Philadelphia Eagles

NFL in Philadelphia (1899–1931)

In May 1899, the Frankford Athletic Association was organized in the parlor of the Suburban Club. The cost of purchasing a share in the association was $10. There were contributing memberships ranging from $1 to $2.50, made available to the general public. The Association was a community-based non-profit organization of local residents and businesses. In keeping with its charter, which stated that "all profits shall be donated to charity", all of the team's excess income was donated to local charitable institutions. The original Frankford Athletic Association disbanded prior to the 1909 football season. Several of the original players from the 1899 football team kept the team together, and they became known as Loyola Athletic Club. In keeping with Yellow Jackets tradition, they carried the "Frankford" name again in 1912, to become the Frankford Athletic Association.

In the early 1920s, the Frankford Athletic Association's Yellow Jackets gained a reputation as being one of the best independent football teams in the nation. In 1922, Frankford absorbed the Philadelphia City Champion team, the Union Quakers of Philadelphia. That year, Frankford captured the unofficial championship of Philadelphia. During the 1922 and 1923 seasons, the Yellow Jackets compiled a 6–2–1 record against teams from the National Football League. This led to the Association being granted an NFL franchise in 1924, thus becoming the Frankford Yellow Jackets. In spite of winning the NFL championship in 1926, midway through the 1931 season, the Yellow Jackets went bankrupt and were forced to cease operations.

Bell and Wray era (1933–1940)

After more than a year of searching for a suitable replacement for the Yellow Jackets in the lucrative Philadelphia market, the National Football League granted an expansion franchise to an ownership group headed by Bert Bell and Lud Wray, who were also awarded the liquidated assets of the defunct Yellow Jackets organization. The Bell–Wray group had to pay an entry fee of $3,500, or roughly US$67,000 in inflation-adjusted 2022 dollars and assumed a total debt of $11,000 the Yellow Jackets owed to three other NFL franchises.

Drawing inspiration from the Blue Eagle logo of the National Recovery Administration, a centerpiece of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies, Bell and Wray named their new franchise the Philadelphia Eagles. While it could seem as if the Yellow Jackets simply rebranded as the Eagles, both the Eagles organization and the NFL officially regard the teams as two separate entities. There was no Philadelphia NFL team for a season and a half, and almost no players from the 1931 Yellow Jackets appeared on the Eagles' first roster.

In the 1933 NFL season, the Eagles were one of three teams, along with the Pittsburgh Pirates (now the Pittsburgh Steelers) and the now-defunct Cincinnati Reds, to join the NFL as expansion teams. Wray became the Eagles' first head coach after being persuaded to assume the position by Bell, his former teammate at Penn. The Eagles originally intended to play their home games at Shibe Park, which was the home of the Philadelphia Athletics professional baseball in Philadelphia. When negotiations for the use of Shibe Park fell through, the Eagles struck a deal with the Athletics' crosstown rival, the Philadelphia Phillies, to begin playing at the Baker Bowl.

The Eagles played their first game on October 15, 1933, against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds in New York City, and lost the game 56–0. The Eagles struggled in their first decade, never winning more than four games in any of their first ten seasons. Their best finish was in 1934, the second season for the Eagles, when they tied for third in the East. The Eagles' early rosters largely consisted of former Penn, Temple, and Villanova players who played for the Eagles for a few years before going on to other things.

In 1935, Bell proposed an annual college draft to equalize talent across the league. The draft was a revolutionary concept in professional sports. Having teams select players in inverse order of their finish in the standings, a practice still followed today, strove to increase fan interest by guaranteeing that even the worst teams would have the opportunity for annual infusions of the best college talent. Between 1927, when the NFL changed from a sprawling Midwestern-based association to a narrower, major-market league, and 1934, three teams, the Chicago Bears, New York Giants, and Green Bay Packers, won all but one title with the exception of the Providence Steam Roller, which won in 1928. By 1936, the Eagles suffered significant financial losses and were sold through a public auction. Bert Bell was the only bidder and became the sole owner of the team. Wray refused a reduction in his salary and left the team. Bell assumed the head coaching position and led the team to a record of 1–11, last place in the league.

