The "Happy Hundred", also known as the "100 Brothers", was a group of investors who owned 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 ...

franchise 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 majo ...

from 1949 to 1963. The group was headed by Philadelphia trucking magnate James P. Clark, the majority owner.Warrington, Robert D
Departure Without Dignity: The Athletics Leave Philadelphia

Society for American Baseball Research The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...

, 2010. Frank McNamee, the team president, and Clark rounded up 100 Philadelphia investors to invest $3,000 each to purchase the team for $250,000 from Alexis "Lex" Thompson on January 15, 1949. The Eagles won two NFL Championships while under ownership of the "Happy Hundred," in

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

and

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 ...

. By his death in 1962, Clark had owned twenty percent of the team and only 65 investors were left from the original "Happy Hundred". The "Happy Hundred" sold the club to Jerry Wolman in December 1963 for $5,505,000, and each investor received more than $60,000. One member of the "Happy Hundred", Leonard Tose, tried to buy the team from the majority owners in 1956 with a group of his own, but did not have success. He eventually bought the Eagles from Wolman in 1969 and owned the team until 1985.

Bill Mackrides William Mackrides (July 8, 1925 – January 22, 2019) was an American football quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. He helped the Eagles win the 1948 and 1949 NFL Championships. Early life Mackrides played ...

, the starting

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

for the Eagles in 1948, claimed that the "Happy Hundred" was a sham. He said, "That's all pure myth. It made for a good story and headlines but the truth is Lex Thompson sold about 60 shares to Jim Clark. Clark had a friend who owned another 20 shares. To this day, no one knows that." Such an ownership group would not be permitted under current NFL bylaws, which requires that one general partner hold at least a 30% stake in the team and limits the number of people who can hold interest in a club organized as a corporation to 25.

References

{{Philadelphia Eagles owners navbox Philadelphia Eagles owners Nicknamed groups of sportspeople American investors Culture of Philadelphia