Philadelphia Eagles

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Philadelphia Eagles
Established 1933
Play in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Eagles logo
Philadelphia Eagles logo
Logo
League/conference affiliations
National Football League ([[{{{NFL_start_yr}}} NFL season|{{{NFL_start_yr}}}]]–present)
Uniforms
Team colorsMidnight Green, Silver, Black, and White
Personnel
Head coachAndy Reid
Team history
  • Philadelphia Eagles ({{{hist_yr}}}–present)
Championships
League championships (0)
3: 1948 (NFL), 1949 (NFL), 1960 (NFL)
Conference championships (0)
Division championships (0)
Home fields
{{{stadium_years}}}

The Philadelphia Eagles are a National Football League team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The team was founded in 1933 by co-owners Bert Bell and Lud Wray.

Home field: Lincoln Financial Field (2003-Present),
Previous home fields:
Baker Bowl (1933-1935)
Municipal (later renamed John F. Kennedy Stadium) (1936-1939)
Connie Mack Stadium (previously Shibe Park) (1940-1957)
Franklin Field (1958-1970)
Veterans Stadium (1971-2002)
Team colors: Midnight Green, Silver, Black, and White.
Helmet design: White wings on a green helmet.
NFC East division championships won: 1980, 1988, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
Conference championships won: 1980, 2004
League championships won: 1948, 1949, 1960
Super Bowl appearances (2): XV (lost), XXXIX (lost)
Mascot: Swoop.

Franchise history

Humble Beginnings (1933-1939)

In 1931, Philadelphia's representative in the National Football League, the Frankford Yellow Jackets, went bankrupt and ceased operations midway through the season. After more than a year searching for a suitable replacement, the NFL awarded its dormant Philadelphia franchise to a syndicate headed by local businessmen Bert Bell and Lud Wray, in exchange for an entry fee of $2,500. Drawing their inspiration for their name 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: some observers, however, believe the two teams should be treated as one.) The new team played its first game on November 12, 1933, against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in Chicago. The game ended in a 3-3 tie. The Eagles struggled over the course of their first decade, enduring repeated losing seasons.

In 1935, Bell, by that point the team General Manager, proposed an annual college draft to equalize talent across the league. The draft was a revolutionary concept in professional sports that strove to increase fan interest by guaranteeing that even the worst teams would have the opportunity for annual infusions of the best college talent. Being the worst team at the time, the Eagles were "honored" with the first pick, an opportunity they proceeded to squander by selecting the University of Chicago's Heisman Trophy winning back, Jay Berwanger. Berwanger, who had no interest in playing professional football, elected to go to medical school instead. The Eagles' first major recruiting success would come in 1939, with the signing of Texas Christian's all-America quarterback, Davey O'Brien. O'Brien proceeded to shatter numerous existing single-season NFL passing records in his rookie season. That year, the Eagles participated in the first televised football game ever, against the Brooklyn Dodgers, at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. As was to be expected of the 1930's Eagles, they lost the game, 23-14.

"On Wings of Eagles": the Golden Age (1940-1949)

The 1940's would prove a tumultuous and ultimately triumphant decade for the young club. In 1940, the team moved from Philadelphia Municipal Stadium to Shibe Park. Lud Wray's half-interest in the team was purchased by once and future Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney. In 1941, Bell and Rooney swapped franchises with Alexis Thompson, playboy owner of the Steelers, and Thompson promptly hired Greasy Neale as the team's head coach. In its first years under Neale, the team continued to struggle. In 1943, when manpower shortages stemming from World War II made it impossible to fill the roster, the team temporarily merged with the 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.) In 1944, however, the Eagles finally experienced good fortune, as they made their finest draft pick to date: running back Steve Van Buren. At last, the team's fortunes were about to change.

