He's 91, and the aches and challenges of age have been all but forgotten this week. Chet Bulger has a reason to smile and laugh.

His Cardinals are one win from going to the Super Bowl.

"They can do it," said Bulger. "Four teams are left and the big teams are gone. The (New York) Giants, the Titans, the Cowboys. The Patriots didn't make the playoffs."

You couldn't mistake the sound of excitement in his voice or the Maine accent he's never lost. He's been invited but can't travel to Arizona from his home in Virginia this weekend to watch the Cardinals play the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC championship. He'll be there in spirit instead, a living link to when the Cardinals were the best team in football.

"There are five of us left," said Bulger. "I'm the oldest."

Five from a team of 36 that ran onto a frozen field at Comiskey Park in Chicago to play the Eagles for the 1947 NFL championship. The Cardinals won, 28-21. Bulger was a 275-pound two-way tackle from Rumford and Auburn University.

Afterward, there was no parade, just a party. The Bears owned Chicago. There were no championship rings, just commemorative footballs. That owner Charles Bidwell died of pneumonia six months before his team won its biggest game may have muted the celebration.

Bulger and his teammates walked into the offseason believing they'd do this again. They did get back to the final in 1948 but the Eagles won the rematch. Sixty years of futility followed.

The team moved to St. Louis and later to the desert outside Phoenix.

Bulger left the Cards and played for the Detroit Lions in 1950. Later he got a job on Chicago's South Side, at the private De La Salle Institute. Teacher and athletic director. Last fall the school named its football field in his honor.

This week he's been called regularly. The New York Times wanted his voice to join Hall of Fame running back Charley Trippi and center Vince Banonis. The Washington Times had questions. Family and friends wanted to share memories.

"We were a tough bunch of guys, rugged," said Bulger. "This team is more finesse. God bless him, I like Kurt Warner. He's an old-time ballplayer."

Bulger never earned more than $10,000 in a season. He rode the train to Los Angeles with his teammates, practicing in the baggage car and trying to wash up afterward in the tiny washroom sinks. He was fined once by the commissioner of football for walking through a hotel lobby with his suitcoat on but without the tie. He was also out of his room after curfew.

Few Mainers have played pro football. Bulger may be the only one who was on top of his game when it mattered most. The Chicago Tribune named him its NFL lineman of the year in 1947. Cardinals fans voted him onto their all-time team in 1969. In 1997, Bidwell's son bought title rings for the 21 surviving members of the 1947 team.

Sunday, many of the Bulger clan will watch from their homes. In Fryeburg, Jim "Fuzzy" Thurston, a nephew and the former football coach at Fryeburg Academy, will probably forget he's a fan of the Miami Dolphins.

In Gorham, Fran Thurston Doucette will cheer for the Cards even though she's a Steelers fan. Because of her uncle, she always felt a connection with the Cardinals.

"My grandfather used to say the Red Sox couldn't play tiddlywinks (and win)," said Doucette. "He said the same about the Cardinals."

Need a rooting interest with the Patriots out? Jump on the Cardinals' bandwagon and join the 91-year-old Mainer who never jumped off.

Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at:

ssolloway@pressherald.com