When Chuck Bednarik passed away in March, the many tributes focused on his heroics as a football player. That was understandable since Bednarik was one of the greatest players of all time, an All-America at the University of Pennsylvania and an All-Pro with the Eagles, an ironman who played both ways, center and linebacker, for much of his career.
But Bednarik was a hero before he ever set foot in Franklin Field. He was a decorated veteran of World War II, a waist gunner on a B-24 bomber who survived the bloody fighting in the skies over Europe.