Team History: Eagles break 57-year title drought with Super Bowl victory

Team History: Eagles break 57-year title drought with Super Bowl victory

The Philadelphia Eagles were not the NFL’s first foray into the City of Brotherly Love. The Frankford Yellow Jackets spent eight seasons playing in the city’s northeastern corner. Despite going 14-1-2 and winning the NFL Championship in 1926, the team suffered after the Great Depression and folded midway through the 1931 season.

Replacing the team in Philadelphia took more than a year before the league granted the rights to the territory to former University of Pennsylvania teammates Bert Bell and James “Lud” Wray. The franchise had no ties to the former Yellow Jackets.

Bell was the primary owner of the new team, using the money he borrowed from his girlfriend, actress Frances Upton, who he married in 1934. He was the franchise’s president and general manager and Wray was the head coach. The team was named the Eagles, which was inspired by the logo of one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal organizations called the National Industrial Recovery Act.

Unfortunately for Bell and Wray, the team was not very successful on the field. Using mostly players from Penn, Temple, and Villanova, the Eagles did not win more than five games in any season throughout their first decade. Losing money and unable to compete fully with the rest of the NFL, the team went up for auction in 1936. Bell had the only bid ($4,500), giving him full control. After refusing a pay cut, Wray was let go as the coach.

Despite issues on the field, Bell was becoming more respected among his fellow owners. He proposed the idea of a trophy for the league champions in 1934, and he was the first champion of the draft, which would give bad teams a chance to compete by selecting the best college players.

The Eagles had the first pick in the first draft in 1936 and selected the first ever Heisman Trophy winner, University of Chicago running back Jay Berwanger. Bell could not meet Berwanger’s asking price of $1,000 per game, so he traded his rights to the Bears.

In late 1940, Pennsylvania was the site of one of the professional football’s strangest scenarios. Steelers owner Art Rooney sold his franchise to Alexis Thompson, the grandson of the Republic Iron and Steel Company, as well as a field hockey player in the 1936 Olympics. Rooney used the money from the sale to become an equal owner with Bell in Philadelphia. After having second thoughts about selling the Steelers, Rooney convinced Bell and Thompson to trade teams, with Rooney and Bell taking the Eagles to Pittsburgh and Thompson moving the Steelers to Philadelphia. The franchises exchanged more than 20 players during the offseason, but the Eagles and Steelers remained in their rightful cities thanks to what is commonly called the “Pennsylvania Polka.”

Under Thompson, the Eagles started to get better on the field. When the NFL lost players during World War II, Thompson agreed to join the Eagles with Bell and Rooney’s team in 1943. The “Steagles” were coached by Pittsburgh’s Walt Kiesling and Philadelphia’s Alfred “Greasy” Neale, who was a former professional baseball and football player.

The combined team went 5-4-1 for its first winning season. Philadelphia followed that with three more, but did not reach the postseason until 1947. The Eagles and Steelers both finished with 8-4 records, but Philadelphia won the Eastern Division playoff game, 21-0, to reach its first NFL Championship Game. Despite a strong showing by quarterback Tommy Thompson, the Eagles fell to the Chicago Cardinals, 28-21.

Philadelphia went 9-2-1 the following year and won the Eastern Division outright to set up a rematch with the Cardinals. A snowstorm hit the northeast for the title game, and Thompson was in the hospital with appendicitis while his team was playing. The Eagles ran for 225 yards, and Steve Van Buren’s five-yard touchdown run 1:05 into the fourth quarter was the only score in a 7-0 victory that gave Philadelphia its first championship.

Thompson sold the franchise less than a month later to a group of investors known as the “Happy Hundred” for $250,000. Leading the group was trucking magnate James P. Clark, who, along with team president Frank McNamee, found others in the city willing to invest $3,000 into the team. This type of ownership is not allowed by today’s league rules, as the NFL demands that one partner hold at least a 30 percent stake in a franchise.

In 1949, the Eagles had their best season, going 11-1 thanks to Thompson, Van Buren, tight end Pete Pihos and rookie center Chuck Bednarik. Thompson threw a touchdown pass to Pihos and Philadelphia returned a blocked punt for another score in a 14-0 win over the Los Angeles Rams, giving the team its second straight championship.

Neale left after the 1950 season, and the Eagles were inconsistent over the next decade. They did not appear in the postseason again until 1960 under Lawrence “Buck” Shaw, who led the 49ers’ transition from the All-America Football Conference to the NFL.

The Eagles led the NFL with a 10-2 record and faced the Green Bay Packers in the NFL Championship game. Philadelphia went ahead, 17-13, on a Ted Dean five-yard, run with just over five minutes left. The Packers went on a late drive, and Bart Starr found Jim Taylor with a pass in the flat. However, Bednarik made the tackle and refused to let Taylor up as the final seconds ticked off the clock.

The 61-year-old Shaw retired after the win, and the Eagles did not make the playoffs again for another 18 years. Philadelphia went 10-4 in 1961, but the Giants edged them out by half a game. Despite the success, the team was having trouble financially. The “Happy Hundred” was down to 65 and Clark died in 1962. The team was sold the following year to construction company owner Jerry Wolman for $5.5 million.

Wolman’s financial status started to crumble as the decade continued. He sold his share in the NHL’s Flyers before the team started play in 1967, and two years later, the Eagles were purchased for a then-record $16.1 million by trucking company owner Leonard Tose, one of the original “Happy Hundred.”

