By Brian Hoffman – Sports Editor
I was sad to learn of the passing of Christian Adolph Jurgensen last week, who everyone knew as “Sonny.” He was one of my all-time favorites.
Sonny lived to be 91, which is a pretty good run, and he had a great life – NFL Hall of Famer, TV celebrity. Still, you hate to see someone leave who was one of your favorites since you were a kid.
My first remembrance of NFL football was the 1960 season, when I was 7 years old. The Eagles won the NFL championship with an aging, but still very effective, Norm Van Brocklin at quarterback. The “Dutchman” retired after that season and his backup, Sonny Jurgensen, became the Eagles starting quarterback in 1961. The Birds went 10-4 that season and Jurgensen was named to the Pro Bowl after throwing for an NFL record 3,723 yards and 32 touchdowns, which remained a Philadelphia franchise record for 56 years until Carson Wentz threw for 33 in 2017. Both went on to play for the Redskins/Commanders, but we’ll get to that a little later.
Sonny and his favorite receiver, Tommy McDonald, were my favorite football players outside of the ones on our local high school team. And, I actually got to meet Jurgensen when he came to our town.
Back then, NFL football players had summertime jobs because the pay wasn’t quite as good in the early ’60s. The Eagles had a roaming off-season basketball team that played exhibition games around the area to pick up off-season money. The Eagles team usually played against a group of local “all-stars” and the games drew good crowds.
I was thrilled when I learned the Eagles were coming to Souderton Area High School to play a bunch of our locals, and I was anxious to see which players would attend. We didn’t know until we got to the game, and when Sonny Jurgensen came out of the locker room it was about as exciting as it gets for a young Eagles fan.
After the game the Eagle players sat along the wall of the gym, under the basket, and signed autographs for as long as fans hung around. I didn’t know this was going to happen so I wasn’t prepared, but a friend of mine had some extra paper and I was able to get Sonny’s autograph along with a bunch of other Birds who no one else would remember unless they are now old and long-time Eagle fans like myself.
Now we get to the Redskins part of the story. After the 1963 season Sonny and his backup, King Hill, held out for more money, maybe so they wouldn’t have to do the basketball deal anymore. That didn’t sit well with the team ownership at the time and Sonny was traded to Washington, along with safety Jimmy Carr, for Norm Snead and Claude Crabb.
I was heartbroken. Norm Snead was a decent quarterback and some of you may know he was from Virginia, playing at Warwick High School in Newport News. He had a nice run at Wake Forest and was the second overall pick in the 1961 draft. Snead went on to play 17 NFL seasons with the ‘Skins, Eagles, Vikings, Giants and 49ers and was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1984. He died in January of 2024.
Snead was a pretty good player, but he was no Sonny Jurgensen. The “Red Head” had an NFL Hall of Fame career in Washington, making four Pro Bowls, passing for over 20,000 yards and throwing 179 touchdown passes. When he retired after the 1974 season, his 265 touchdown passes were third-most in NFL history, behind only Johnny Unitas (290) and Fran Tarkenton (266), and his 32,224 passing yards were fourth-most. Jurgensen was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983.
After retiring Sonny had a second career in broadcasting. He was a color commentator on Redskins’ broadcasts from 1974 to 2008 and served in some capacity with the team until retiring from broadcasting prior to the 2019 season.
He was really fun to listen to. He knew his football inside and out and, teaming with former linebacker Sam Huff, they made listening to Redskins games enjoyable and informative.
Back in the ’80s the late Bob Teitlebaum covered Washington home games for The Roanoke Times. A few times every season he would get me a photo pass and I’d ride along and take pictures at the games. As you can imagine, that was a thrill for me, roaming the sidelines at old RFK and taking pictures of the greats of the game – Joe Namath, Walter Payton, Roger Staubach, Terry Bradshaw, Tony Dorsett and I can go on and on about great players I had the joy of photographing.
After the game Bob had to interview the players and write his story, so I had about an hour and a half to kill. I remember one year the Redskins were struggling and someone had hung a banner from the upper deck of RFK that read, “Come back Sonny, we need you.”
After the game I got on the elevator to ride to the press box and was pleased to see Sonny in the same elevator. A woman turned to Sonny and asked if he noticed that banner, to which Sonny replied in that distinctive voice all Redskins fans loved, “I had to come out here an hour before the gates opened to put that up.”
Rest in peace, Sonny Jurgensen. You were one of the all-time greats, and for another ten thousand dollars a year you could have been the best Eagles quarterback ever.
