The 1947 NFL Championship Game was the 15th annual

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) championship game, held December 28 at

Comiskey Park Comiskey Park was a baseball park in Chicago, Illinois, located in the Armour Square neighborhood on the near-southwest side of the city. The stadium served as the home of the Chicago White Sox of the American League from 1910 through 1990. Buil ...

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. The attendance was 30,759, well The game featured the Western Division champion

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ca ...

and the Eastern Division champion

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

A week earlier, the Eagles defeated the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

in a tiebreaker playoff to determine the Eastern winner. Both the Eagles and Cardinals were making their first appearances in the championship game. The Cardinals had won the regular season meeting in Philadelphia three weeks earlier by 24 points and after a week off, were 12-point favorites to win the title game This was the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

NFL title game played after Christmas Day, and the latest to date. Scheduled for December 21, it was pushed back due to the Eastern division playoff. The temperature at kickoff The Cardinals built a 14–0 lead in the second quarter, then the teams traded touchdowns. The Eagles closed the gap to 28–21 with five minutes to go, but the Cardinals controlled the ball the rest of the game on an extended drive to win the title. This was the only NFL title game played at Comiskey Park and remains as the Cardinals' only win. The two teams returned for a rematch in 1948 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, but the

Eagles Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

won in a snowstorm. The Cardinals have not won a league championship since this one, over seven decades ago, the longest drought in the NFL. They made it to

Super Bowl XLIII Super Bowl XLIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champions Pittsburgh Steelers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champions Arizona Cardinals to decide the National Football League (NFL) champ ...

in the

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season representing

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, but lost to the

. The Cardinals' win kept the NFL title within the city of Chicago; the north end's

Bears Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

had won the previous season. This was the Cardinals' last playoff win as a franchise until January

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

; at 51 years and five days, it was the longest post-season win drought in NFL history, and still holds the current record for the longest title drought in North American sports. They relocated to

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

as the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

1960 It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism. Events January * Ja ...

and Arizona as the

Phoenix Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play th ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

(changing their name to Arizona Cardinals in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

Scoring summary

''Sunday, December 28, 1947''
Kickoff: 1:05 p.m. CST *First quarter **CHI –

Charley Trippi Charles Louis Trippi (December 14, 1921 – October 19, 2022) was an American professional football player for the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) from 1947 to 1955. Although primarily a running back, his versatility al ...

44 run (

Pat Harder Marlin Martin “Pat” Harder (May 6, 1922 – September 6, 1992) was an American football player, playing fullback (American football), fullback and Kicker (american football), kicker. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in ...

kick), 7–0 CHI *Second quarter **CHI –

Elmer Angsman Elmer Joseph Angsman Jr. (December 11, 1925 – April 11, 2002) was an American football halfback in the National Football League (NFL). Early life and career Angsman was born on the south side of Chicago in 1925, the son of Elmer and Helen ...

70 run (Harder kick), 14–0 CHI **PHI – McHugh 53 pass from

Tommy Thompson Tommy George Thompson (born November 19, 1941) is an American Republican politician who most recently served as interim president of the University of Wisconsin System from 2020 to 2022. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served ...

(

Cliff Patton John Clifton "Cliff" Patton (July 29, 1923 – November 9, 2002) was a professional American football player who played guard for six seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now ...

kick), 14–7 CHI *Third quarter **CHI – Trippi 75 punt return (Harder kick), 21–7 CHI **PHI –

Steve Van Buren Stephen Wood Van Buren (December 28, 1920 − August 23, 2012) was a Honduran–American professional football player who was a halfback for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL) from 1944 to 1951. Regarded as a powerf ...

1 run (Patton kick), 21–14 CHI *Fourth quarter **CHI – Angsman 70 run (Harder kick), 28–14 CHI **PHI – Russ Craft 1 run (Patton kick), 28–21 CHI

Officials

*Referee: Thomas Dowd *Umpire: Harry Robb *Head Linesman: Dan Tehan *Back Judge: Carl Rebele *Field Judge: Henry Haines *Alternate: Carl Brubaker The NFL added a fifth

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...

, the back judge, this season; the line judge arrived in , and the side judge in .

Players' shares

Each player on the Cardinals received $1,132, while the losing Eagles got $754.

References

{{NFLC-SuperBowl Champ 1947 NFL Championship Game Chicago Cardinals postseason Philadelphia Eagles postseason December 1947 sports events in the United States 1940s in Chicago Sports competitions in Chicago American football in Chicago