Alexis Thompson (May 20, 1911 – December 20, 1954) was an owner 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 ...

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 play ...

, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Philadelphia-Pittsburgh

Steagles The Steagles were the team created by the temporary merger of Pennsylvania's two National Football League (NFL) teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, during the 1943 season. The two franchises were compelled to field a sin ...

. Prior to his executive career, he was a

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

player who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics for the United States team, which was eliminated in the group stage of the Olympic tournament. He played one match as forward. Thompson was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. A graduate of

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, he was the grandson of the founder of Republic Iron and Steel, also named Alexis Thompson, and son of David Thompson. When David died in March 1929, the younger Alexis inherited $6 million. A

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

corporal, Thompson was an entrepreneur who made millions more selling eye care products. In December 1940, Steelers owner

Art Rooney Arthur Joseph Rooney Sr. (January 27, 1901 – August 25, 1988), often referred to as "The Chief", was the founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, an American football franchise in the National Football League (NFL), from 1933 until his death ...

sold the Steelers franchise (including the players) to 28-year-old Thompson for $160,000 and then used half of that to buy a half interest in the Eagles franchise from his friend

Bert Bell De Benneville "Bert" Bell (February 25, 1895 – October 11, 1959) was the National Football League (NFL) commissioner from 1946 until his death in 1959. As commissioner, he introduced competitive parity into the NFL to improve the league's comme ...

. Thompson changed the team's name to the Iron Men. After having second thoughts, the owners traded their cities back to each other before the start of the season — so that the Steelers franchise moved to Philadelphia and became the Philadelphia Eagles and the Eagles franchise moved to Pittsburgh and became the Pittsburgh Steelers. As part of the deal, part of the series of franchise transactions that was known as the

Pennsylvania Polka The Pennsylvania Polka refers to a series of moves affecting the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers franchises in the National Football League (NFL) from 1940 to 1941. Art Rooney, the owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, sold his team to ...

, eleven members of the 1940 Steelers were traded to the Eagles franchise (and thereby continued to play in Pittsburgh), while seventeen of the 1940 Eagles were traded to the Steelers franchise (and thereby continued to play in Philadelphia). In late 1941, Thompson organized a professional head-to-head tennis tour of North America with a troupe of players including

Don Budge John Donald Budge (June 13, 1915 – January 26, 2000) was an American tennis player. He is most famous as the first tennis player — male or female, and still the only American male — to win the Grand Slam, and to win all four Grand Slam e ...

Fred Perry Frederick John Perry (18 May 1909 – 2 February 1995) was a British tennis and table tennis player and former world No. 1 from England who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slam tournaments and two Pro Slams single titles, as well ...

Bobby Riggs Robert Larimore Riggs (February 25, 1918 – October 25, 1995) was an American tennis champion who was the World No. 1 amateur in 1939 and World No. 1 professional in 1946 and 1947. He played his first professional tennis match on December ...

and

Frank Kovacs Frank Kovacs (December 4, 1919 – February 1990) was an American amateur and professional tennis player in the mid-20th century. He won the U.S. National Indoor Tennis Championships singles title in 1941. He won the World Professional Championsh ...

, which lasted for 71 stops until it was disbanded in April 1942. In the hospital for

appendicitis Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these typical symptoms. Severe complications of a ru ...

while the Eagles won their first NFL title in a snowstorm in 1948, Thompson sold the franchise a few weeks later to a group of investors known as the " Happy Hundred" for $250,000 on January 15, 1949. Thompson's body was discovered on December 20, 1954, in his six-room apartment in Englewood, New Jersey. He died at age 43 of an apparent

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

References

Bibliography

External links

*
Eagles Encyclopedia
– The Front Office * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Alexis 1911 births 1954 deaths American male field hockey players Olympic field hockey players of the United States Field hockey players at the 1936 Summer Olympics Philadelphia Eagles owners Pittsburgh Steelers owners Yale University alumni 20th-century American businesspeople United States Army non-commissioned officers Professional tennis promoters