1943 Philadelphia Eagles season The Steagles is the popular nickname for 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 . Officially the team was known simply as the Eagles without any city designation . The merged team was referred to at the time as the Eagles - Steelers , Steelers - Eagles , Phil - Pitt or as the Pennsylvania combine . 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 most enduring moniker . History . 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 . Draft deferments . The young men who remained in the States to play football were deferred from the draft . The Steagles players were either unfit for military service for physical reasons or age , or active servicemen who had obtained leave to play . Three types of deferments defined 1943 NFL players . The first group was called 3 - As . If a man was supporting a family the draft board would not make him a priority . The government defined a 3 - A as a father whose child / children was born or conceived prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor . The cutoff date for birth was September 15 , 1942 , precisely nine months and one week after Pearl Harbor . The second group consisted of those men who worked in the war industry , producing and preparing ammunition , weapons and materials . The third group ( 4 - F ' S ) were those deemed physically unfit due to ailments such as ulcers , flat feet and even partial blindness . Most NFL football players wanted to join the war . In the early 1940s it was considered a patriotic duty to serve and fight for the country . Being classified as a 4 - F was an embarrassment . Playing football and being ridiculed was added embarrassment . However there was a feeling that if guys could play football they could fight in the war . One Steagle and future Hall of Famer , Bill Hewitt , quit in the middle of the season . He couldn ' t take the ridicule and subsequent guilt feelings anymore . Hewitt was good enough to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971 . However the players weren ' t making the decisions on who could or couldn ' t fight . Men with flat feet weren ' t drafted . They could lead normal lives and even play football , but the Army deemed that flat feet was not conducive to marching long distances . Similar reasons existed for other 4 - F deferments . But numerous NFL players in 1943 had medical problems that kept them out of the military . Tony Bova , the Steagles ' leading receiver with 17 receptions , was blind in one eye and partially blind in the other . Steagles guard Ed Michaels was nearly deaf and center Ray Graves was deaf in one ear . One starting defensive end was blind in one eye and nearly legally blind in the other . The Steagles tailback John Butler made his first start one day after being ruled 4 - F by his draft board for poor eyesight and bad knees . 1943 NFL Spring Meetings . Even with these deferments , NFL rosters were hurting . The Cleveland Rams suspended operations and the Pittsburgh Steelers had only six men left under contract while the Philadelphia Eagles had only sixteen . The 1943 NFL Draft didn ' t help much . Most players drafted went off to the war instead of joining NFL teams . The league nearly ceased operations before the 1943 season , but it continued . Steelers ' owner Art Rooney knew that the league needed at least eight teams to survive . Rooney ' s idea was to merge the Steelers with the Eagles . This idea came quickly to him since two years earlier he thought about combining the two teams into the Pennsylvania Keystoners . Eagles ' owner Alexis Thompson , who was serving in the US Army as a corporal , was not as keen on the plan since he at least had 16 players under contract . However Thompson remembered how Rooney in 1941 swapped cities with him , allowing him to keep the Eagles in Philadelphia , close to his New York City home . This led to an agreement on combining the teams . The league approved the merger by a vote of 5 – 4 . However , several owners expressed fears that the merger would produce a team with an unfair advantage . The merger had a slight lean in favor of Philadelphia based on stipulations imposed by Thompson . The team would be known as the Philadelphia Eagles and be based in Philadelphia . Rooney had very little leverage , bringing only six players to the table . However he was successful in landing two home games in Pittsburgh , while Philadelphia would host four . The team was also to wear the Eagles ' green and white colors instead of Pittsburgh ' s black and gold . This event officially marked the only time in the Steelers history that the team colors were something other than black and gold . The league also stated that helmets were mandated for the first time and that the league would expand in 1944 , with the Boston Yanks paying $ 50 , 000 for entry into the league . 1943 season . Philadelphia ' s Greasy Neale and Pittsburgh ' s Walt Kiesling would be co - head coaches because each coach refused to be demoted . This led to several problems . The first being that the two men hated each other . Secondly even Kiesling ' s own players didn ' t like him so asking the Eagles players to like him was too much to ask . However Neale took advantage when Kiesling was delayed en route to camp , which was held at St . Joseph ' s College in Philadelphia . By the time Keisling arrived , Neale already had the offense learning the T - formation , which was all the rage in those days because of its success in college football by Frank Leahy at Notre Dame and for Red Blaik at Army . This conflict led to Neale serving as the team ' s offensive coordinator while Kiesling served as the defensive coordinator . They would then split head coaching duties . According to defensive back Ernie Steele , the situation between the two coaches got so bad that Kiesling and Neale walked off the field after a heated argument in practice the Friday before a game . They returned for the game , but the players were nonetheless stunned . However after the Steagles ' in 1943 & Card - Pitt in 1944 , Pittsburgh reverted to using the single - wing formation through 1952 , becoming the last NFL team to ever use it as its primary offensive set . Another difficult issue that at the time , was that the Steelers and Eagles were bitter interstate rivals , much like the NHL ' s Pittsburgh Penguins - Philadelphia Flyers rivalry of today , and usually ended up at near the bottom of standings each year . The Steagles were the only professional sports team where all the players held full - time war jobs , as it was a requirement of the team . Playing football was seen as an extracurricular activity . All of the 25 players on the roster kept full - time jobs in defense plants . One of Pittsburgh ' s players , Ted Doyle , worked at Westinghouse Electric and figured out later that his work assisted the Manhattan Project , which was America ' s effort to build the first atomic bomb , according to Matthew Algeo ' s book " Last Team Standing " . As the season got underway , fans and newspapers began calling the team the Steagles , a combination of Steelers and Eagles . It had a nice ring to it and was fair to both cities . Steagles eventually became the common name used for the team throughout most of the country , except in Philadelphia , where the writers and even the team insisted on being called the Philadelphia Eagles . Chet Smith , the sports editor of the Pittsburgh Press , was initially the one who wrote in a column the moniker Steagles , for the merged team . ( and according to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette ) Slowly , the team began to come together , united by hard work , shared sacrifice , and teamwork . The Steagles jumped out to a 2 – 0 start after defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants at Shibe Park . During the New York game the Steagles fumbled the ball a record 10 times , but managed to win 28 – 14 . The Steagles record of 10 fumbles in game by 1 team is still in existence today . The squad of outcasts and misfits then banded together and managed to shockingly tie the defending champion Washington Redskins in their first meeting , and even defeated the ' Skins in their second meeting . The team stumbled on the road and after seven games was 3 – 3 – 1 . However the team regrouped during two games at Pittsburgh ' s Forbes Field , which were wins over the Chicago Cardinals on Halloween Night and over the Detroit Lions on Nov . 21 . The team ' s final game was played in front of 35 , 000 fans at Shibe Park against Don Hutson and the Green Bay Packers Green Bay would go on to win the game 38 – 28 . Aftermath . Legacy . The Steagles 1943 season was the Philadelphia franchise ' s first winning season in its history and the second for Pittsburgh ' s . The next season , 1944 , the NFL was back on solid footing . The Army had declared that it had enough soldiers and men over 26 years of age would not be drafted , though the league had another problem . With the Cleveland Rams back in operation , the expansion Boston Yanks team in the fold and the Eagles and Steelers back in their separate ways , the NFL had 11 teams , which created a nightmare with divisions and scheduling . NFL Commissioner Elmer Layden begged for two teams to combine again in 1944 . Ten teams made for a perfect league and eleven seemed impossible . The Steelers were still short of players due to the war . Pittsburgh owner Art Rooney was so unhappy with the " Phil - Pitt " arrangement that he merged with the Chicago Cardinals for the 1944 season , creating a team known as Card - Pitt ( derisively called " carpet " due to going winless , and the commentary that " every team walked all over them " ) . The war ended by the time the 1945 NFL season started , and with the Brooklyn Tigers and the aforementioned Boston franchising " permanently " merging , there was an even number of ten teams to the delight of owners . The Eagles , now having enough players back from the war , resumed their traditional operation and continued under Neale , who would take home back - to - back coach of the year awards as Philadelphia won consecutive NFL championships in 1948 and 1949 . Individually , the Steagles ' Jack Hinkle ended the season with 571 rushing yards . He lost the rushing title to New York ' s Bill Paschal by one yard . Against those very Giants Hinkle was not given credit for a 37 - yard run ( they gave it to John Butler ) . Hinkle did not complain about not winning the NFL rushing crown . He figured with a war going on there were better things to cry about . Tony Bova , a half - blind 4 - F , led the team in receiving with 417 yards . Popular culture . The 1971 film " The Steagle " starring Richard Benjamin takes its name from the Steagles football team . In the opening scene , the protagonist of the film , a bookish college professor , explains the history and meaning of the term to a pair of loudly arguing sports fans on a commuter train , and draws an admiring look from an attractive Asian woman who is a fellow passenger . The film concerns the personality change which overcomes the protagonist during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 , and the film ' s title impliedly references the transient nature of the Steagles team , existing for only one brief season during a national crisis . 60th anniversary . The Steelers celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Steagles on August 17 , 2003 during the pregame and halftime ceremonies at Heinz Field . Six of the nine surviving members of that team were honored at halftime . Those members were quarterback Allie Sherman , running back and defensive back Ernie Steele , center Ray Graves , and tackles Al Wistert , Vic Sears , and Bucko Kilroy . End Tom Miller , tackle Ted Doyle and halfback John Hinkle were unable to attend . Graves , Wistert and Sherman are the only three players from the 1943 squad still alive as of June 2011 . All three of the surviving players belonged to the Eagles . Ted Doyle , who died in 2006 , was the last surviving Steeler player from the team . In addition the Steelers recreated the Steagles era in their " Turn Back the Clock " ceremonies , including broadcasting in black and white on the Jumbotron and airing World War II footage during the national anthem . All live entertainment reflected the 1940s . During the festivities the Steelers gave each of the six members a replica Steagles jersey to wear . The jerseys worn by honorees were later given back to the Steelers and sold to help benefit a local charity . The Steelers also painted the south end zone in plain diagonal white lines , a common practice in the NFL until the 1960s . The Steelers later kept the " plain " design in the south end zone permanently . The Eagles won the game 21 – 16 . Draft . Player Selections . The table shows the Eagles selections and the Steelers selections and what picks they had that were traded away and the team that ended up with that pick . It is possible the their pick ended up with this team via another team that they made a trade with . Not shown are acquired picks that were traded away . Regular season . Game summaries . Week 1 : vs . Brooklyn Dodgers . The Steagles held the Dodgers to minus 33 rushing yards ; this was the second lowest rushing total posted by a single team in an NFL game to that point . It currently ranks as the third - lowest rushing output in league history . Week 2 : vs . New York Giants . Despite setting a league record by fumbling the ball ten times , the Steagles overcame the Giants on the strength of three fourth - quarter touchdowns . The mark of ten fumbles in a game by one team has since been matched three times , but it has never been topped . Week 6 : vs . Washington Redskins . The 1942 NFL Champion Washington Redskins come to Philadelphia with a 13 regular season game winning streak , and for 1943 scoring an avg of 30 points per game and allowing on 6 a game .