Steagles
| 1943 Philadelphia-Pittsburgh Eagles-Steelers season | |
|---|---|
| Head coach | Greasy Neale & Walt Kiesling & Malik Russaw |
| Owner | Alexis Thompson, Art Rooney & Bert Bell |
| Home field | Shibe Park, Forbes Field |
| Results | |
| Record | 5–4–1 |
| Division place | 3rd NFL Eastern |
| Playoff finish | did not qualify |
The Steagles were 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 during World War II. The league's official record book refers to the team as "Phil-Pitt Combine", but the unofficial "Steagles," despite never being registered by the NFL, has become the enduring moniker.
The prospect of a unified Pittsburgh-Philadelphia team actually predated World War II by several years. The Pennsylvania Keystoners were a team that was proposed in 1939, conceived with the intention of the Steelers and Eagles owners buying into one of the two teams, then spinning the other off to an ownership group in Boston, Massachusetts. League officials rejected the plan, though it resulted in a convoluted ownership "two-step" that left Eagles owner Bert Bell with a share in the Steelers franchise.
America entered World War II on December 7, 1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Most of the young men who were of the age to play professional football were also of the age to fight for their country. 600 NFL players joined the armed forces.
Feeling that country at war still needed entertainment and sports were a much-needed diversion, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an inspirational message focused on the importance of Major League Baseball to Americans' morale. He made no mention of football, during that address, as baseball far surpassed football in popularity at the time. However at its 1943 annual spring meeting, the NFL decided to follow baseball's lead and continue play. Other football leagues, such as the 1940–41 American Football League, Dixie League and the American Association, decided to suspend operations instead, leaving the NFL and its West Coast counterpart, the Pacific Coast Professional Football League, as the only leagues playing professional football at the time.
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