Led by future Hall of Famers Van Buren and Neale, the Eagles became a serious competitor for the first time. After three straight years of second-place finishes (in 1944, 1945 and 1946), the Eagles reached the NFL title game for the first time in 1947. Van Buren, end Pete Pihos and Bosh Pritchard fought valiantly, but the young team fell to the Chicago Cardinals, 28-21, at Chicago's Comiskey Park. Undeterred, the young squad rebounded and returned to face the Cardinals once more in the 1948 championship. With home-field advantage (and a blinding snowstorm) on their side, the Eagles won their first NFL Championship, 7-0. Ironically, due to the severity of the weather, few fans were on hand to witness the joyous occasion. That would not be the case the following season, however, when the Eagles returned to the NFL championship game for the third consecutive year and won in dominating fashion in front of a large crowd in Los Angeles, beating the Los Angeles Rams, 14-0.

1949 also saw the sale of the team by Thompson to a syndicate of 100 buyers, each of whom paid a fee of $3,000 for their share of the team. While the leader of the "Happy Hundred" was noted Philadelphia businessman James P. Clark, one unsung investor was Leonard Tose, a name that would eventually become very familiar to Eagles fans. The new regime's first draft pick was Chuck Bednarik, an All-American lineman/linebacker from the University of Pennsylvania. Bednarik would go on to become one of the greatest and most beloved players in Eagles history. An eventual Hall of Famer and the last of the great two-way players, Bednarik may have been the toughest man in football history.

Good, Not Great (1950-1959)

With the turn of the decade came another turn in team fortunes. After a whipping by the AAFC champion Cleveland Browns, who had just (with the other AAFC franchises) joined the NFL, the Eagles stumbled in the standings. 1950 proved Gready Neale's last as head coach, and in 1951, Neale was replaced by Alvin "Bo" McMillan. McMillan, in turn, would get seriously ill the night before the season opener, and was replaced by Wayne Millner, who would last for all of one year before being replaced by Jim Trimble. While the remnants of the great 1940's teams managed to stay competitive for the first few years of the decade, and while younger players like Bobby Walston and Sonny Jurgensen occasionally provided infusions of talent, the team lacked the stuff of true greatness for most of the 1950s. In 1958, however, the franchise took key steps to improve, hiring Buck Shaw as Head Coach and acquiring future Hall of Famer Norm Van Brocklin in a trade with the Los Angeles Rams. That year also saw the team move from Connie Mack Stadium (formerly Shibe Park) to Franklin Field, and attendance doubled. The 1959 squad showed real flashes of talent, and finished in second place in the Eastern Division.

The Ecstasy and the Agony (1960-1969)

1960 remains the most storied year in Eagle history. Shaw, Van Brocklin and Bednarik (each in his last season before retirement) led the team to its first division title since 1949. On December 26, 1960, one of the coldest days in recorded Philadelphia history, the Eagles faced Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers in the NFL title game and dealt the mighty Lombardi the sole championship game loss of his storied career. Bednarik was the last NFL player to play an entire game without leaving the field in that game, lining up at center on offense and at linebacker on defense. Fittingly, the game ended as Bednarik tackled a struggling Packer and refused to allow him to stand until the last seconds had ticked away.

Flush with excitement from the 17-13 victory, with the talented Jurgensen poised to take the reigns of the offense, the future looked promising indeed.

That promise, however, proved illusory.

In 1961, the Eagles finished just a half-game behind the New York Giants for first place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 10-4 record. Despite the on-the-field success, however, the franchise was in turmoil. Van Brocklin had come to Philadelphia and agreed to play through 1960 with the tacit understanding that, upon his retirement as a player, he would assume the mantle of Head Coach. Ownership, however, opted to hire Nick Skorich upon Buck Shaw’s retirement, and Van Brocklin quit the organization in a fit of pique. In 1962, the bottom dropped out as the team was decimated by injury and managed only three wins. The off-field chaos would continue through 1963, as the remaining 65 shareholders out of the original Happy Hundred sold the team to Jerry Wolman, a 36 year-old Washingtonian who outbid local bidders for the team, paying a then-unprecedented $5,505,000 for control of the club. In 1964, Wolman hired former Cardinals and Washington Redskins coach Joe Kuharich to a lifetime contract.

