The "Steagles" is the popular nickname for the team created by the temporary merger of two National Football League (NFL) teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, during the 1943 season. The teams were forced to merge because both had lost many players to military service due to World War II.

Officially the team was known simply as the Eagles (without a city designation), the Eagles-Steelers, or the Steelers-Eagles. The NFL never registered "Steagles" as a trademark. However, the official NFL record book refers to the team as "Phil-Pitt."

The young men who remained in the States to play football were deferred from the draft. The Steagles were thus military draft rejects, aging veteran players, and even active servicemen who obtained leave to play.

Three types of deferments defined 1943 NFL players. The first group was called 3-As. If a man was supporting a family the draft board would not make him a priority. The government defined a 3-A as a father whose child/children was born or conceived prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The cutoff date for birth was September 15, 1942, precisely nine months and one week after Pearl Harbor.

Even with these deferments, NFL rosters were hurting. The Cleveland Rams suspended operations and the Pittsburgh Steelers had only six men left under contract while the Philadelphia Eagles had only sixteen. The 1943 NFL Draft didn't help much. Most players drafted went off to the war instead of joining NFL teams. The league nearly ceased operations before the 1943 season, but when the decision was made to continue, the league opted to tighten its belt.

Steelers' owner Art Rooney knew that the league needed at least eight teams to survive. Rooney's idea was to merge with the Eagles. This idea came quickly to him since two years earlier he thought about combining the two teams into the Pennsylvania Keystoners. Eagles' owner Alexis Thompson, who was serving in the US Army as a corporal, was not as keen on the plan since he at least had 16 players under contract. However Thompson remembered how Rooney in 1941 swapped cities with him, allowing him to keep the Eagles in Philadelphia, close to his New York City home. This led to an agreement on combining the teams.

The Philadelphia Eagles began training camp with Philadelphia's Greasy Neale and Pittsburgh's Walt Kiesling serving as co-head coaches since both head coaches refused to accept a demotion. This led to several problems. The first being that the two men hated each other. Secondly even Kiesling's own players didn't like him so asking the Eagles players to like him was too much to ask. However Neale took advantage when Kiesling was delayed en route to the Steagles' first and only pre-season training camp in Philadelphia. By the time Keisling arrived, Neale already had the offense learning the T-formation, which was all the rage in those days because of its success in college football by Frank Leahy at Notre Dame and for Red Blaik at Army. This conflict led to Neale serving as the team's offensive coordinator while Kiesling served as the defensive coordinator. They would then split head coaching duties. According to defensive back Ernie Steele, the situation between the two coaches got so bad that Kiesling and Neale walked off the field after a heated argument in practice the Friday before a game. They returned for the game, but the players were nonetheless stunned. However after the Steagles' in 1944, Pittsburgh continued using the T-formation that Neale installed through 1952, becoming the last NFL team to ever use it as its primary offensive set.

Another difficult issue that at the time, was that the Steelers and Eagles were bitter interstate rivals, much like the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins-Philadelphia Flyers rivalry of today, and usually ended up at near the bottom of standings each year. Also due the war effort, the Steagles players are believed to be the only members of an American professional sports franchise who were not only encouraged but required to hold full-time jobs, in addition to playing pro football. Playing football was seen as an extracurricular activity. All of the 25 players on the roster kept full-time jobs in defense plants. One of Pittsburgh's players, Ted Doyle, worked at Westinghouse Electric and figured out later that his work assisted the Manhattan Project, which was America's effort to build the first atomic bomb, according to Matthew Algeo's book Last Team Standing.

As the season got underway, fans and newspapers began calling the team the Steagles, a combination of Steelers and Eagles. It had a nice ring to it and was fair to both cities. Steagles eventually became the common name used for the team throughout most of the country. Except in Philly, where the writers and even the team insisted on being called the Philadelphia Eagles. According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Chet Smith the sports editor of the Pittsburgh Press initially called the team the Steagles.

Legacy

The Steagles 1943 season was the first winning season in the history of the Philadelphia franchise and just the second in the history of the Pittsburgh franchise.

The next season, 1944, the NFL was back on solid footing. The Army had declared that it had enough soldiers and men over 26 years of age would not be drafted, though the league had another problem. With the Cleveland Rams back in operation, the expansion Boston Yanks team in the fold and the Eagles and Steelers back in their separate ways, the NFL had 11 teams which created a nightmare with divisions and scheduling. NFL Commissioner Elmer Layden begged for two teams to combine again in 1944. Ten teams made for a perfect league and eleven seemed impossible. The Steelers were still short of players due to the war. Pittsburgh owner, Art Rooney, was so unhappy with the "Phil-Pitt" arrangement that he merged with the Chicago Cardinals for the 1944 season, creating a team known as Card-Pitt (derisively called "carpet" due to going winless, and the commentary that "every team walked all over them"). The war ended by the time the 1945 NFL season started, and with the Brooklyn Tigers and the aforementioned Boston franchising permanently merging, there was an even number of ten teams to the delight of owners.

The Eagles, now having enough players back from the war, resumed their traditional operation and continued under Neale, who would take home back-to-back coach of the year awards as Philadelphia won consecutive NFL championships in 1948 and 1949.

Individually, the Steagles' Jack Hinkle ended the season with 571 rushing yards. He lost the rushing title to New York's Bill Paschal by one yard. Against those very Giants Hinkle was not given credit for a 37-yard run (they gave it to Johnny Butler). Hinkle did not complain about not winning the NFL rushing crown. He figured with a war going on there were better things to cry about. Tony Bova, a half-blind 4-F, led the team in receiving with 417 yards.

The Steelers celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Steagles on August 17, 2003 during the pregame and halftime ceremonies at Heinz Field.

Six of the nine surviving members of that team were honored at halftime. Those members were quarterback Allie Sherman, running back and defensive back Ernie Steele, center Ray Graves, and tackles Al Wistert, Vic Sears, and Bucko Kilroy. End Tom Miller, tackle Ted Doyle and halfback John Hinkle were unable to attend.

In addition the Steelers recreated the Steagles era in their "Turn Back the Clock" ceremonies, including broadcasting in black and white on the Jumbotron and airing World War II footage during the national anthem. All live entertainment reflected the 1940s. During the festivities the Steelers gave each of the six members a replica Steagles jersey to wear. The jerseys worn by honorees were later given back to the Steelers and sold to help benefit a local charity.

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