles relay with fellow sophomore classmates Brian Riley and Phil Lesko and senior Jeff Durgee. At the time of our third place finish, we were the first Penn team to have received a coveted Penn Relays medal in many years. Lee Gordon: There should be no doubt that “standing room only” actually happened at Franklin Field for the nationally ranked University of Pennsylvania football team when the great All-American Chuck Bednarik, aka “Concrete Charlie” — the last 60-minute man — as a two-way football player, crunched his pigskin opponents in 1946, 1947 and 1948. Randy Elkins: I went to that same Eagles/Browns game. I bought my ticket at a ticket outlet just over the bridge heading downtown on a whim. The only seats left were in the end zone in the top tier where the air was thinnest. I was surrounded by the bluest of blue collar beer drinkers with arms as thick as my legs who were louder than any sound I had ever heard to that point in my life. I was scared to death. Even worse, the players were smaller than the size of ants. That was my last Eagles game in Franklin Field. OK, here is the Wikipedia page on Franklin Field. I was amused by the description of the original cost of $100,000 as being the equivalent of $3 million in 2019 dollars. Not even close to what it would actually cost today. Larry Nussdorf could weigh in on that! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Field Lonnie Schooler: Randy -- Right you are. Lee and I probably were only a few rows in front of you. Meanwhile, you are reminding me, and not fondly, of what it was like to watch an Eagles game. The depiction of fan behavior in movies such as “Silver Linings Playbook” was no exaggeration. Indeed, while we were at this game, I recall a fist fight broke out about six rows in front of us because of a disagreement over whether Johnny Unitas or Norm Van Brocklin was the better quarterback! Of course, this was in the 4th quarter, and by then, the beer consumption (in glass bottles, no less!) had probably reached record proportions. Ah, the good old days! Since I broadcast the games at Franklin Field for WXPN all four years, including all of the home games in the 1966 and 1967 seasons, it turns out I probably attended more events there than anyone else in the Class, with the exception of those who were on the football team itself. The seating capacity of the stadium was listed at between 60,000 and 64,000. The stadium was never full at any Penn game, but in my freshman year, I did attend an Eagles game against the Browns (Jim Brown being my favorite player at the time). Lee Gordon was in attendance with me. That “sellout” crowd was announced at somewhere between the two numbers listed above. Yes, folks, the Eagles actually played at Franklin Field until moving to Veterans’ Stadium in 1970 or 1971. Lee is also correct to indicate that Penn likely experienced several sellout crowds in its football glory days before its entry into the Ivy League in 1956. As for the crowd that came to hear Franklin Roosevelt, I would not quibble with the 100,000 person estimate of attendees then, only because there were likely a considerable number of people sitting (or standing) on the field itself for that event. In my role with WXPN, I also had the opportunity to travel to away games at each of the other stadia in the League. The only one of those larger in seating capacity than Penn’s was the Yale Bowl, which at the time seated 75,000. I suppose the seating capacity at Franklin Field could have been larger, but some forward thinking stadium architect opted for the horseshoe design. I hope someone preserves for posterity this ongoing “dialogue” that we have had on this topic. Most likely, it could appear in a Penn Gazette article 25 years from now under the heading “How I Spent My Time During the Great Pandemic of 2020.” My strongest memory of Skimmer weekend at Franklin Field was Smokey Robinson’s visit in 1967. I really enjoyed his music and, in my second life, was also a DJ on WXPN every Sunday night (on AM). Motown had at least 20 of the top 25 records every week during that time! Smokey did not disappoint in person! I remember spending the 2-3 weeks before his appearance promoting the show on WXPN. As for the Penn-Cornell game, and this is coming from someone who grew up in Texas, which meant that every Thanksgiving the meal had to be scheduled around the annual (and now sadly departed) Texas vs. Texas A&M game, the Penn-Cornell game was the premier Thanksgiving football game on the East Coast. My Dad, who was born and raised in Washington, D.C., even told me about driving to the game with his brother and some friends, because one of them had a relative at Penn who was playing in the game. In our years at Penn, the game was also played on Thanksgiving but suffice it to say, never drew the crowds that were common before the Ivy League started in 1956. The reference to the Palestra brought back another memory to me: Bill Bradley’s last game there for Princeton in the Spring of 1965. He was such a big name by that time, that Wilt Chamberlain and several of the 76ers came to watch him play! In 1965 and 1966, the Palestra double headers drew the top teams in the country (with the exception of UCLA and Michigan). Click HERE to read The Daily Pennsylvanian, Volume LXXXIII, Number 78, 17 November 1967. Those of you who liked pro basketball probably went (as I did) to a 76er game or two at Convention Hall, which was just down 34th street, near the Penn Hospital. I only went to see the Celtics vs. 76er games there (yes, Chamberlain vs. Russell). For some reason, Convention Hall had to be renovated one year, and the 76er vs. Celtics games that year were played at the Palestra. As I recall, in those days, those two teams met about 12 times per year. Mona Shangold: I thought the capacity of Franklin Field was only about 55,000. I certainly remember that the Eagles used to play there while we were students. Even with seating on the grass too, I don't think 100,000 could fit there. I'm pretty sure I also attended that Browns-Eagles game (mentioned by a few others) at Franklin Field, and I think my ticket stub from that game was included in the pile of ticket stubs (and other memorabilia) I included in the package I submitted for burial in our time capsule in November 2018. I hope we will all be here to open our time capsule to check (in 2068). And surely, as several of you have already pointed out, Penn was indeed a national football powerhouse in the 1940's. I can vividly remember the very loud pre-game parades every Sunday before every Eagles home game while we were students. We could see the parades on Chestnut Street and 33rd and 34th Streets from our Hill Hall windows. The noise volume from the bands made it impossible to concentrate on anything else. We could also hear the Franklin Field crowds (from inside our rooms) during the game. In addition to attending Eagles games, seeing and hearing the pre-game Eagles parades, and hearing the Eagles' game crowd from my Hill Hall dorm room, I can vividly remember walking past the Eagles who were sitting in front of Weightman Hall --- as we did after our own gym classes and pool sessions (during our required swimming course to pass the required swimming test). Yes, the Eagles not only played games there, they also practiced there. I can also remember that the Eagles often ate lunch in our Hill Hall cafeteria. Michael Crow: I occasionally went to Franklin Field to watch Dallas play Philadelphia and used to enjoy watching and listening to the "welcome" given to the Cowboys by the Eagles fans!! Randolph Elkins: Lonnie, you have breached a memory dike apparently.