A recent column on Eagles Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren drew numerous e-mails from readers who had personal experiences with the great running back. With their permission, Ill share some of those stories with you.
Ray
Thanks for the article about Steve Van Buren. Here is one of the great stories from our family lore which points out the shyness and humble nature you wrote about.
Sometime around 1950, my Uncle Ed was walking along the White Horse Pike which is the main drag in our hometown of Oaklyn, N.J. Coming the other way was this big guy who stopped Uncle Ed and asked if he knew of a good place to get a cold beer.
Uncle Ed, being an expert on the subject, directed him to Eddie Chalmbers place just across the street. Uncle Ed asked, Arent you Steve Van Buren? He replied, Yeah.
Uncle Ed asked, What are you doing around here?
Steve replied, I have to give a speech at the Baptist church in an hour and I cant do that without a couple of beers.
It turned out that Steve took the El, the bridge train and a bus to get to Oaklyn, shades of the 1948 NFL title game (when Van Buren took public transportation to and from Connie Mack Stadium in North Philadelphia).
NFL
Steve went to Chalmber's and, hopefully, to the Baptist church. Uncle Ed went to my grandmothers. Things might not have been better then but they sure were a lot simpler.
-Mike McCurdy
Dear Mr. Didinger,
Regarding Steve Van Buren, I thought you might enjoy hearing about my one contact with him.
The exact year is not certain but he had retired from the Eagles in 1952 and I graduated from Yeadon High School in 1954. It was somewhere in those (two) years on a Saturday morning, I was hitchhiking to 18th and Chestnut in downtown Philadelphia with my clarinet case tucked under my arm to take a (music) lesson.
I got as far as 50th and Chestnut (when) a big Lincoln stopped at the light and the driver waved me into the car. I jumped into the passenger seat and looked at the driver. Because nobody else looked like him, I gasped and asked, Are you Steve Van Buren?
He said, Yes.
Boy, was I thrilled.
At the time, he had a car dealership in Collingdale and traveled Baltimore Pike same as I did. My brag about clarinet lessons is that I paid for them myself at 2.50 from my paper route money. I wasnt about to pay for car fare to boot even though my brother thought it was dangerous to hitchhike. But Mr. Van Buren was a real gentleman and, of course, I was thrilled.
I certainly wish him well. You can tell him that I play in an old fogeys band here in Williamsport where one of my friends plays baritone sax and is the same age as Mr. Van Buren (91). Im 75.
-Henry J. Hopper
Ray,
Thank you for your article on Steve Van Buren. I remember his name from following the Eagles in the late 1940s. He was the first great Philadelphia athlete that I was aware of. Because of him, I began to follow not only the Eagles but the Phillies and Warriors as well (1950 was a good year to start following the Phillies and Del Ennis).
Thanks to you, I found out Mr. Van Buren and I have the same birthday.
-Ron Carmean
Hey Ray,
I had a chance meeting with Steve about 15 years ago in a 7-11 in the Northeast. He was very unassuming and a complete gentleman. With the unveiling of the long overdue statue of Chuck Bednarik has there ever been discussion about erecting a statue to the great Steve Van Buren?
Obviously, that era of Eagles football was well before my time. I heard of some of the names on those teams but never knew much about them. I learned a lot about Pete Pihos, unfortunately, when he passed away and I looked him up online. He was another great (Eagle) that I dont feel has been appropriately remembered and shared with later generations of fans.
"Concrete Charlie" was usually spoken of, but Van Buren is a mythical name from the World War II era. I wonder how many younger fans knew that Van Buren stayed in the Philadelphia area living in the Northeast and following the team like any other fan? I think it would be wonderful if somehow a statue could be created for him while he was still alive to enjoy it. Bednarik seemed genuinely thrilled with his statue.
-Tim Cogan
Thanks for all the letters and e-mails regarding the Van Buren column. I do think one of the best aspects of LeSean McCoys record-setting 2011 season is it brought Van Buren back into the public consciousness. When McCoy set team records for touchdowns (20) and rushing touchdowns (17), it was duly noted those record were held by Van Buren.
Hopefully when TV announcers pointed out that Van Buren scored 18 touchdowns in a 10-game season in 1945, people who never heard of Van Buren before realized the man was something pretty special.
Chuck Bednarik, Reggie White and Van Buren arein my opinion, at least -- the three greatest players in Eagles history. You can put them in any order and I wont argue, but they are the best. Most fans know of Bednarik, the last of the 60-minute men, and White is still fresh in our memories. Sadly, Van Buren was overshadowed even though many of his records stood for more than half a century.
Part of the reason was Van Burens modesty. He lived quietly in Northeast Philadelphia for many years, hung out at Philadelphia Park race track and watched the Eagles on TV. He didnt do appearances or autograph shows. He didnt return to the Hall of Fame for induction weekends. He didnt like a lot of attention. Ask about his career, as I often did, and hed say, I did OK and leave it at that.
But as I detail in my column, Van Buren was one of the great players in NFL history. He led the league in rushing four times (the Eagles have not had a rushing champion since he last won the title in 1949) and when he retired, he had the league record with 5,860 yards. Jim Brown, Walter Payton and Emmitt Smith have passed him, but Van Buren was the dominant runner in an era when running the ball was the whole game.
To my knowledge, there has not been a serious effort to erect a statue to Van Buren, but he certainly deserves one. He was the first player in franchise history to have his number (15) retired and he was the first Eagle inducted into the Hall of Fame (1965). He scored the only touchdown in their first NFL championship victory, a 7-0 win over the Chicago Cardinals in a blizzard. He put pro football on the map in Philadelphia.
But statue or no statue, Van Buren will always be an Eagle. He still wears an Eagles cap every day at the assisted care facility where he now lives. He celebrates his 91st birthday on December 28th.
E-mail Ray Didinger at viewfromthehall@comcast.net.