Arizona Cardinals yearly results Chicago years ( 1898 – 1959 ) . The Cardinals began as an amateur athletic club team in Chicago named the Morgan Athletic Club , which was founded by Chicago painter / builder Chris O ' Brien in 1898 . In 1913 the team turned professional . O ' Brien later moved them to Chicago ' s Normal Park and renamed them the " Racine Normals " , since Normal Park was located on Racine Avenue in Chicago . In 1901 , O ' Brien bought used maroon uniforms from the University of Chicago , the colors of which had by then faded , leading O ' Brien to exclaim , " That ' s not maroon , it ' s cardinal red ! " It was then that the team changed its name to the Racine Cardinals . The team disbanded in 1906 mostly for lack of local competition , but reformed in 1913 . They were forced to suspend operations for a second time in 1918 due to World War I and the outbreak of the Spanish Flu Pandemic . They resumed operations later in the year , and have since operated continuously . 1920s . In 1920 , the team became a charter member of the American Professional Football Association ( which became the NFL in 1922 ) , for a franchise fee of $ 100 USD . The Cardinals and the Bears ( originally founded as the Decatur Staleys before moving to Chicago in 1921 ) are the only charter members of the NFL still in existence , though the Green Bay Packers , who joined the league in 1921 , existed prior to the formation of the NFL . The person keeping the minutes of the first league meeting , unfamiliar with the nuances of Chicago football , recorded the Cardinals as from Racine , Wisconsin . The team was renamed the Chicago Cardinals in 1922 after a team actually from Racine , Wisconsin ( the Horlick - Racine Legion ) entered the league . That season the team moved to Comiskey Park . The Staleys and Cardinals played each other twice in 1920 as the Racine Cardinals and the Decatur Staleys , making their rivalry the oldest in the NFL . They split the series , with the home team winning in each . In the Cardinals 7 - 6 victory over the Staleys in their first meeting of the season , each team scored a TD on a fumble recovery , with the Staleys failing their extra point try . The Cardinals ' defeat of the Staleys proved critical , since George Halas ' s Staleys went on to a 10 - 1 - 2 record overall , 5 - 1 - 2 in league play . The Akron Pros were the first ever league champions , they finished with an 8 - 0 - 3 record , 6 - 0 - 3 in league play , ending their season in a 0 - 0 tie against the Staleys . Since the Pros merely had to tie the game in order to win the title , they could afford to play not to lose . Had the Staleys not lost to the Cardinals , they would have gone into that fateful game with an 11 - 0 - 1 record , 6 - 0 - 1 in league play . As it was , it all but assured that the Staleys / Bears and Cardinals would be intense rivals . The two teams played to a tie in 1921 , when the Staleyes won all but 2 games , thus the Cardinals came within 1 point of costing the Staleys a second consecutive championship in the league ' s first 2 years of existence . In 1922 , the Bears went 9 - 3 - 0 , losing to the Cardinals twice . The Bears still edged the Cardinals for 2nd place in the league , but those losses dashed all hopes of the Bears repeating as champions . In 1923 and 1924 , the Bears got the better of the Cardinals all three times the two teams played . But in 1925 , the Bears went 0 - 1 - 1 against the Cardinals with the tie meaning the Cardinals were only a 1 / 2 game in front of the Pottsville Maroons heading into their fateful 1925 showdown . Thus , in the first 6 years of the NFL ' s existence , the Bears - Cardinals games had a direct impact on the league championship 4 times . The Bears and Cardinals each took home 1 title during that span . But the Bears nearly cost the Cardinals their title , the Cardinals nearly cost the Bears their title and but for the Cardinals tenacity against the Bears , the Bears very well might have won 2 others . The Bears were a dominant team against everyone but the Cardinals in the leagues early years . From 1920 - 1925 the Canton Bulldogs , champions in 1922 and 1923 , beat the Bears just 2 times and no other team in the NFL defeated the Bears more than once over that entire 6 year span . . . except the Cardinals . The Cardinals