The professional
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
team now known as the
Arizona Cardinals previously played in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...
, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to
St. Louis, Missouri
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 ...
, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons.
Roots can be traced to 1898, when
Chris O'Brien established an amateur
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
-based athletic team, the Morgan Athletic Club. O'Brien later moved them to Chicago's
Normal Park
Normal Park is the name of a former football and baseball field in Chicago, Illinois, during approximately 1914 through 1951. It was most notably the home field of the Chicago Cardinals before they moved to Comiskey Park.
The field was on a bloc ...
and renamed them the Racine Normals, then adopting the maroon color from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
uniforms.
In the 1920s the Cardinals became part of a professional circuit in Chicago. The Cardinals, along with the
Chicago Bears, were founding members of the
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 ...
in 1920. Both teams are the only two surviving teams from that era. The Bears and the Cardinals also developed a
rivalry
A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...
during those NFL first years.
After some irregular campaigns during the 1950s, the Cardinals were largely overshadowed by the
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 ...
in Chicago and almost fell into bankruptcy. After some efforts to buy the Cardinals, a group of investors including
Lamar Hunt
Lamar Hunt (August 2, 1932 – December 13, 2006) was an American businessman most notable for his promotion of American football, soccer, and tennis in the United States.
He was the principal founder of the American Football League (AFL) and ...
,
Bud Adams
Kenneth Stanley "Bud" Adams, Jr. (January 3, 1923 – October 21, 2013) was an American businessman who was the founder and owner of the Tennessee Titans, a National Football League franchise. A member of the Cherokee Nation who originally mad ...
,
Bob Howsam
Robert Lee Howsam (February 28, 1918 – February 19, 2008) was an American professional sports executive and entrepreneur. In 1959, he played a key role in establishing two leagues—the American Football League, which succeeded and merged with ...
and
Max Winter
Max Winter (June 29, 1903 – July 26, 1996) was a Minneapolis businessman and sport executive who helped found the Minnesota Vikings.
Biography
Winter was born in Ostrava, Austria-Hungary (modern day Czechia). He emigrated with his family an ...
, joined forces to form the
American Football League to compete with
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 ...
. The Cardinals would later move to
St. Louis, Missouri
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 ...
, beginning with the
1960 season.
Early history
![Morgan athletic club team](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Morgan_athletic_club_team.jpg)
In 1898, Chicago painting and building contractor
Chris O'Brien established an amateur
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
-based athletic club football team named the "Morgan Athletic Club". O'Brien later moved them to Chicago's
Normal Park
Normal Park is the name of a former football and baseball field in Chicago, Illinois, during approximately 1914 through 1951. It was most notably the home field of the Chicago Cardinals before they moved to Comiskey Park.
The field was on a bloc ...
and renamed them the "Racine Normals", since Normal Park was located on Racine Avenue in Chicago. In 1901, O'Brien bought used
maroon uniforms from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
, the colors of which had by then faded, leading O'Brien to exclaim, "That's not maroon; it's cardinal red!" It was then that the team changed its name to the "Racine Street Cardinals".
The original Racine Street Cardinals team disbanded in 1906 mostly for lack of local competition. A professional team under the same name formed in 1913, claiming the previous team as part of their history. As was the case for most professional football teams in 1918, the team was forced to suspend operations for a second time due to
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and the outbreak of the
Spanish flu pandemic
The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...
. It resumed operations later in the year (one of the few teams to play that year), and has since operated continuously.
1920s
At the time of the founding of the modern National Football League, the Cardinals were part of a thriving professional football circuit based in the Chicago area. Teams such as the
Decatur Staleys Decatur may refer to a number of places, streets, military establishments, schools, and others mostly named after Stephen Decatur:
Places in the United States
* Decatur, Alabama, county seat of Morgan County
** Decatur metropolitan area, Alaba ...
,
Hammond Pros
The Hammond Pros from Hammond, Indiana played in the National Football League from 1920 to 1926 as a traveling team.
History
The Pros were established by local businessman Paul Parduhn and Dr. Alva Young. Young, a boxing promoter and owner o ...
,
Chicago Tigers
The Chicago Tigers of the American Professional Football Association (APFA) played their first and only season in 1920, the first year of the league (1920), and have the distinction of being the first NFL team to fold. They had a record of 2 wi ...
and the Cardinals had formed an informal loop similar to, and generally on par with, the
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
and
New York circuits that had also emerged as top football centers prior to the league's founding.
![Chicago Cardinals 1920](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Chicago_Cardinals_1920.jpeg)
In
1920, the team became a charter member of the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the
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) in
1922
Events
January
* January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.
* January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...