Kuharich would prove utterly unworthy of the honor, wasting top-tier talent such as Timmy Brown, Ollie Matson, Ben Hawkins and Jurgensen and effectively running the franchise into the ground. At Kuharich’s insistence, Jurgensen was traded to the Redskins for Norm Snead in 1964: Jurgensen would go on to a Hall of Fame career while Snead, although serviceable, lacked the talent to lift the team out of mediocrity. By 1968, fans were in full revolt. Chants of “Joe must go” echoed through the increasingly empty bleachers of Franklin Field. Adding insult to injury, the Eagles managed to eke out a meaningless win in the last game of the season, costing the franchise the first pick in the draft, and with it the opportunity to add O.J. Simpson to the roster. (With the second pick, the Eagles chose Leroy Keyes, who broke his leg as a rookie and never played again.) This game helped cement the rowdy reputation of Philadelphia fans when they booed a depiction of Santa Claus. By 1969, Wolman, a former millionaire, was bankrupt and the franchise under the administration of a federal bankruptcy court. At the end of the bankruptcy proceedings, the Eagles were sold to Leonard Tose, the self-made trucking millionaire and original member of the Happy Hundred. Tose's first official act was to fire Kuharich.

With an earned reputation as a fast-living high-flier, Tose infused the organization with some much-needed panache. Initially, however, he ran the team with more enthusiasm than ability, as was exemplified by his choice to replace Kuharich, the hapless Jerry Williams. Tose also selected former Eagles great Pete Retzlaff as General Manager.

From Hapless to Hopeful (1970-1979)

In 1971, the Eagles moved from Franklin Field to brand-new Veterans Stadium. In its first season, the “Vet” was widely acclaimed as a triumph of ultra-modern sports engineering, a consensus that would be short-lived. Equally short-lived was Williams’ tenure as head coach: after a 3-10-1 record in 1970 and three consecutive blow-out losses to open the 1971 season, Williams was fired and replaced by assistant coach Ed Khayat. Khayat proved little better, and was released after another dismal season in 1972. Khayat was replaced by offensive guru Mike McCormick, who, aided by the skills of Roman Gabriel and towering young receiver Harold Carmichael, 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. Overall, however, the team was still mired in mediocrity. McCormick was fired after a 4-10 1975 season, and replaced by a college coach unknown to most Philadelphians. That coach would become one of the most beloved names in Philadelphia sports history: Dick Vermeil.

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 result – a 4-10 record – as in 1975. 1977, however, saw the first seeds of hope begin to sprout. Rifle-armed quarterback Ron Jaworski was obtained by trade with the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for popular tight end Charlie Young. The defense, led by Bergey and defensive coordinator Marion Campbell, began earning a reputation as one of the hardest hitting in the league. By the next year, the Eagles had fully taken Vermeil’s enthusiastic attitude, and made the playoffs for the first time since 1960. Young running back Wilbert Montgomery became the first Eagle since Steve Van Buren to exceed 1,000 yards in a single season. (1978 also bore witness to one of the greatest, and unquestionably most surreal moment in Eagles history: the Miracle of the Meadowlands.) By 1979, in which the Eagles tied for first place with an 11-5 record and Wilbert Montgomery shattered club rushing records with a total of 1,512 yards, the Eagles were poised to join the NFL elite.

A Bowl, A Burnout, and Buddyball (1980-1990)

In 1980, the team, led by coach Dick Vermeil, quarterback Ron Jaworski, running back Wilbert Montgomery, wide receiver Harold Carmichael, and linebacker Bill Bergey, dominated the NFC, facing its chief nemesis, the Dallas Cowboys, in the NFC Championship. The game was played in cold conditions in front of the Birds' faithful fans at Veterans Stadium. Led by an incredible rushing performance from Wilbert Montgomery, whose long cutback TD run in the first half is surely one of the most memorable plays in Eagles history, and a gutsy performance from fullback Leroy Harris, who scored the Eagles' only other TD that day, the Birds earned a berth in Super Bowl XV with a 20-7 victory.

