Steagles
The combined team of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles , commonly known as Steagles ( STE elers-E AGLES ), was an American football team that played in the National Football League for one season in 1943 .
background
In the early 1940s, the United States fought in World War II . Because many athletes from US professional leagues were drafted into the army, many events were canceled , and in order to save fuel and plastic, the Indianapolis 500 and the US Open in Gulf were also canceled. A word of power from President Franklin D. Roosevelt could at least keep Major League Baseball running .
The NFL suffered too. Before the 1943 season, the Cleveland Rams ceased operations due to a lack of players, and the Steelers and Eagles only consisted of six and 16 players, respectively, so that only seven of the original ten clubs were still able to play: but there were at least eight teams for a league operation necessary. Therefore it was decided with a narrow majority (5-4 votes) that the Steelers and the Eagles would play as a team for one year. Since Philadelphia provided the majority of the players, they got the games to take place in their local Shibe Park , and the Eagles 'green and white instead of the Steelers' black and gold. The official name was "Phi-Pit Eagles / Steelers", which was quickly shortened to "Steagles".
Player and coach
The NFL clubs could only dispose of men who had been given a low fitness level of "3-A" or "4-F" by the army. H. were unfit for front duty or were allowed to stay in their hometowns despite suitability for deployment abroad:
- "Fitness level 3-A": married men with children who were born before September 15, 1942 (= nine months and one week after the attack on Pearl Harbor )
- "Fitness grade 4-F": Men with severe physical ailments, d. H. with stomach ulcers, ruptured eardrums, visual and hearing disorders or flat feet
- Men of higher fitness who worked locally in the war and arms industry
The Steagles ended up having 25 players in their squad. All players were required to work full-time for the war and weapons industries in addition to their NFL work. Tackle Ted Doyle later learned that he was making parts for the atomic bomb . The Steagles' squad also contained various invalids: running back Jack Hinkle suffered from stomach ulcers, wide receiver Tony Bova was almost blind, center Ray Graves was deaf in one ear, and fullback John Butler had a bad knee.
NFL players battled the social stigma of being branded "slackers." Hall of Fame - End Bill Hewitt , who had already ended his career but dared to make a comeback due to the shortage of players, could no longer bear the ridicule, enlisted in the army and went to war. Another problem was coaching. Eagles trainer Greasy Neale and his Steelers counterpart Walt Kiesling had different tactical ideas: while Neale preferred the then new T-formation , Kiesling preferred the traditional single-wing formation (German: "one-wing formation"). After Neale and Kiesling fell out, it was agreed that Neale would coach the attack and Kiesling the defense of the Steagles. They involuntarily introduced today's modern division into an offense and a defense coordinator.
season
The Steagles won five of the ten season games, lost four matches and played one draw. In the East Division they finished third behind the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants (both six wins) and thus missed the play-offs. The Steagles achieved a slightly negative point ratio of 225 to 230. The Steagles' best player was Jack Hinkle, who gained 571 yards of space despite chronic stomach problems . Quarterback Roy Zimmermann threw nine touchdowns . From a commercial perspective, the steagles were a success. Although Steelers fans avoided Shibe Park at first, interest in Pittsburgh grew the more successful the new team was. 24,000 spectators flocked to Shibe Park per game, which was a new attendance record for both Steelers and Eagles.
aftermath
According to the NFL decision, the Steagles broke up after one season. 1944 was a relief for US professional sport when the army announced that it would no longer draft men over 26. While the Eagles continued as an independent team in 1944, the Steelers merged with the Chicago Cardinals to form the Chi-Pit Cardinals / Steelers , but they lost all of their ten season games.
In 2003, the Steagles were honored for the 60th anniversary at the Steelers' Heinz Field . Six of the nine survivors attended the celebration: quarterback Allie Sherman , cornerback Ernie Steele , center Ray Graves and Tackles Al Wistert , Vic Sears and Bucko Kilroy . End Tom Miller, Tackle Ted Doyle and running back Jack Hinkle could not take part.
The journalist Matt Algeo proposes in his book (see literature) the thesis that the Steagles saved the NFL. Without the merger, there probably would not have been a 1943 NFL season, which would have had unforeseeable consequences.
swell
- ^ A b Blood Brothers: The 1943 Steagles became an unlikely product of the war years , Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
- ↑ a b World War II Steagles to be honored at tonight's game ( Memento of the original from March 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Pittsburgh Live.
literature
- Last Team Standing: How the Steelers and the Eagles - “The Steagles” - Saved Pro Football During World War II , Matthew Algeo, Da Capo Press, 2006, ISBN 0931250358