Steelers Shared Resources With 2 Teams During World War IIBy JOSHUA ROBINSON, New York Times
Published: January 14, 2009
If the Pittsburgh Steelers book a trip to the Super Bowl, where they would face the Arizona Cardinals or the Philadelphia Eagles, there will be the faintest hint of fratricide in the air. After all, the Steelers have shared more than just a common purpose with each team. They have also shared a stadium, a locker room and a jersey.
A program, left, for the Eagles-Steelers vs. the Giants in 1943, and one for the Steelers-Cardinals vs. the Giants in 1944.As national duty cut into N.F.L. rosters during World War II — more than 600 players were drafted at a time when teams seldom carried more than 28 — franchises scrambled for solutions. So in 1943, the Steelers and the Eagles became the Steagles, and in 1944, the Steelers and the Cardinals became Card-Pitt, all in the interest of keeping professional football alive during the war.
But today, in the age of endless player pipelines and billion-dollar franchises, they are largely forgotten.
“I grew up in Philadelphia and to me, it’s always been the answer to a trivia question,” Matthew Algeo, author of “Last Team Standing,” said about the Steagles’ only season. “The N.F.L. is funny that way; it’s like nothing existed before the Super Bowl. It’s a little surprising that it’s not better known.”
After the Cleveland Rams, whose owners were off fighting for Uncle Sam, decided to suspend operations for the 1943 season, N.F.L. Commissioner Elmer Layden was not about to let the entire season go the way of that year’s Indianapolis 500 — scratched to save gasoline — or the United States Open golf tournament — canceled because the rubber used in golf balls could not be spared.
So when Layden saw that the Steelers had only six players under contract and that the Eagles were down to about a dozen, he suggested a temporary merger between teams whose history was already intertwined. (Both joined the league the same year and, through much wrangling, were once traded by their respective owners.) Layden figured the arrangement would keep both franchises alive and solve his problem of trying to create a schedule for nine teams.
“Had to do it,” the Steelers co-owner Bert Bell said in an interview with The New York Times that summer. “Pittsburgh had no backs left and Philadelphia had no linemen.”
With a roster full of 4-Fs — men ineligible for the draft — Phil-Pitt was born. Newspaper columnists dubbed the team the Steagles, even though the plan was for them to be called the Eagles without a city in the name.
The players were pooled, and few football fans complained. “Both teams had been so bad that there was no worry of their becoming a superteam,” Algeo said.
But by the season’s end, the Steagles had become a decent one.
Playing most of their games in Philadelphia in the Eagles’ green and white, the Steagles finished 5-4-1. It was the first winning season in the Eagles’ 11-year history and the second for the Steelers.
Under Greasy Neale of Philadelphia and Walt Kiesling of Pittsburgh, who served as co-coaches, the Steagles also contributed to the game’s development. Because Neale and Kiesling hated each other, they divided responsibilities along the lines of offense and defense. Modern offensive and defensive coordinators were thus born of a loveless marriage.
After the team dissolved, the Eagles were able to stand alone for the 1944 season. But with the Rams returning to the league, and the newly formed Boston Yanks joining, Layden had 11 teams. So the Steelers once again agreed to a merger, this time with the Chicago Cardinals.
That season, Card-Pitt, as the team was known, became rooted to the bottom of standings and set a benchmark for futility. The Detroit Lions might have posted the worst record in league history in 2008 by going 0-16, but they were only one team. It took two teams in 1944 to go a perfectly useless 0-10. Card-Pitt became better known as the Carpets, because opponents ran over them.
But at least the Steelers’ Kiesling got along much better with his new coaching partner, Phil Handler of Chicago. The problem, according to Algeo, was that Kiesling and Handler might have gotten along a little too well. “Legend has it they spent more time at the racetrack than watching game film,” he said.
The season-long debacle began with a 22-0 defeat in an exhibition game against Philadelphia and kept devolving. The Carpets cobbled together eight passing touchdowns all season but threw 41 interceptions — more than one a quarter. Thirteen belonged to the hapless quarterback John McCarthy, according to a 2003 article from the Pro Football Researchers Association newsletter.
Still, the Carpets were not entirely devoid of talent. Running back Johnny Grigas, who was named to The Daily News’s 1944 all-pro team, ran for 610 yards in the first nine games. But the stench of failure inside the locker room was getting to him, sapping his will. Two players had been fined for “indifferent play,” and the night before the team’s final game, against the mighty Chicago Bears — favored by four touchdowns — Grigas disappeared. He knew the game could not be pretty.
By kickoff, Grigas was already on a train out of town. All he left behind were a note to his roommate — it read simply, “This is the end,” according to The Chicago Tribune — and a letter to the team’s management.
“When your mind is changed because of the physical beating, week in and week out, your soul isn’t in the game,” he wrote, adding: “I tried to win and worked hard, but the work-horse, as I was termed by the newspapers, is almost ready for the farm. In closing all I can say is I’m deeply sorry — but these are things which can’t be fully explained. Good luck and may the team win just this one.”
Card-Pitt lost, 49-7.
For the Steelers and Cardinals at least, the temporary brotherhood may be better off forgotten.