The Eagles traveled to New Orleans for Super Bowl XV and were heavy favorites to knock off the upstart Oakland Raiders, the first wild card team to ever reach the Super Bowl. Things did not go the Eagles' way that day as the team lost 27-10 to the Raiders. A turning point of the game, and probably one of the most bitter memories for Eagles' fans, came when Raiders linebacker Rod Martin intercepted a Ron Jaworski pass and returned it for a touchdown. Veteran and journeyman Jim Plunkett was named the game's MVP. In a bizarre coincidence, Joe Kuharich died on the same day.

The Eagles got off to a great start in the 1981 season, winning their first six games. They eventually ended up 10-6 and were earned a Wild Card Berth. However, they were unable to repeat as NFC Champs when they got knocked out in the Wild Card Round by the New York Giants, 27-21. A period of decline set in after this, which ended in 1988 when the Eagles made the first of three straight playoff appearances under coach Buddy Ryan. The team did not win a postseason game in any of those years. This era may have been the most disappointing to Eagles fans, as the team certainly had the players necessary to win a Super Bowl. The Eagles were led on offense by quarterback Randall Cunningham, one of the most exciting players of his generation who later went on to be the league MVP while playing with the Minnesota Vikings near the end of his career, tight end Keith Jackson, and running back Keith Byars. But the defense is what defined this team. In 1991, the Eagles became the first NFL team since 1975 to rank first in the league in both rushing and passing yardage allowed (but neglected to reach the playoffs despite a 10-6 record). Some of the great defensive players on these teams were Reggie White, Jerome Brown, Clyde Simmons, Seth Joyner, Wes Hopkins, and Andre Waters. Perhaps most reflective of this era was a playoff loss to the Chicago Bears in the infamous "Fog Bowl" at Soldier Field in Chicago. The Eagles were poised that season to make a run toward the Super Bowl, but in a turn of bad luck, a thick fog clouded Soldier Field that day, keeping the Eagles from playing their usual style and leading to a devastating loss.

Kotite and Rhodes: Reigns of Error (1991-1998)

With Ryan's firing by "the Man in France," Ryan's former Offensive Coordinator, Rich Kotite, took the helm of the franchise. Kotite would lead the Eagles to a 10-6 record in 1991 but, due to a particularly strong NFC, missed the playoffs (the team's cause was not helped by the season-ending injury incurred by Cunningham in the season's first game). In 1992, Kotite led Eagles back into the post-season with an 11-5 record. In the Wild Card Round, the Eagles soundly beat the New Orleans Saints by a final score of 36-20. The Eagles were eliminated by Dallas in the next round (34-10). At the end of the season, DE Reggie White would leave the team through free agency. In 1993 and 1994, Kotite's Eagles would fall apart after initially promising starts, and missed the playoffs in each season. New owner Jeffrey Lurie proceeded to fire Kotite, who was almost immediately hired to coach the New York Jets, where he was by most accounts a miserable failure.

Lurie's choice to replace Kotite was San Francisco 49ers Defensive Coordinator Ray Rhodes, who successfully lobbied 49ers star Ricky Watters to join the team as a free agent. In 1995, Rhodes' first season, the Eagles got off to a slow start by losing 3 out their first 4 games: they subsequently rebounded, finishing with a 10-6 record and a playoff spot. In the Wild Card Round, the Eagles played at home and pounded the living daylights of the Detroit Lions 58-37, with 31 of Philadelphia's points coming in the second quarter alone. Despite this dominating performance, yet again, the Eagles were eliminated in the next round by Dallas Cowboys (31-10). 1995 was perhaps most notable in that it signaled the end of Randall Cunningham's tenure as starting quarterback. Irritated by erratic behavior on and off the field, Rhodes benched Cunningham in favor of the quotidian but manageable Rodney Peete.

