Eagles no stranger to mining talent in unconventional ways

Dave Spadaro

Maybe this all started in 1944 when the Eagles signed offensive lineman Duke Maronic, a 5-foot-9, 209-pound guard who played through the 1950 season as a member of two NFL Championship teams. Maronic didn't play football in college and the Eagles found him at a tryout, so the foray into the "non-traditional" path to the NFL - during the World War II years when the player pool was thinned for obvious