), for a franchise fee of
$100. The Cardinals and the
Chicago Bears (the latter founded as the Decatur Staleys before moving to Chicago in 1921 and being renamed the Chicago Staleys, then in 1922 being renamed the Chicago Bears) are the only charter members of the NFL still in existence, though the
Green Bay Packers, which joined the league in 1921, existed prior to the formation of the NFL. The person keeping the minutes of the first league meeting, unfamiliar with the nuances of Chicago football, recorded the Cardinals as from
Racine, Wisconsin. The team was renamed the "Chicago Cardinals" in 1922 after a team actually from Racine, Wisconsin (the
Horlick-Racine Legion) entered the league. That season the team moved to
Comiskey Park.
The
Staleys and
Cardinals
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
played each other twice in 1920
[Pro Football Reference, Cardinals index]
/ref> as the Racine Cardinals and the Decatur Staleys, making their rivalry the oldest in the NFL. They split the series, with the home team winning in each. In the Cardinals' 7–6 victory over the Staleys in their first meeting of the season, each team scored a touchdown on a fumble recovery, with the Staleys failing their extra point
The conversion, try (American football, also known as a point(s) after touchdown, PAT, or (depending on the number of points) extra point/2-point conversion), or convert (Canadian football) occurs immediately after a touchdown during which the sc ...
try.
The Cardinals' defeat of the Staleys proved critical, since George Halas's Staleys went on to a 10–1–2 record overall, 5–1–2 in league play. The Akron Pros were the first ever league champions; they finished with an 8–0–3 record, 6–0–3 in league play, ending their season in a scoreless tie against the Staleys. Since the Pros merely had to tie the game in order to win the title, they could afford to play not to lose. Had the Staleys not lost to the Cardinals, they would have gone into that fateful game with an 11–0–2 record, 6–0–2 in league play. As it was, it all but assured that the Staleys/Bears and Cardinals would be intense rivals.
The two teams played to a tie in 1921, when the Staleys won all but two games, thus the Cardinals
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
came within 1 point of costing the Staleys a second consecutive championship in the league's first two years of existence.
In 1922
Events
January
* January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.
* January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...
, the Staleys, now renamed the 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 ...
, went 9–3–0,[Pro Football Reference, Bears index]
/ref> losing to the Cardinals twice. The Bears still edged the Cardinals
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
for second place in the league, but those losses dashed all hopes of the Bears repeating as champions.
In 1923
Events
January–February
* January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory).
* January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...
and 1924
Events
January
* January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after.
* January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China holds ...
, the Bears got the better of the Cardinals all three times the two teams played. But in 1925
Events January
* January 1
** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria.
* January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Itali ...
, the 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 ...
went 0–1–1 against the Cardinals
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
with the tie meaning the Cardinals were only a game in front of the Pottsville Maroons
The Pottsville Maroons were an American football team based in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in the northeastern part of the state. Founded in 1920, they played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1925 to 1928. In 1929 they relocated to Bosto ...
heading into their fateful 1925 showdown.
Thus, in the first 6 years of the NFL's existence, the Bears-Cardinals games had a direct impact on the league championship 4 times. The Bears and Cardinals each took home 1 title during that span. But the Bears nearly cost the Cardinals their title, the Cardinals nearly cost the Bears their title, and had it not been for the Cardinals' tenacity against the Bears, the Bears very well might have won two more. The Bears were a dominant team against everyone but the Cardinals in the league's early years. From 1920 to 1925, the Canton Bulldogs, champions in 1922 and 1923, beat the Bears just 2 times and no other team in the NFL defeated the Bears more than once over that entire 6-year span... except for the Cardinals. The Cardinals battled the Bears to 4–4–2 split between 1920 and 1925 and established the NFL's first rivalry.
Legend has it that the Cardinals played the Chicago Tigers
The Chicago Tigers of the American Professional Football Association (APFA) played their first and only season in 1920, the first year of the league (1920), and have the distinction of being the first NFL team to fold. They had a record of 2 wi ...
in 1920, with the loser being forced to leave town. While this has never been proven, the Tigers did disband after one season.
The 1925 season ended in perhaps the greatest controversy in professional football history. In those days, there was no fixed schedule nor any playoff games. The championship was decided by winning percentage. At season's end, after losing in a Chicago snow storm to the Pottsville Maroons
The Pottsville Maroons were an American football team based in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in the northeastern part of the state. Founded in 1920, they played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1925 to 1928. In 1929 they relocated to Bosto ...
21–7, the Cardinals found themselves in second place. Hoping to improve their record, they scheduled and won two hastily arranged games against weaker teams, the Milwaukee Badgers
The Milwaukee Badgers was a professional American football team, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that played in the National Football League from 1922 to 1926. The team played its home games at Athletic Park, later known as Borchert Field, on Mil ...
and the Hammond Pros
The Hammond Pros from Hammond, Indiana played in the National Football League from 1920 to 1926 as a traveling team.