From 1936 to 1939, the Eagles played at Municipal Stadium in South Philadelphia. In 1940, Bell balked at a 66% rent increase plus 10% of the gate receipts proposed by the City of Philadelphia for the use of Municipal Stadium and signed a lease for Shibe Park, which was renamed Connie Mack Stadium in 1954. At Connie Mack Stadium, the Eagles were also able to play night games, since lights were installed at the stadium the year before. In the 1941 season, the Eagles played their home opener at Municipal Stadium, and then moved to Shibe Park.

To accommodate football at Shibe Park during the winter, management erected stands in right field, parallel to 20th Street. Some 20 feet high, these east stands included 22 rows of seats. The goalposts stood along the first base line and in left field. The uncovered east stands enlarged the park's capacity to over 39,000, but the Eagles rarely drew more than 25,000 to 30,000. The Eagles finished the 1937 season 2–8–1 and continued to struggle over the next three seasons.

Thompson, Wolman and the Happy Hundred era (1941–1969)

In December 1940, Bell intervened to stop the sale of Art Rooney's Steelers to Alexis Thompson. Rooney then acquired half of Bell's interest in the Eagles. In a series of events known as the Pennsylvania Polka, Rooney and Bell exchanged their entire Eagles roster and their territorial rights in Philadelphia to Thompson for his entire Steelers roster and his rights in Pittsburgh. Rooney provided assistance to Bell by rewarding him with a 20% commission on the sale of the Steelers. Bell became the Steelers' head coach and Rooney became the Steelers' general manager.

Greasy Neale years (1941–1950)

After assuming ownership, Thompson promptly hired Greasy Neale as the team's head coach. During the first years under Neale, the Eagles' struggles continued, and they finished the 1941 season with a 2–8–1 record. In the 1942 season, there was no improvement as the team finished the season 2–9.

Steagles (1943)

In 1943, with player shortages stemming from the U.S. entry engagement in World War II, it became difficult to fill the roster, and the team merged with the Steelers to form the "Phil-Pitt Combine", known as the Steagles. Greasy Neale continued to coach the team along with Steelers head coach Walt Kiesling. The team finished the 1943 season with a 5–4–1 record, and the merger, which was never intended to be a permanent arrangement, was dissolved at the season's end.

In 1944, the Eagles, led by head coach Greasy Neale and running back Steve Van Buren, had their first winning season in team history. After two second place finishes in 1945 and 1946, the team reached the NFL Championship game for the first time in 1947. Van Buren, Pete Pihos, and Bosh Pritchard fought valiantly, but the young team lost to the Chicago Cardinals, 28–21 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

NFL champions (1948)

Undeterred, the young team rebounded in 1948 to return to the NFL Championship game. With home-field advantage and a blinding snowstorm on their side, the Eagles won their first NFL Championship against the Chicago Cardinals by a score of 7–0. The only score came in the fourth quarter when Steve Van Buren ran for a five-yard touchdown. Because of the severe weather, few fans witnessed the joyous occasion.

Prior to the start of the 1949 season, the Eagles were sold by Thompson to a syndicate of 100 buyers, known as the "Happy Hundred", each of whom paid $3,000 for a share of the team. While the leader of the "Happy Hundred" was noted Philadelphia businessman James P. Clark, one unsung investor was Leonard Tose.

NFL champions (1949)

In 1949, the Eagles returned to the NFL Championship game for a third consecutive year. The Eagles were favored by a touchdown, and won 14–0 for their second consecutive title game shutout. Running back Steve Van Buren rushed for 196 yards on 31 carries for the Eagles, and their defense held the Rams to just 21 yards on the ground. Chuck Bednarik was selected as the first overall pick in the 1949 NFL draft. An All-American linebacker from the University of Pennsylvania, Bednarik would go on to become one of the greatest and most beloved players in Eagles history.

In 1950, the Eagles opened the season against the AAFC champion Cleveland Browns, who, along with two other AAFC franchises, had just joined the NFL. The Eagles were expected to make short work of the Browns, who were widely considered the dominant team in a lesser league. However, the Browns lit up the Eagles' vaunted defense for 487 total yards, including 246 passing yards, in a 35–10 rout. The Eagles never recovered from the loss and finished the 1950 season 6–6.

Following the 1950 season, Greasy Neale retired and was replaced by Bo McMillin. Two games into the 1951 season, McMillin was forced to retire following a diagnosis of terminal stomach cancer. Wayne Millner finished out the season before being replaced by Jim Trimble.

