A 15-year-old in West Chester found the 1960 Eagles NFL championship trophy in his grandmother’s closet

Liam Edelstein was visiting his grandparents in Florida in 2017 when his uncle told him and his father about the trophy.

“We’re like, ‘What trophy?’” said Edelstein’s father, Matt.

Years ago, Eric Hisam said he brought to Florida a 1960 NFL championship trophy from his aunt’s home in Philadelphia. The trophy once belonged to James P. Clark — the Eagles owner when they beat the Packers for the 1960 title — and Hisam’s uncle Max Leven was the Center City jeweler who made the award.

Hisam moved to California after marrying Matt Edelstein’s sister, Stacy. The couple left some of their old keepsakes — including the trophy — at Stacy Edelstein’s childhood home in Florida.

“For years, this just sat in their closet,” Matt Edelstein said.

Hisam told his nephew that the trophy now belonged to him since he lived near Philadelphia and was hooked on the Birds. So a 15-year-old kid has the 1960 NFL championship trophy?

“Yep,” said Liam Edelstein, a sophomore at Unionville High School.

World champions

The winner of Sunday’s Super Bowl will receive the sterling silver Vince Lombardi Trophy, which costs $50,000 for Tiffany & Co. to produce. The trophy debuted in 1967 and has become iconic, something every football player dreams of raising.

In 1960, there was no trophy. The NFL began awarding the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy to the league winner in 1934, but there is no record of the Eagles receiving the trophy — which traveled from team to team like the Stanley Cup — after they beat the Packers.

The Thorp trophy had a spotty history and is thought to have gone missing in the late 1950s before resurfacing sometime in the 1960s. The Packers now display the trophy in their museum and the Eagles’ 1960 team was never added to the trophy’s list of champions.

Rookie Ted Dean, who became an elementary schoolteacher in Gladwyne after his career, scored the winning touchdown and Chuck Bednarik made the game-saving tackle in the 1960 title game. He sat on Jim Taylor until the clock expired at Franklin Field. The Eagles celebrated their 17-13 victory by presenting the game ball to head coach Buck Shaw, who retired after the win.

The players sipped beer from paper cups and puffed cigars in the locker room. Bednarik was the team’s oldest player and played offense and defense that afternoon for the final time in his career. He famously smoked a cigar and a cigarette at the same time in the locker room. That was his trophy.

Sometime later — perhaps at the team’s celebratory banquet — Leven presented Clark with the trophy he made. He made a similar trophy to honor quarterback Norm Van Brocklin for being named the game’s MVP.

Clark and Leven were close friends and their wives were inseparable. The championship trophy was simple: a gold football on a base with a plaque.

“PHILADELPHIA EAGLES,” the plaque said under Clark’s name. “WORLD CHAMPIONS.”

More durable than Bakelite

Clark was a Democratic power broker who made his money in the trucking business. He organized a group in 1949 to purchase the Eagles called “The Happy Hundred.”

The Eagles repeated that season as champions and the Happy Hundred oversaw a second crown in 1960. Clark placed the 1960 trophy from Leven in his office near the window, which was a bad idea since the trophy base was made of Bakelite, a hard, synthetic plastic.

“Bakelite’s biggest weakness is the sun,” Matt Edelstein said of the material.

The base soon cracked and Clark returned it to be repaired at his friend’s shop on 8th and Sansom. Leven returned it to Clark, who suffered a heart attack shortly after and died in April 1962. Leven died seven months later.

The trophy remained with Clark’s wife, Peg, until she died in 1976. The Clarks did not have children, so Peg Clark left her estate to Leven’s wife, Florence, who remarried after Leven’s death.

Peg Clark and Florence (Leven) Horton often dined together at Bookbinders and traveled on vacations all over the world. They were closer than sisters, Inquirer columnist Tom Fox once wrote.

Horton received all of Clark’s possessions from the sprawling farm estate in New Hope, including an old dusty trophy. Hisam found the trophy one day at his aunt’s house and asked her what it was.

“She told him the whole story,” Matt Edelstein said. “Like any young boy would do, he says ‘Well, can I have it?’ She said, ‘OK.’”

Hisam took the trophy home to Florida, but the base cracked in his luggage. Delta Air Lines covered the cost, replacing the Bakelite with wood and keeping the plaque and even the jeweler tag from Leven and Son. The trophy sat for years in Hisam’s bedroom, more than 1,000 miles from where the Eagles handed Lombardi his only championship defeat.

The 1960 championship drew 67,325 fans the day after Christmas. It was blacked out on TV in Philadelphia as fans listened on radio to Bill Campbell proclaiming the Eagles world champions. That win is often credited for being the game that turned Philadelphia into a football-crazed town. It was one of the most significant days in Eagles history. But unbeknownst to nearly everyone, the trophy sat in Florida for years.

The trophy’s back home

Liam Edelstein was born in Atlanta before his family moved to West Chester when he was 3. His parents weren’t football fans, so they followed his lead when he fell for the Eagles.

He designed his own plays, only borrowed Eagles books from the elementary school library, and corrected his parents when they mispronounced a player’s name. His uncle believed it was time for the trophy to head back north, knowing his nephew could give it a proper home.

“To watch my son embrace the Eagles and get caught up on all Philly sports teams, we were kind of left watching him grow up a huge Eagles fan,” Matt Edelstein said. “Then we caught on, too, and became Eagles fans also. Then we found out this whole story.”

They packed the trophy into a duffel bag and carried it on the plane, not wanting to risk it being cracked again in transit. It made it through the X-ray screening without any questions and survived the flight just before the 2017 NFL season kicked off. A few months later, the trophy was in the Edelstein’s living room when the Eagles won their first Super Bowl. Coincidence?

“We joke in the family that we’re the reason the Eagles have had success,” Matt Edelstein said.

The trophy sits on the couch every week as if it’s a part of the family. When the Eagles need a big play, the Edelsteins rub the trophy for good luck. Whatever it takes.

“It’s pretty crazy to rub it on fourth down or third down, watch them get a stop, and then be like that’s because we just rubbed the trophy,” Liam Edelstein said.

The Edelsteins have no idea how much the trophy is worth and have no plans to find out. It means more to them than any collector, Liam Edelstein said.

The trophy will be on the couch Sunday as the Eagles play the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. For decades, the 1960 championship was the team’s most recent title. It was all the Eagles had. But then they finally won a Super Bowl in 2018 and can now add a second title just seven years later.

The 1960 title game feels like ancient history. But Bednarik, Van Brocklin, and Tommy McDonald won’t be forgotten on Sunday in West Chester. Their trophy is no longer tucked in the closet.

“We honor it as kind of our family tradition,” Liam Edelstein said.