History
The Pros were established by local businessman Paul Parduhn and Dr. Alva Young. Young, a boxing promoter and owner o ...
. The ploy was within the NFL's rules at the time because of the open-ended schedule. Chicago finished the season with a record of 11–2–1. However, the league sanctioned them because a Chicago player, Art Folz
Arthur F. Folz a.k.a. Art Foltz (March 31, 1903 – August 18, 1965) was a professional American football player who played with the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) from 1923 to 1925. He is best known for his role in the 1 ...
, had hired four Chicago high school football players to play for the Milwaukee Badgers under assumed names to ensure a Cardinals victory.
Meanwhile, because Pottsville had played an unauthorized exhibition game in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
against the University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...
All-Stars, the Maroons were stripped of the title. The League decided not to award a championship for 1925. Later, it was offered to the Cardinals, whose owner, Chris O'Brien, refused to accept the championship title for his team. He argued that his team did not deserve to take the title over a team which had beaten them fairly. It was only after the Bidwill family bought the Cardinals in 1933 that the franchise began to claim the 1925 title as its own. (''For more on the controversy, see 1925 NFL Championship controversy''.)
The Chicago Cardinals were one of the few NFL teams to host African-American players in the 1920s—most notably Duke Slater
Frederick Wayman "Duke" Slater (December 9, 1898 – August 14, 1966) was an American football player and judge. He was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951 and was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Centennial Class in ...
. After the folding of the first American Football League after its lone season, Slater, against all odds, successfully joined the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League.
Not only was Slater pro football's first African-American linemen, he was also one of the NFL's most outstanding linemen of his era. In 1928, he encouraged the team to sign Harold Bradley Sr.
Harold "Hal" Willard Bradley Sr. (September 27, 1905 – November 30, 1973) was an American football player for the Chicago Cardinals in 1928. Bradley was one of only 13 African-Americans to play in the National Football League prior to World Wa ...
, who became the NFL's second black lineman. Slater and Bradley played alongside each other in the first two games of the 1928 season. A steel plate in Bradley's leg, due to a childhood injury, contributed to Bradley ending his NFL career after only two games—the shortest among the 13 African American players who played in the NFL before World War II.
Between 1926 and 1927 a movement began among the owners of the NFL to follow the racist example of professional baseball and in 1927 every African-American player was out of the league, with the sole exception of Duke Slater.[Rozendaal, "Remembering Duke Slater," pg. 5] The color ban faced by Slater and other black players was not ironclad, however, and four other African-American players managed to draw salaries in the NFL during short careers interspersed from 1928 through 1933. Slater was once again the only black player in the league in 1929.
On November 28, 1929, Slater participated in an NFL record as a lineman in front of Ernie Nevers in a game in which he scored six rushing touchdowns in a 40–6 victory over the Chicago Bears. Slater played all 60 minutes of the contest, alternating between the offensive and defensive lines as well as participating on special teams.
By the time of his retirement in 1931, Slater had achieved All-Pro status a total of six times. During his NFL career Slater never missed a game because of injury, starting in a total of 96 of the 99 games he played between the AFL and NFL.[Rozendaal, "Remembering Duke Slater," pg. 6]
1930s
The Cardinals posted a winning record only twice in the 20 years after their 1925 championship (1931
Events
January
* January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.
* January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa.
* January 22 – Sir I ...
and 1935); including 10 straight losing seasons from 1936
Events
January–February
* January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...
to 1945
1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which Nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have been used in combat.
Events
Below, ...
.
Dr. David Jones bought the team from O'Brien in 1929
This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...
. In 1932
Events January
* January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
* January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort to assassinate Emperor Hiro ...
the team was purchased by Charles Bidwill
Charles W. Bidwill (September 16, 1895 – April 19, 1947), sometimes known as Charley Bidwill, was an owner of the National Football League's Chicago Cardinals. He owned the team for 14 seasons, from 1933 through 1946.
Early years
Bidwill was ...
, then a vice president of the Chicago Bears. The team has been under the ownership of the Bidwill family since then.
1940s
In 1944
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 2 – WWII:
** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...
, owing to player shortages caused by World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers merged for one year and were known as the "Card-Pitt
Card-Pitt was the team created by the temporary merger of two National Football League (NFL) teams, the Chicago Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers, during the 1944 season. It was the second such merger for the Steelers, who had combined with ...
", or derisively as the "Carpets" as they were winless that season. In 1945, the Cardinals snapped their long losing streak (an NFL record 29 games, dating back to the 1942 season and including their lone season as Card-Pitt) by beating the Bears 16–7. It was their only victory of the season. In 1946, the team finished 6–5 for the first winning season in eight years.
In 1947, the NFL standardized on a 12-game season. This would be the most celebrated year in Cardinals history as the team went 9–3, beating Philadelphia in the championship game 28–21 with their " Million Dollar Backfield", which included quarterback Paul Christman
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
* Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
, halfback 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 ...