While the remnants of the great 1940s teams managed to stay competitive for the first few years of the decade, and younger players like Bobby Walston and Sonny Jurgensen occasionally provided infusions of talent, the team lacked the total talent necessary for true greatness during most of the 1950s.

After the 1957 season, the Eagles moved from Connie Mack Stadium to Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania. Franklin Field had a vastly expanded seating capacity for the Eagles. While Connie Mack Stadium had a capacity of 39,000, Franklin Field's capacity was 60,000. In 1969, the grass field at Franklin Field was replaced by AstroTurf, making Franklin Field the first NFL stadium to use artificial turf.

Buck Shaw years (1958–1960)

In 1958, the Eagles took several steps to improve, hiring Buck Shaw as head coach and acquiring quarterback Norm Van Brocklin in a trade with the Los Angeles Rams. During the 1959 season, the team showed flashes of talent, and finished in second place in the Eastern Division. Former Eagles owner and co-founder Bert Bell had become NFL commissioner, and attended the Eagles game on October 11 at Franklin Field against the Pittsburgh Steelers, a team Bell used to own. Bell refused the box seats that the Eagles reserved for him and purchased his own tickets to sit with the fans. During the fourth quarter, while sitting behind the end zone, Bell suffered a heart attack and died later that day.

NFL champions (1960)

The Eagles' 1960 season remains one of the most celebrated years in team history. Shaw, Van Brocklin, and Bednarik, each in their last season before retirement, led an Eagles team more notable for its grit than its talent. One observer later quipped that the team had "nothing but a championship" to its first division title since 1949. The team was aided by their two Pro Bowl receivers, wide receiver Tommy McDonald, who later wrote an autobiography titled They Pay Me to Catch Footballs, and tight end Pete Retzlaff.

On November 20, 1960, at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, Bednarik launched a tackle against New York Giants' running back Frank Gifford, which has come to be known as The Hit, a tackle that is routinely ranked as one of the hardest and most vicious hits in NFL history. With the game tied 10 to 10 in the fourth quarter, Gifford caught a short pass over the middle and was immediately hit by Bednarik with a clothesline tackle so hard that it dropped Gifford to the ground unconscious. Gifford was removed from the field on a stretcher and transported to a local hospital by ambulance, where he remained for ten days. Gifford was diagnosed with a deep concussion that resulted in his retirement from the game for 18 months. On the 100th anniversary of the NFL's founding, the NFL ranked Bednarik's tackle the 44th greatest play in league history.

On December 26, 1960, one of the coldest days in recorded Philadelphia history, the Eagles faced Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers in the 1960 NFL Championship Game and dealt the formidable Lombardi the sole championship game loss of his storied career. Bednarik lined up at center on offense and at linebacker on defense. Fittingly, the game ended as Bednarik tackled a struggling Jim Taylor and refused to allow him to stand until the last seconds had ticked away.

Van Brocklin came to Philadelphia and agreed to play through 1960 with an understanding that, upon his retirement as a player, he would succeed Shaw as head coach. Ownership, however, opted to promote assistant coach Nick Skorich instead, and Van Brocklin quit the organization in a fit of pique, instead becoming head coach of the expansion Minnesota Vikings. Backup quarterback Sonny Jurgensen became the Eagles' starter for the 1961 season; they finished a half-game behind the New York Giants for first place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 10–4 record. Despite the success, however, the franchise was in turmoil.

The 1962 team, decimated by injury, managed only three wins and were embarrassed at home in a 49–0 loss to the Packers. The off-field chaos continued through 1963, as the 65 shareholders remaining from the original Happy Hundred sold the team to Jerry Wolman, a 36-year-old millionaire Washington developer who outbid local bidders for the team, paying an unprecedented $5.505 million for control of the club.

In 1964, Wolman hired former Cardinals and Washington Redskins coach Joe Kuharich to a 15-year contract. Over the next five seasons, the team failed to make the playoffs and the failures of the team over this period were highlighted by the Santa Claus incident, when fans pelted a Santa Claus with snowballs during a halftime Christmas pageant. The team had only one winning season, in 1966, finishing second in the NFL Eastern Conference. The Eagles lost to the Baltimore Colts 20–14, in the post-season's third place consolation game, the Playoff Bowl, which was held at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The Eagles finished 6–7–1 in 1967. In the following season, the Eagles fell even further in the standings, recording a 2–12 record in 1968.