In 1996, the Eagles got off to a good start, winning 3 out of their first 4 games. However, a week 5 Monday Night Showdown at Veterans Stadium against the detested Cowboys would witness season-ending knee injury to Peete and the end of the team's momentum, and the transition to an offense led by Ty Detmer and Watters. While Watters would have a wonderful season, running for 1,411 yards, the season followed an all-too familiar pattern: 10-6 record, and early elimination (by the 49ers) in the playoffs (14-0). In 1997 and 1998, Rhodes deteriorated under the stress of the job, and the team spiraled to the bottom of the standings. Left with little choice after a 3-13 campaign, fan revolt and sagging team morale, Lurie fired Rhodes.

The Reid Era (1999-present)

Resurgence would come under the leadership of head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Donovan McNabb, the first player Reid ever drafted. A virtual unknown as of his selection as head coach, Reid's appointment was met with considerable skepticism in Philadelphia. The choice proved wise, however: with Reid leading the way and McNabb emerging as one of the game's great players, the Eagles won their first Eastern Division title since 1988 in 2001, a title that they have yet to relinquish. That year, the team also reached the first of (to date) four consecutive NFC title games.

The 2003 team lost its first two games, both at home and away; but then proceeded to become the first team ever to make the playoffs after doing this in a non-strike year. In their opening game of the 2003 season the Eagles were shut out 17-0 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first regular-season game ever played at Lincoln Financial Field; by reaching the conference championship game in the same year as this defeat, they became the first team in modern history to get that far in the postseason after having been shut out at home in its first game. They achieved both of the above despite getting only five touchdown catches all year from their wide receivers, which tied the league low since the regular-season schedule was lengthened to its present 16 games in 1978 (this record would be broken in 2004 when the New York Giants' wide receivers caught only two touchdown passes). The Eagle receivers even went through both September and October without a TD catch — the last time an NFL team had done that was in 1945.

No doubt with the latter two facts in mind, the Eagles actively pursued — and ultimately got to trade for — premier wide receiver Terrell Owens, whom the team acquired in a controversial three-way deal involving themselves, the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers, on March 16, 2004.

The 2004 season began with a bang as Owens caught three touchdown passes from McNabb in their season opener against the New York Giants. Owens would end up with exactly 1,200 receiving yards and 14 touchdown receptions, although his season ended prematurely with an ankle injury on December 19,2004 against the Dallas Cowboys. Their 12-7 victory in this game gave them homefield advantage throughout the playoffs (exclusive of the Super Bowl) for the third year in a row, the team having previously clinched their fourth straight NFC East division title, their fifth consecutive postseason appearance, and a first-round bye in the playoffs. Their final two regular-season games thus rendered meaningless, the Eagles sat out most of their first-string players in these games and lost them both, yet still finished with a 13-3 record, their best 16-game season ever. McNabb had his finest season to date, passing for 3,875 yards and 31 touchdowns, throwing only eight interceptions. This made him the first quarterback in NFL history to throw 30 or more TD passes and fewer than 10 interceptions in a given season.

By this point, the Eagles' futility in Conference Championship games had become notorious. In 2001, the Eagles had fallen in the NFC Championship Game against the Rams in St. Louis, 29-24. In 2002, the Eagles hosted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Veterans Stadium and were widely viewed as the overwhelming favorites - this view no doubt accentuated by the expected emotional boost that many anticipated would power the team, given that the game was to be the last at "the Vet." After a promising start, however, the game slipped away, and the ensuing 27-10 loss devastated a fan base that had already become too accustomed to disappointment. In 2003, a banged-up Eagles squad managed to overcome numerous injuries, particularly to its defense, to reach the NFC Championship once more, only to lose to the visiting Carolina Panthers at Lincoln Financial Field by a score of 14-3. The indignity of the second consecutive home upset in an NFC Championship game was compounded by the subsequent revelation that numerous members of the Panthers squad had been, or were strongly suspected of having been, illegal steroid abusers.

