Half-way through the 1931 season, in the NFL, the Frankford Yellow Jackets went bankrupt and ceased operations. After more than a year of searching for a suitable replacement, the NFL awarded the dormant franchise to a syndicate headed by Bert Bell and Lud Wray, in exchange for an entry fee of $2,500. Drawing inspiration from the insignia of the centerpiece of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, the National Recovery Act, Bell and Wray named the new franchise the Philadelphia Eagles. (Neither the Eagles nor the NFL officially regard the two franchises as the same, citing the aforementioned period of dormancy; furthermore, almost no Yellow Jackets players were on the Eagles' first roster. Some observers, however, believe the two teams should be treated as one). The Eagles, along with the /page/PIT">Steelers" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_Steelers">Pittsburgh Steelers and the defunct Cincinnati Reds, joined the NFL as expansion teams.
The Eagles struggled over the course of their first decade, enduring repeated losing seasons. In 1943, when manpower shortages stemming from World War II made it impossible to fill the roster, the team temporarily merged with the Pittsburgh Steelers to form a team known as "the Phil-Pitt Steagles." (The merger, never intended as a permanent arrangement, was dissolved at the end of the 1943 season.) By the late 1940s, head coach Earle "Greasy" Neale and running back Steve Van Buren led the team to three consecutive NFL Championship Games, winning two of them in 1948 and 1949. Those two Championships mark the Eagles as the only NFL team ever to win back to back Championships by shutouts, defeating the Chicago Cardinals 7-0 in 1948 and the Los Angeles Rams 14-0 in 1949.
The Eagles won their third NFL championship in 1960 under the leadership of future Pro Football Hall of Famers Norm Van Brocklin and Chuck Bednarik; the head coach was Buck Shaw. The 1960 Eagles, by a score of 17-13, became the only team to defeat Vince Lombardi and his Packers in the playoffs.
In 1969 Leonard Tose bought the Philadelphia Eagles from Jerry Wolman for $16,155,000[2], then a record for a professional sports franchise. Tose's first official act was to fire Coach Joe Kuharich. He followed this by naming former Eagles receiving great Pete Retzlaff as General Manager and Jerry Williams as coach.
In 1976, along with General Manager Jimmy Murray, lured Dick Vermeil from UCLA to coach the Eagles, who had only one winning season from 1962-75. Vermeil's 1980 team lost to /page/OAK">Raiders" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Raiders">Oakland in the Super Bowl. In January 1983, Tose announced that his daughter, Susan Fletcher, the Eagles' vice president and legal counsel, would eventually succeed him as primary owner of the Eagles.
In 1985 Tose was forced to sell the Eagles to Norman Braman and Ed Leibowitz, highly successful automobile dealers from Florida, for a reported $65 million to pay off his more than $25 million in gambling debts at Atlantic City casinos.
With the merger of the NFL and AFL in 1970, the Eagles were placed in the NFC East Division with their archrivals the /page/NYG">Giants" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Giants">New York Giants, the /page/WAS">Redskins" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Redskins">Washington Redskins, and the /page/DAL">Cowboys" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_Cowboys">Dallas Cowboys. But they would not qualify for the postseason again until 1978 when head coach Dick Vermeil and quarterback Ron Jaworski led the team to four consecutive playoff appearances, including their first NFC East division title in 1980 and a Super Bowl XV loss to the Oakland Raiders.
Philadelphia football struggled through the Marion Campbell years of the mid 1980s and was marked by a malaise in fan participation. In 1986, the arrival of head coach Buddy Ryan and his fiery attitude rejuvenated team performance and ignited the fan base. From 1988 to 1996, the Eagles qualified for the playoffs during 6 out of those 9 seasons, but they won the NFC East only once, in 1988. Among the team's offensive stars during that period were quarterback Randall Cunningham, tight end Keith Jackson, and running back Keith Byars. But the "Gang Green" defense is what defined the team, led by Reggie White, Jerome Brown, Clyde Simmons, Seth Joyner, Wes Hopkins, Byron Evans, Eric Allen, and Andre Waters.
In 1999, the Eagles hired head coach Andy Reid and drafted quarterback Donovan McNabb. From that time on the team continually improved, returning to the playoffs in 2000, then succeeding in winning the NFC East and playing in four consecutive conference championship games between 2001 and 2004. After losing the conference championship in 2001 to the St. Louis Rams, in 2002 to the eventual Super Bowl Champions /page/TB">Buccaneers" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_Bay_Buccaneers">Tampa Bay Buccaneers and 2003 to the /page/CAR">Panthers" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Panthers">Carolina Panthers, the Eagles finally advanced to the Super Bowl again in 2004, Super Bowl XXXIX, where they were lost narrowly to the /page/NE">Patriots" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Patriots">New England Patriots, 24-21. Following a 2005 season marred by injuries and controversy among its star players, the Eagles returned to the playoffs in 2006 with an improbable run of 5 consecutive wins to end the season, bringing the team its fifth NFC East title under Coach Reid. The Eagles finished the 2007 season with 3 consecutive wins, but failed to make the playoffs, finishing 8-8.
[edit] Logo and uniforms
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1996–present
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