In 1976, Philadelphia lured Dick Vermeil away from a UCLA team that had won the Rose Bowl the year before. Two years after his arrival, the Eagles, led by quarterback Ron Jaworski, running back Wilbert Montgomery and wide receiver Harold Carmichael, returned to the playoffs.

Highlighting the 9-7 season in 1978 was a Week 12 game against the Giants. Up 17-12 with just seconds remaining, Joe Pisarcik tried to hand the ball to fullback Larry Csonka, rather than just simply taking a knee. The handoff was botched, and Herman Edwards scooped up the fumble and returned it 26 yards for a score, giving the Eagles a 19-17 win in the “Miracle at the Meadowlands.” Philadelphia ended the season by giving up a 13-0 fourth-quarter lead and losing to Atlanta, 14-13 in the Wild Card game.

The following year, the Eagles went 11-5 and knocked off the Bears in the Wild Card round before losing in Tampa Bay the next week. Philadelphia finally broke through in 1980. A 12-4 record earned an NFC East title, and the Eagles defeated the Vikings and Cowboys to reach their first Super Bowl.

Game MVP Jim Plunkett threw three touchdowns passes and the Raiders intercepted Jaworski three times in a 27-10 Oakland win in Super Bowl XV. After a loss in the Wild Card round the following year and a 3-6 record in the 1982 strike-shortened season, Vermeil retired and spent the next 15 years in the broadcast booth.

After Vermeil’s exit, the Eagles returned to inconsistent play throughout the early 1980s. Tose wanted his daughter, Susan Fletcher, to succeed him as the owner, but he had financial difficulties thanks to gambling debts. He tried to swap teams with another cash-strapped owner in Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson, but when that deal fell through, he sold the Eagles in 1985 for $65 million to automobile dealers Norman Braman and Ed Leibowitz.

Braman bought out his brother-in-law a little more than a year later, but his tenure lasted only ten seasons. The Eagles went to the playoffs four times under James “Buddy” Ryan and Rich Kotite, but never made it past the Division round during the Braman years.

The team was sold to a group led by Jeffrey Lurie, as well as his mother, Nancy Lurie Marks, for $195 million in 1994. Lurie was heir to a business conglomerate called Harcourt General Inc., which started as the General Cinema movie theater chain.

Philadelphia made the playoffs twice under former Packers and 49ers defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes before turning to another former Green Bay assistant Andy Reid in 1999. Reid led the Eagles to nine playoff appearances in 13 seasons, including five trips to the NFC Championship Game.

The first came in 2001, with Donovan McNabb at quarterback, Duce Staley at running back and Pro Bowlers Hugh Douglas, Jeremiah Trotter, Troy Vincent and Brian Dawkins on defense. The Eagles went 11-5 and knocked off Buccaneers and the Bears in the playoffs before falling to the Rams, who were led by Vermeil’s successor, Mike Martz.

Philadelphia went 12-4 and hosted the NFC title game in each of the next two years. However, the Eagles lost to the Buccaneers in 2002 and the Panthers the following year.

In 2004, Philadelphia returned to the Super Bowl for the first time in 24 seasons. A 13-3 mark in the regular season was the team’s best since 1949. McNabb and new weapons running back Brian Westbrook and wide receiver Terrell Owens helped the Eagles defeat the Vikings and Falcons to reach Super Bowl XXXIX against the Patriots.

The teams traded scores through the first three quarters, but New England got a Corey Dillon touchdown run, and Adam Vinatieri’s field goal midway through the fourth was the deciding blow in a 27-24 Patriots victory. Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes and MVP Deion Branch had 11 receptions for 133 yards.

The Eagles made one final run at a title under Reid, turning a 9-6-1 record and a Wild Card berth in 2008 into an NFC Championship Game appearance. Philadelphia kept the game close, but a late Kurt Warner pass to Tim Hightower gave Arizona a 32-25 win.

Reid was fired after the 2012 season, replaced by Oregon coach Chip Kelly. The Eagles had regular season success under Kelly, but trading away popular players LeSean McCoy and Nick Foles were his undoing. Lurie fired Kelly before the last game in 2015.

Kelly’s replacement was Doug Pederson, a career backup quarterback who coached under Reid, both in Philadelphia and Kansas City. After a 7-9 mark in his first season, Pederson led the Eagles to a 13-3 record in 2017. Philadelphia came from behind to beat the Falcons, then trounced the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game.

The success came without quarterback Carson Wentz, who tore his ACL in Week 14. Foles, who had signed as a free agent before the season, led the team to a 5-1 record as the starter. In Super Bowl LII, he threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns.

However, Brady threw for a Super Bowl record 505 yards and three scores, and the Patriots had a 33-32 lead with 9:22 left after a Brady to Rob Gronkowski touchdown pass. Foles proceeded to lead the Eagles on a 14-play, 75-yard drive that took more than seven minutes off the clock. His touchdowns pass to tight end Zach Ertz withstood video replay for a 38-33 lead, but the two-point pass failed.

On New England’s next possession, Brandon Graham stripped the ball from Brady’s hand and Derek Barnett recovered, leading to a Jake Elliott field goal and a 41-33 Philadelphia lead. After driving to midfield, Brady’s final Hail Mary pass landed incomplete, and the Eagles won their first championship since 1960.

Last season ended with a loss to the Saints in the Division round, but the Eagles feature a (hopefully) healthy Wentz, along with Ertz, running back Jordan Howard and a receiving corps that includes Nelson Agholor, Alshon Jeffery and a returning DeSean Jackson.

-By: Kevin Rakas