Getting Concrete Charlie in Bronze

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Statues at Penn come in pretty much one mold: Ben Franklin. There's young Ben Franklin outside of Weightman Hall, Ben Missing a Button in front of College Hall, and everyone's favorite Ben Franklin Reading on a Bench at 37th and Locust. But if some avid Eagles and Penn fans have any say, that won't be true for long.

A great article in the Philly Daily News today detailed the saga of getting a statue for Penn great and Eagles Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik. Plans have apparently been in the works for some time to get Concrete Charlie — a lineman from Bethlehem, Pa., three time All-American for Penn and third-place finisher in the Heisman balloting in 1948 — in Bronze outside of Franklin Field. Bednarik was on the 1960 NFL Championship team that, as Penn historians know, also played at Franklin Field.

With a player so respected and tied to the stadium at 33rd and Spruce, a statue in his likeness there would seem incredibly appropriate. But as you may have guessed, there's one thing standing in the way: Money. A statue can cost as much as $100,000, according to the Inquirer article, and it's hard for Penn and the Athletic Dept. to prioritize money, even from gifts, towards a statue, even for someone like Bednarik:

The process for conceiving, financing and crafting statues is time-consuming and costly, which might explain why Penn director of athletics Steve Bilsky has declined to commit to a Bednarik statue other than to drop hints that it is a splendid idea that might or might not be carried through to fruition.

One comment on the Daily News' article suggested that if Eagles' fans could publicly donate to the cause, the statue would be paid for in minutes.

But until the funds are raised, supporters of the statue are going Bednarik or bust.