On January 23, 2005, the Eagles reached an unprecedented (in the salary cap era of the NFL) fourth consecutive conference championship game. At long last, the Eagles justified the hopes of their long-suffering fan base, defeating Michael Vick's much-hyped Atlanta Falcons, 27-10. The victory sent the city of Philadelphia into wild celebrations. Alas, as has often been the case in Philadelphia sports, this ecstasy was short-lived. Two weeks later, the Eagles were defeated by the New England Patriots, 24-21, in Super Bowl XXXIX. Despite the defeat on football's biggest stage, however, the Eagles appear poised to strongly compete for a Lombardi Trophy for years to come.

Fan Behavior

Philadelphia fans are renowned as among the most passionate and devoted in all of professional sports. Their devotion to the Eagles is reflected by team ticket sales: games are invariably sold-out and the waiting list for season tickets is reputedly well over 70,000 names long.

Eagles fans are usually well behaved, good-humored and law-abiding but poor judgment and alcohol have occasionally led some to transgress the boundaries of civilized behavior. Most such behavior is familiar to anyone who has attended professional sporting events virtually anywhere in the world, but Eagles fans have had the misfortune to misbehave in numerous high profile moments, many on national television. As such, Eagles fans have a reputation in many quarters as being unduly rowdy, or even dangerous. This reputation is exaggerated, but some instances of fan misconduct stand out for their sheer outlandishness, and (due to the fanatical devotion of the Eagles fan base) the atmosphere at Eagles home games bears greater similarity to the intense atmosphere at European soccer stadiums than it does the typical American sporting event.

The most (in)famous example of fan impropriety at Eagles games is the so-called "Santa Claus Incident," in which a few angry fans, furious at the conclusion of yet another wasted season under Joe Kuharick, booed and threw snowballs at a man dressed as Santa Claus during a December 1968 halftime show. The legend, however, is a bit overstated and has been exaggerated with time. The original Santa had been drunk and unable to perform, leading the club to draft skinny 20 year-old Frank Olivo from the stands as an ad hoc replacement. As Olivo recounts, a handful of fans threw snowballs at him after he reached the end zone, shouting that he made a poor Santa. Olivo, in turn, laughed the snowballs off and pointed to the few culprits, instructing them that they'd have empty stockings that Christmas. This, as might have been expected, led to more snowballs. Subsequently, Howard Cosell exaggerated the tale in an attempt to illustrate the general depravity of Eagles supporters, and a legend was born.

Cosell's grandstanding aside, exaggeration is unnecessary, there being many real examples that serve to support such an argument. Recent examples include:

  • A 1997 Monday Night Football game against the San Francisco 49ers in which, infuriated by a series of controversial calls by the officials and poor play by the Eagles, fans engaged in a number of highly visible, large-scale brawls on national television. In the last quarter, one particularly aggrieved fan fired a flare gun at the 49ers sideline. Fans entering home Eagles games have been subject to pat-down searches at entry by stadium security ever since.
  • A contingent of Eagles fans traveled to the 1999 NFL Draft in New York for the sole purpose of jeering the selection of Donovan McNabb. Local radio hosts had recruited the boorishly behaving crew to protest the selection of McNabb over Ricky Williams. McNabb stayed composed during the incident, and the thirty or so fans who booed him were subsequently derided as the "Dirty Thirty," while the radio hosts in question were widely criticized for their roles as instigators. McNabb has since become one of Philadelphia's most beloved sports icons.
  • During a 1999 game against the hated Dallas Cowboys, Cowboys wide receiver (and bete noire of Eagle fans) Michael Irvin was knocked unconscious by a hit from Eagles safety Tim Hauck. As Irvin lay prostrate and immobile on the turf, Eagles fans cheered the injury. Making matters worse, Irvin's teammate Deion Sanders attempted to placate the crowd by gesticulating and dancing, leading most of the crowd (unaware of the severity of Irvin's injury) to jeer what they perceived as typical grandstanding by the notoriously egomaniacal Sanders. When a trainers' cart was sent on the field to carry Irvin off the field, the roar of the fans increased. Irvin was ultimately diagnosed with a broken neck, and the injury ended his career.

