Bucko Kilroy is finally going into the Eagles Hall of Fame.
One of the greatest players in franchise history, Kilroy played 13 seasons in the NFL and was considered by many to be the dirtiest player in the NFL. His classic response to that accusation can be seen in this NFL Films feature about him.
“It was smash-mouth, or what I called mash-mouth football in those years,” Kilroy once said. “The rules were different. First, you played two ways up to 1950. Another thing, forearms were legal.”
He was a two-way lineman who was part of the franchise’s first two NFL championship teams in 1948 and 1949. He was also on the 1947 team that lost in the NFL championship game.
Kilroy’s career started in 1943 with the Steagles, a combination of players from the Eagles and Steelers that was forced by player losses to the country’s World War II effort. Kilroy enlisted in the Merchant Marines the same year he played with the Steagles.
He then played from 1944 through 1955 with the Eagles, earning three trips to the Pro Bowl and two second-team All Pro honors. He was also named to the 1940s all decade team.
Kilroy, in blizzard conditions at Shibe Park, recovered a late third-quarter fumble during the team’s 1948 championship win over the Chicago Cardinals that set up the only score in the Eagles’ 7-0 victory.
He also played a part in that touchdown on offense by pulling from his right guard spot and opening a hole for Hall of Fame running back Steve Van Buren.
That was the Eagles’ first of what is now five championships.
The second came a year later when the Eagles blanked the Rams 14-0 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Those Eagles teams are the only ones in NFL history to win back-to-back titles without allowing a point.
Kilroy, a Philadelphia native, was also an All-American at Temple and after his playing career he became a scout and eventually the general manager of the New England Patriots. He was the GM of the first Patriots team to reach the Super Bowl in 1985.
He will be inducted into the Eagles Hall of Fame as a member of the 2025 class Nov. 28 when the team plays the Chicago Bears at Lincoln Financial Field.
Kilroy died in 2007 at the age of 86.
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Bob Brookover can be reached atrbrookover@njadvancemedia.com
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