Bobby Walston's Three Biggest Field Goals

[LeonardRachiele]

While Bobby Walston was not the NFL's best place kicker, he seemed to come through when needed.  The three field goals in the following games have a unique place in the team's history.

1960 Game 5 at the Cleveland Browns

The Eagles did not look like champions in the first week of the season at Franklin Field.  Jimmy Brown and Bobby Mitchell tore up the defensive line and the Eagles lost 41 to 24.   Now on the road things were different.  Bobby Walston opened the scoring with a 46 yard touchdown pass from Norman Van Brocklin.  With less than one minute left, Walston booted a 38 yard field for a 31 to 29 victory.  This was the biggest win of the season.  Philadelphia was first in the Eastern Conference with a 10-2 record, 1 and 1/2 games better than Cleveland,  whose record was 8-3-1.  Had the Eagles lost, they would have been second,  9-3 to Cleveland's 9-2-1.  Big Game.

NFL Championship Game at Franklin Field

In the second quarter, Bobby Walston kicked a 15 yard field goal, giving the Eagles a 10 to 6 lead at halftime.  Put simply, the two teams traded touchdowns in the second half.  One their last drive, the Packers were trailing 17 to 13.  They had to score a touchdown to win.  Chuck Bednarick made his tackle on Jim Taylor at the Eagles' eight on the final play.  Without Walston's field goal, Green Bay could have played  for their own three points,  deep in  Eagles' territory.   A loss would been quite possible, if not likely.  Philadelphia won 17 to 13.

1961 Final Game at the Detroit Lions

Bobby Walston booted a 10 yard field goal in the last minute for a 27 to 24 victory.  After the win, Philadelphians waited for the results of the Giants and Browns game at Yankee Stadium.  If the Browns won, both the Giants and Philadelphia would be 10-4. We were hoping for a playoff game at Yankee Stadium the following week.  New York would have the home field advantage since they won both games against the Eagles, the first  a runaway and the second much closer.  However, Cleveland and New York played to a 7 all tie. The Eagles were in second place, one half game behind the 10-3-1 New York Giants.