Leonard Tose era (1969–1984)

In 1969, Leonard Tose bought the team from Wolman for $16.155 million, the equivalent of $142 million today, representing a record then for the highest amount ever paid for a professional sports franchise. Tose's first official act was to fire Coach Joe Kuharich after a disappointing 24–41–1 record during his five-year reign. Tose then named former Eagles wide receiver Pete Retzlaff as the team's general manager and Jerry Williams as its new head coach.

With the merger of the NFL and AFL in 1970, the Eagles were placed in the NFC East Division with the New York Giants, Washington Redskins, and Dallas Cowboys. The Eagles' heated rivalry with the Giants is the oldest of the NFC East rivalries, dating back to 1933, and is often cited as one of the best rivalries in the NFL. 1970 was also the last season for the Eagles at Franklin Field; the team finished the first post-merger season in last place in their division at 3–10–1.

In 1971, the Eagles moved to Veterans Stadium, which had just been constructed and was initially acclaimed as a triumph of ultra-modern sports engineering. After a 3–10–1 record in 1970 and three consecutive blowout losses to Cincinnati, Dallas, and San Francisco to open the 1971 season, Williams was fired and replaced by assistant coach Ed Khayat, a defensive lineman on the Eagles' 1960 NFL championship team. Williams and Khayat were hampered by Retzlaff's decision to trade longtime starting quarterback Norm Snead to the Minnesota Vikings in early 1971, leaving the Eagles a choice between journeyman Pete Liske and raw Rick Arrington. Khayat lost his first two games but won six of the season's last nine, thanks largely to the efforts of the Eagles' defense, led by all-pro safety Bill Bradley, who led the NFL in interceptions (11) and interception return yardage (248).

The team regressed in 1972 to finish 2–11–1, and Khayat was released. The two wins, both on the road, proved to be surprises. Philadelphia beat the Kansas City Chiefs (which had had the best record in the AFC a year before) 21–20 and the Houston Oilers 18–17 on six field goals by kicker Tom Dempsey. The latter game had been called the "Johnny Rodgers Bowl", because the loser, in finishing last in the league, would gain the first overall pick in the 1973 NFL draft, which was then presumed to be Nebraska wingback Johnny Rodgers, the Heisman Trophy winner. With their loss, the Oilers got first pick and took University of Tampa defensive end John Matuszak, who later faced Philadelphia in Super Bowl XV. With the second overall pick, the Eagles selected USC tight end Charle Young.

Khayat was replaced by offensive guru Mike McCormack for the 1973 season. Aided by the skills of quarterback Roman Gabriel and towering young wide receiver Harold Carmichael, they managed to infuse a bit of vitality into a previously moribund offense.

New general manager Jim Murray also began to add talent on the defensive side of the line, most notably through the addition of future Pro Bowl linebacker Bill Bergey in 1974. Overall, however, the team was still mired in mediocrity. McCormack was fired after a 4–10 1975 season.

Dick Vermeil years (1976–1982)

In 1976, Dick Vermeil was hired from UCLA to coach the struggling Eagles, who had managed only one winning season from 1962 to 1975. Vermeil faced numerous obstacles as he attempted to rejuvenate a franchise that had not seriously contended in well over a decade. Despite the team's young talent and Gabriel's occasional flashes of brilliance, the Eagles finished 1976 with the same 4–10 record as in 1975. In 1977, the first seeds of hope began to emerge. The team obtained hard-throwing quarterback Ron Jaworski in a trade from the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for popular tight end Charle Young. The defense, led by Bergey and defensive coordinator Marion Campbell, began earning a reputation as one of the hardest-hitting in the league.

1978 saw one of the great moments in Eagles history, The Miracle at the Meadowlands, when Herman Edwards returned a fumble by Giants' quarterback Joe Pisarcik for a touchdown with 20 seconds left in the game, resulting in a 19–17 Eagles victory. The Eagles would edge into the playoffs with a 9–7 season. Young running back Wilbert Montgomery became the first Eagle since Steve Van Buren to exceed 1,000 yards in a season. In 1979, the Eagles tied for first place with an 11–5 record, as Montgomery shattered team rushing records with a total of 1,512 yards.