Pottstown Firebirds

The Pottstown Firebirds were a professional American football minor league team and member of the Atlantic Coast Football League from 1968 to 1970. The Pottstown Firebirds were former NFL football players, former college football players, and former high school football players who loved to play the game of football. The Firebirds were originally a "farm club" of the Philadelphia Eagles and were provided with equipment/helmets already emblazoned with Eagle wings. Only a few Firebirds ever moved up to NFL teams. The Firebirds affiliation with the Philadelphia Eagles was short-lived and was withdrawn in 1970. The Pottstown Firebirds played their home games at Pottstown High School stadium. In their final two seasons of existence in Pottstown (1969 and 1970), the Firebirds won the league championship.

In 1971, the Firebirds merged with the Norfolk Neptunes and left Pottstown. (That year, the Seaboard Football League established the Schuylkill County Coal Crackers as a replacement team; the Coal Crackers moved to Reading after one season, bringing an end to professional football in Pottstown.) After the collapse of the ACFL a couple of years later, the World Football League sprang up. Many of the Pottstown Firebirds went on to play for the Philadelphia Bell as described in Vince Papale's book Invincible. Ron Waller, former Head Offensive Coach of the Firebirds, served as interim head coach of the San Diego Chargers for the final six games of 1973, then moved on to become head coach of the Philadelphia Bell in 1974.

The Firebirds were perhaps best remembered as the subject of a 1970 NFL Films documentary Pro Football, Pottstown, Pa. which documented the ties between the minor league club, its players, and their hometown of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Of particular note was the portrayal of the Firebirds' star quarterback, King Corcoran. "The King" was considered the "Poor Man's Joe Namath" and had stints on the New England Patriots, New York Jets, Denver Broncos and the Philadelphia Eagles before landing in Pottstown.

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