Sporadic acts of violence by Eagles fans against fans of visiting teams, combined with ongoing difficulties relating to public drunkenness, prompted Philadelphia municipal judge Seamus McCaffrey and the Philadelphia Police Department to establish a small, in-stadium courtroom at the Vet in 1997. Additionally, plainclothes officers, dressed in the colors of the visiting team, were dispatched to sit in sections known as being dangerous to opposing fans, most such sections being located in the Vet's notorious 700 Level at the top of the stadium. The success of the program was widely noted and has continued to the present day (Lincoln Financial Field includes a built-in prison facility and courtroom for such purposes). Overzealous Eagle fans caught by such sting operations are arrested, charged and taken to the courtroom, where McCaffrey usually sits in judgment. Such efforts have made the inside of the stadium much safer for opposing fans than was previously the case, but the stadium parking lots (and subways to the games) are still notoriously anarchic places. Such behavior aside, the majority of fans are well-behaved, if vocal.

Traditionally, the club has enjoyed large numbers of traveling supporters that join the team on road trips: in recent years, contingents of Eagles fans have overwhelmed their hosts in cities as far away as Miami and Dallas. At its essence, support for the team is an expression of civic pride by the greater Philadelphia community.

Fight Song

File:PhiladelphiaEaglesOld1.png
Eagles logo (1973-1995)

Eagles fans will sing the team fight song with little to no provocation, but always sing it following an Eagles touchdown. The lyrics are as follows:

Fly, Eagles Fly, on the road to victory!

(FIGHT!!, FIGHT!!, FIGHT!!)

Fly, Eagles Fly, score a touchdown one-two-three!

(HIT!!, HIT!!)

Hit'em low, hit'em high, and watch our Eagles fly!

Fly, Eagles Fly, on the road to victory!

E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!

The fight song was reputedly the creation of former owner Jerry Wolman's daughter, who, impressed by the "war chant" of the rival Washington Redskins, implored her father to play an Eagle equivalent during Eagles games. With the eventual sale of the team and move to Veterans Stadium, the fight song was largely forgotten, although a few die-hards could be heard singing the lyrics on special occasions. That it was ultimately brought back to such popular acclaim is testament to the vision of Jeffrey Lurie, whose regime reinstated the practice of playing the song over stadium loudspeakers (with a modern addition of projecting the lyrics on the scoreboard) after Eagle touchdowns. The song is now ubiquitous wherever Eagle fans are found. The song has been heard at Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Flyers, and Philadelphia 76ers games, and even at the Philadelphia Live 8 concert prior to the show.

Interestingly, the Lurie revival was accompanied by a slight adjustment of the lyrics. Originally, the second line of the song was:

"Fight, Green and White, score a touchdown, one-two-three!"

With Lurie's modernization of team uniforms, however, and the new emphasis on Black and Silver, the mention of the traditional colors was omitted. Few noticed.

Broadcasters

Merrill Reese has been the radio voice of the Eagles since 1977. His smooth, occasionally stentorian baritone is instantly recognizable as the voice behind numerous NFL Films productions and television commercials. Reese is currently complemented by the color commentary of former Eagle wide receiver Mike Quick, perhaps best noted for his unique turns of phrase (e.g., "McNABB-ulous!"). Before Quick, Reese's sidekick was Stan Walters, one of the best offensive lineman in Eagles history.

Players of note

File:PhiladelphiaEaglesOld2.png
Eagles logo (1973-1995)

Pro Football Hall of Famers

Current players

Retired numbers

Not to be forgotten

Coaches (since 1958)

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