A New Light In The Eagle Eyes

Friday night the All-Stars did not put Jurgensen on his back much. They tried shooting their linebackers in, got stung as Jurgensen had predicted and quit. The few times they penetrated the good Eagle blocking and put Jurgensen on his back, he accepted his adversity with enough aplomb to disprove the theory that he cannot throw under pressure.

The behind-the-back pass to Retzlaff was no accident, incidentally. Jurgensen was a fine basketball player at Duke University, where he played quarterback on the football team under Bill Murray. In those days Murray regarded the forward pass as a weapon to be used only on third down with eight yards to go, so Jurgensen's tutoring in throwing a football came mostly from Van Brocklin.

"I threw a behind-the-back pass once at Duke," he said after this game. "I completed it, and Murray took me out and dang near kicked me off the squad."

Skorich, who succeeds Buck Shaw as head coach of the Eagles, took Jurgensen's unorthodox passing with much more equanimity. "As long as he hits," he said, grinning. He watched Jurgensen, who by now was answering questions from a large group of sportswriters, handling himself surely and giving articulate, brief explanations of his strategy.

"I think this game made Sonny," said Skorich, who himself did a fine job of coaching. It may have made the Eagles, too, who must have had some doubts. They should not have any now. They are a championship club.