1933 Philadelphia Eagles season

The 1933 Philadelphia Eagles season was their inaugural in the league. The team went 3–5–1,^[1] failing to qualify for the playoffs.

Off-season

When Pennsylvania eased some of the Blue laws and allowed Sunday sporting events, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh became available for NFL franchises as they could play home games on Sundays. The Frankford Yellow Jackets^[2] played their games on Saturday mostly when at home.

During the off-season, Bert Bell and Lud Wray were granted an expansion franchise in the NFL for the rights to Philadelphia. The previous team, Frankford Yellow Jackets were inactive for two years so their rights were pulled by the NFL. They joined the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds, for a $2500 entrance fee. The Eagles got their name from the New Deal's program called the NRA, and the symbol of the eagle that they had.

The Eagles' original colors were a light blue and yellow.

The Eagles held their training camp in the New Jersey resort city of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The Eagles scheduled their games to be played in Baker Bowl. The stadium was near a transportation hub in Philadelphia. A train tunnel was under the stadium's baseball outfield. A train station was across the street from Baker Bowl.

They would remain playing there for three years before moving games to the newer Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in the south Philadelphia area. The Eagles were 4–12–1, with one game canceled on account of bad weather, in the three years playing their home games at Baker Bowl.

Regular season

Schedule

Standings

Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.

Playoffs

Before the 1933 season, new Boston Redskins owner George Preston Marshall suggested the league have a championship game yearly. The year before, the Chicago Bears played the Portsmouth Spartans in an extra game to break the tie between them at season's end. They both had 6 wins.

The 3–5–1 Eagles failed to make it to the 1933 NFL Playoffs. It was only between two teams: the winner of the Eastern Division, New York Giants, and the Western Division. Chicago Bears.

Roster

(All time List of Philadelphia Eagles players in franchise history)

Being an expansion team, the Eagles were mostly stocked with rookies and cast-offs. This was before the NFL Draft was started. The college draft was an idea of Bert Bell.

A list of the 1933 Philadelphia Eagles.^{[3] [4]}

References