Frankford Yellow Jackets
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The Frankford Yellow Jackets was a professional American football team, part of the National Football League from 1924 to 1931, though its origin goes back perhaps as far as 1899. The Yellow Jackets won the NFL championship in 1926. Its home field was Frankford Stadium (also called Yellow Jacket Field) in Frankford, a section in the northeastern part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, noted for the elevated subway line that terminates there.
The team often played a grueling schedule of 15 to 20 games a season. Frequently, they would schedule two games on the same weekend, typically one at home on Saturday and, because of Pennsylvania blue laws, an away game on Sunday.
The team failed to complete its final season, due mainly to financial hardships brought on by the Great Depression. On October 26, 1931, the franchise suspended operations the day after the team defeated the Chicago Bears 13-12 at Wrigley Field — a result that ultimately took on some historical significance as the last time a Philadelphia-based NFL team would win an away game over the Bears until October 17, 1999, when the Eagles won 20-16 at Soldier Field (Philadelphia also went 51 years without a road victory over the Green Bay Packers, the Eagles' 1979 win at Green Bay being the first since the Yellow Jackets had won there in 1928).
Bert Bell and Lud Wray bought the franchise on July 9, 1933 under the name "Philadelphia Eagles". Many people assume that a simple name change transformed the Frankford Yellow Jackets into the Philadelphia Eagles, but that is not the case. Bell and Wray did not buy the Frankford Yellow Jackets but rather the franchise, or the right to field a team in the National Football League, that formerly belonged to the Frankford Athletic Association. That franchise (Yellow Jackets) had been revoked by the league in 1931. As licensees Bell and Wray then formed an entirely new team to operate under the old franchise. That is why the NFL treats the Jackets and Eagles as separate teams.
Season-by-season
(Record of NFL play only)
| Year | W | L | T | Finish | Coach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 3rd | Punk Berryman |
| 1925 | 13 | 7 | 0 | 6th | Guy Chamberlin |
| 1926 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 1st | Guy Chamberlin |
| 1927 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 7th | Charley Moran (2-5-1); Swede Youngstrom/Charley Rogers/Russ Daugherty/Ed Weir (4-4-2) |
| 1928 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 2nd | Ed Weir |
| 1929 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 3rd | Bull Behman |
| 1930 | 4 | 13 | 1 | 9th | Bull Behman (2-10-1); George Gibson (2-3) |
| 1931 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 10th | Herb Joesting |
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