, halfback 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 ...
, and fullback 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 ...
, piling up 282 rushing yards. However, Bidwill was not around to see it; he had died before the start of the season, leaving the team to his wife Violet
Violet may refer to:
Common meanings
* Violet (color), a spectral color with wavelengths shorter than blue
* One of a list of plants known as violet, particularly:
** ''Viola'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
Places United States
* Viol ...
. Prior to the season he had beaten the Chicago Rockets
The Chicago Rockets were an American football team that played in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) from 1946 to 1949. During the 1949 season, the team was known as the Chicago Hornets. Unlike the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, a ...
of the upstart All-America Football Conference for the rights to Trippi. This signing is generally acknowledged as the final piece in the championship puzzle. The next season saw the Cardinals finish 11–1 and again play in the championship game, but lost 7–0 in a rematch with 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, jus ...
, played in a heavy snowstorm that almost completely obscured the field. This was the first NFL championship to be televised. The next year, Violet Bidwill married St. Louis businessman Walter Wolfner, and the Cardinals fell to 6–5–1.
1950s
The 1950s were a dismal period for the Cardinals, with records of 5–7 (1950), 3–9 (1951), 4–8 (1952), 1–10–1 (1953), 2–10 (1954), 4–7–1 (1955), 7–5 (1956; the best year of the decade), 3–9 (1957), 2–9–1 (1958), and 2–10 (1959). With just 33 wins in ten seasons, the Cardinals were nearly forgotten in Chicago, being completely overshadowed by the Bears. Attendance at Cardinals games was sparse. With the team almost bankrupt, the Bidwills were anxious to move the Cardinals to another city. However, the NFL demanded a hefty relocation fee which the Bidwills were unwilling and/or unable to pay. Needing cash, the Bidwills entertained offers from various out-of-town investors, including Lamar Hunt
Lamar Hunt (August 2, 1932 – December 13, 2006) was an American businessman most notable for his promotion of American football, soccer, and tennis in the United States.
He was the principal founder of the American Football League (AFL) and ...
, Bud Adams
Kenneth Stanley "Bud" Adams, Jr. (January 3, 1923 – October 21, 2013) was an American businessman who was the founder and owner of the Tennessee Titans, a National Football League franchise. A member of the Cherokee Nation who originally mad ...
, Bob Howsam
Robert Lee Howsam (February 28, 1918 – February 19, 2008) was an American professional sports executive and entrepreneur. In 1959, he played a key role in establishing two leagues—the American Football League, which succeeded and merged with ...
and Max Winter
Max Winter (June 29, 1903 – July 26, 1996) was a Minneapolis businessman and sport executive who helped found the Minnesota Vikings.
Biography
Winter was born in Ostrava, Austria-Hungary (modern day Czechia). He emigrated with his family an ...
. However, these negotiations came to nothing, probably because the Bidwills wanted to maintain control of the Cardinals and were only willing to sell a minority stake in the team.
Having failed in their separate efforts to buy the Cardinals, Hunt, Adams, Howsam and Winter joined forces to form the American Football League. Suddenly faced with a serious rival, the NFL quickly came to terms with the Bidwills, engineering a deal that sent the Cardinals to St. Louis, Missouri
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 ...
, beginning with the 1960 season in a move which also blocked St. Louis as a potential market for the new AFL, which began play the same year. Despite the presence of a baseball team already named the St. Louis Cardinals, the football team kept its name upon relocation there, and would be referred to as " the football Cardinals" until it departed for 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 ...
following the 1987 season.
Notable players
Pro Football Hall of Famers
''italics'' = played a portion of career with the Cardinals and enshrined representing another team
Dierdorf, Smith, Wehrli and Wilson were members of the St. Louis Football Ring of Fame in The Dome at America's Center
The Dome at America's Center is a multi-purpose stadium used for concerts, major conventions, and sporting events in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Previously known as the Trans World Dome from 1995 to 2001 and the Edward Jones D ...
when the Rams
In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)Herbert Blumer
Herbert George Blumer (March 7, 1900 – April 13, 1987) was an American sociologist whose main scholarly interests were symbolic interactionism and methods of social research. Believing that individuals create social reality through collective ...
played with the Cardinals from 1927 to 1933. Blumer was a member of the 1929 All-Pro Team. He played a total of 58 games for Chicago
See also
* Chicago Cardinals–Toronto Argonauts exhibition game
* Ziemba, Joe (1999). ''When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL''. Chicago: Triumph Books. .
References
''Duke Slater: Pioneering Black - NFL Player and Judge''
by Neal Rozental. Published by McFarland & Company, Inc. -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chicago Cardinals (NFL, 1920-1959)
Chicago Cardinals
History of the Arizona Cardinals
Soldier Field
1898 establishments in Illinois