Eagles legends Wistert, Baughan one huge step closer to Hall of Fame selection
Eagles legends Wistert, Baughan one huge step closer to Hall of Fame selection originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Eagles legends Al Wistert and Maxie Baughan are among 12 finalists for consideration for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the Seniors category.
The Hall on Thursday trimmed the list of Seniors semifinalists from 31 to 12, and the Seniors Committee will meet on Aug. 22 to select up to three Seniors for final consideration for the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024.
Wistert, who’s long been considered a glaring Hall of Fame omission, was the Eagles’ 5th-round pick out of Michigan in 1943 and spent his entire nine-year career with the Eagles, making 1st-team all-pro four times and 2nd-team all-pro four times. He captained the 1948 and 1949 NFL Championship teams and played both ways for those teams, although he was considered the best offensive tackle of his generation and was named to the NFL’s team of the decade for the 1940s.
Longtime NFL journalist and Hall of Fame expert Clark Judge has been championing Wistert’s Hall of Fame credentials for years and believes the former Eagle should have been inducted in Canton long ago.
“Wistert isn’t just Hall-of-Fame qualified, he’s Hall-of-Fame overdue – as in decades overdue,” Judge wrote recently. “In a career that spanned nine NFL seasons, he was an all-pro (1st or 2nd team) eight times, and let that sink in for a minute. That means in all but one of those years he was considered (among) the best at his position.”
Judge spoke with longtime NFL executive Upton Bell recently – son of Eagles founder Bert Bell – who grew up watching Wistert.
“I saw his whole career,” Bell told Judge. “He should’ve been a first-ballot Hall of Famer.”
Wistert and Jason Kelce are the only offensive linemen in franchise history named 1st-team all-pro at least four times.
If Wistert is selected, he’ll join former teammates Chuck Bednarik, Pete Pihos and Steve Van Buren as only the fourth Hall of Famer who spent his entire NFL career with the Eagles.
At the age of 87 in 2008, Wistert flew from Oregon to Philly to be inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame. As he had lunch at the NovaCare Complex cafeteria, he said he weighed just 215 pounds as a two-way linemen in the 1940s.
“I played at 215, and I was the smallest tackle in the league,” he said. “Most of them were 230, 240 pounds, and some of them were 250. But I managed. You had to be pretty tough when you weren't that big.”
Recalling the Eagles’ shutout wins over the Cards in the 1948 NFL Championship Game and over the Rams in the 1949 Championship Game, he said: “What I remember most is that we wanted to get those shutouts because whenever we shut out an opponent, we'd get a free dinner at Old Bookbinder's. All the players, their wives and their children. We got some pretty good meals by shutting people out.”
Wistert died in 2016 at the age of 95.
Baughan, the Eagles’ 2nd-round pick out of Georgia Tech in 1960, spent his first six years with the Eagles and was a starter at linebacker and a Pro Bowler as a rookie on the 1960 NFL Championship team. He made five Pro Bowls as an Eagle and was a 1st-team all-pro in 1964. Seven-time Pro Bowler Bednarik is the only linebacker in franchise history to make more Pro Bowls than Baughan.
Baughan made four more Pro Bowls during his five years with the Rams. His nine total Pro Bowls are 7th-most in NFL history, behind only six Hall of Famers – Ray Lewis, Junior Seau, Derrick Brooks, Joe Schmidt, Mike Singletary and Lawrence Taylor.
Baughan, 84, now lives in Ithaca, N.Y., where his son Matt is head golf coach at Cornell.
The other Senior finalists are Ken Anderson, Roger Craig, Randy Gradishar, Joe Jacoby, Albert Lewis, Eddie Meador, Sterling Sharpe, Otis Taylor and Art Powell.
Powell was the Eagles’ 11th-round draft pick in 1959. He spent only one year with the Eagles and had three interceptions as a defensive back.
He converted to offense playing for Sammy Baugh in 1960 with the New York Titans and went on to lead the NFL in receiving yards twice and finished with more than 8,000 yards and 81 touchdowns with the Titans, Raiders, Bills and Vikings.
Among the 12 finalists in the coach/contributor category are John Wooten, who was the Eagles’ vice president of player personnel in 1992, and Tom Coughlin, the Eagles’ wide receivers coach in 1984 and 1985.
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