Skip to content
Eagles
Link copied to clipboard

Cunningham makes Eagles' Mount Rushmore

Quarterback Randall Cunningham held off a late sprint by Hall of Fame running back Steve Van Buren to snag the fourth spot on the Eagles' Mount Rushmore, as voted by fans at profootballtalk.com.

The rest of the Final Four turned out to be defensive end Reggie White, linebacker/center Chuck Bednarik -- two Hall of Famers -- and safety Brian Dawkins.

Those three were runaway choices, with White checked off by 84 percent of voters in the online polll, Dawkins by 64 percent, and Bednarik by 60 percent.

The vote for the last spot was so close that Cunningham, Van Buren, and quarterback Norm Van Brocklin -- who led the Eagles to their last championship, in 1960 -- all had 32 percent. Trailing were quarterback Donovan McNabb with 28 percent, coach Andy Reid with 20 percent, and running back Brian Westbrook and receivers Harold Carmichael at 16 percent. The options also included defensive tackle Jerome Brown and defensive back Tom Brookshier.

Profootballtalk's Mike Florio said his four would have been Reid, White, Bednarik and Van Buren.

Ray Didinger, co-author of the Eagles Encyclopedia, agreed with the fans' first three, but felt that the fourth spots should have gone to Van Buren, who retired as the NFL's all-time leading rusher and who led the Eagles to championships in 1948 and 1949.

Didinger's remarks were made Tuesday to 94 WIP's Angelo Cataldi, who lobbied hard for fans to vote for anybody but McNabb.