Veterans Day tribute to former Eagle Nick Basca, who died in WWII

On the snowy December day when his Eagles won the 1948 NFL title, Nick Basca's long journey home was underway.

He hadn't worn the green-and-white uniform since that infamous Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941. In the intervening years, the Phoenixville resident had traveled thousands of miles. Now, at last, he was coming back, a hero again.

On Nov. 11, 1944 - Armistice Day, ironically - Basca was killed in the woods near Orbec, France. A tank-commanding corporal in Gen. George Patton's Third Army, he died instantly when a German mortar tore through his armored vehicle.

Buried initially at the American Catholic Military Cemetery in France, his body, like those of 170,000 other slain U.S. servicemen, was disinterred in December 1948 and sent home.

Basca's belated funeral took place in Phoenixville on Jan. 19. Eight hundred mourners clogged Sacred Heart Church, whose adjoining school was the birthplace of a legend that, in his hometown at least, was as large as he was undersize.

He starred at Phoenixville High and Villanova. When the Eagles signed him in 1941, the fairy tale seemed complete.

This Veterans Day, 70 years after Basca's death, seems a fitting time to interrupt the NFL's ongoing venality - its stars entangled in domestic and child abuse, its retirees suffering physical and mental anguish - with a nobler story.

Basca was one of 25 NFL players killed in World War II. None was a great star. All, like the tough-as-nails towheaded player called "Nickels," deserve remembering.

On that Dec. 7, Philadelphia and Washington played in ignorant but curious bliss. The 20-14 loss gave the 1941 Eagles a 2-8-1 record.

Not knowing of the Pearl Harbor attack, players were puzzled by the frequent public-address announcements paging various government and military officials among the 27,102 fans at Washington's Griffith Stadium.

"We didn't know what was going on," Redskins quarterback Sammy Baugh recalled. "I'd never heard that many announcements, one right after another. We felt something was up, but we just kept playing."

The Eagles got the news in the locker room. Within three days, Basca had enlisted in the Army.

A smallish (5-foot-8, 170-pound) reserve halfback, defensive back, and placekicker, Basca kicked two extra points that Sunday to conclude a decent rookie season. He rushed for a touchdown, intercepted three passes, and kicked a field goal and nine extra points.

But it couldn't have been easy for Basca, who wasn't used to life beyond the spotlight.

Basca was born in 1916, the eldest of five children of an immigrant steelworker and homemaker from what became Czechoslovakia. His given name was Michael. His nickname, "Nickels" - shortened to "Nick" - derived from his habit of soliciting jobs for which he charged five cents.

Smaller than his classmates, he was an athletic prodigy. At Sacred Heart, he became a local celebrity when, as a 97-pound eighth grader, he led his team to a win over Phoenixville High's freshmen.

A defensive back and quarterback, Basca, according to the Phoenixville Daily Republican, was "shifty, elusive, crafty."

At Phoenixville High, he starred in football, baseball, and basketball. His senior year, the Phantoms went 9-0 and won the Suburban Conference title. Basca scored 89 of their 226 points and led a defense that allowed just 27.

"It's been a long time since our school has had an all-around athlete like 'Nick,' " a senior yearbook caption read.

Basca enrolled at Pennington (N.J.) Prep. In one victory there, he accounted for all his team's points in a 13-12 win over a college, West Chester State.

At Villanova, he was a triple-threat star. As a senior, Basca was the Wildcats captain and an all-East selection.

He played in the North-South All-Star Game that winter, and after his 1941 graduation - with an education degree - he played in the Eastern collegiate all-stars' annual matchup with the New York Giants.

His stature likely kept him from being drafted, but several NFL teams expressed interest before he signed with the Eagles.

Basca and his brother Steven enlisted quickly after Pearl Harbor. He trained at Fort Bragg and in July 1942 married Frances Snyder. Redeployed to Camp Bowie in Texas, Basca arrived in England in 1943. There, he and the Fourth Armored Division awaited the European invasion.

On July 11, 1944, his unit landed on Utah Beach. The Americans fought their way across France, helping to secure the Brittany Peninsula, then rolling 250 miles toward Germany.

That November, during one of the fierce skirmishes that preceded the Battle of the Bulge, an 88mm shell struck Basca's vehicle. He died instantly.

Steven Basca, recuperating in a nearby hospital, later told doctors that at the moment his brother died, he rose in his bed and screamed.

On Dec. 28, 1948, nine days after the Eagles defeated the Cardinals for the NFL championship, Basca's body arrived in America.

On Jan. 19, a ceremony in his parents' Martin Street home was followed by a Mass at Sacred Heart and a military burial.

For years, Chester County's football champions received the Nick Basca Trophy. Villanova named its annual homecoming weekend in his honor. He was included in the Wartime Heroes display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Chester County and Phoenixville sports halls inducted him.

Then his name faded.

The World War II hero is buried not far from the field where the sports hero was born.

In 1930, as a 4-foot-6, 13-year-old quarterback, Basca ran for four long touchdowns and on defense hit every opponent who moved in Sacred Heart's victory over rival St. Michael's.

Now in St. Michael's Cemetery, adjacent to that field, on a hilltop above the Schuylkill, he rests in peace.