battled the Bears to 4 - 4 - 2 split between 1920 – 1925 and established the NFL first rivalry . Legend has it that the Cardinals played the Chicago Tigers in 1920 , with the loser being forced to leave town . While this has never been proven , the Tigers did disband after one season . The Cardinals won their first NFL championship in 1925 , finishing the season with a record of 11 - 2 - 1 . In a controversial ruling by the league , the Pottsville Maroons , the team with the best record , had their franchise revoked for violating the territorial rights of the Frankford Yellow Jackets . Thus , the Cardinals won the 1925 title by default . ( " For more on the controversy , see 1925 NFL Championship controversy " . ) 1930s . The Cardinals posted a winning record only twice in the twenty years after their 1925 championship ( 1931 and 1935 ) ; including 10 straight losing seasons from 1936 to 1945 . Dr . David Jones bought the team from O ' Brien in 1929 . In 1932 the team was purchased by Charles Bidwill , then a vice president of the Chicago Bears . The team has been under the ownership of the Bidwill family since then . 1940s . In 1944 , owing to player shortages caused by World War II , the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers merged for one year and were known as the " Card - Pitt " , or derisively as the " Carpets " as they were winless that season . In 1945 , the Cardinals snapped their losing streak by beating the Bears 16 - 7 . It was their only victory of the season . In 1946 , the team finished 6 - 5 for the first winning season in eight years . In 1947 , the NFL standardized on a 12 - game season . This would be the most celebrated year in Cardinals history as the team went 9 - 3 , beating Philadelphia in the championship game 28 - 21 with their " Million - Dollar Backfield " , which included quarterback Paul Christman , halfback Charley Trippi , halfback Elmer Angsman , and fullback Pat Harder , piling up 282 rushing yards . However , Bidwill was not around to see it ; he ' d died before the season , leaving the team to his wife Violet . He had , however , beaten the Chicago Rockets of the upstart All - America Football Conference for the rights to Trippi . This signing is generally acknowledged as the final piece in the championship puzzle . The next season saw the Cardinals finish 11 - 1 and again play in the championship game , but lost 7 - 0 in a rematch with the Eagles , played in a heavy snowstorm that almost completely obscured the field . This was the first NFL championship to be televised . The next year , Violet Bidwill married St . Louis businessman Walter Wolfner , and the Cardinals fell to 6 - 5 - 1 . 1950s . The 1950s were a dismal period for the Cardinals , with records of 5 - 7 ( 1950 ) , 3 - 9 ( 1951 ) , 4 - 8 ( 1952 ) , 1 - 10 - 1 ( 1953 ) , 2 - 10 ( 1954 ) , 4 - 7 - 1 ( 1955 ) , 7 - 5 ( 1956 ; the best year of the decade ) , 3 - 9 ( 1957 ) , 2 - 9 - 1 ( 1958 ) , and 2 - 10 ( 1959 ) . With just 33 wins in ten seasons , the Cardinals were nearly forgotten in Chicago , being completely overshadowed by the Bears . Attendance at games was sparse and the team was almost bankrupt . The Bidwills engineered a deal with the NFL that sent the Cardinals to St . Louis , Missouri beginning with the 1960 season , a move which also blocked St . Louis as a market against the new American Football League . St . Louis years ( 1960 – 1987 ) . The NFL conducted a survey of St . Louis and concluded that it was capable of supporting a team . The league ' s 12 owners unanimously approved the Cardinals ' move . During the Cardinals ' stay in St . Louis , two major Cardinal teams ( football and baseball ) called the city home . Sports fans and local news broadcasters called them " the football Cardinals " or " the baseball Cardinals " to distinguish the two . To avoid confusion , the NFL contemplated changing the Cardinals ' name , but then dropped the idea . They shared Sportsman ' s Park with the baseball team , but professional football was new to St . Louis , and tickets were difficult to sell . The Cardinals initially held practices in the city park . Their first home game was a loss to the Giants on October 2 , 1960 , and they finished the year at 6 - 5 - 1 ( the NFL had expanded to a 14 - game season to compete with the upstart AFL ) . In 1961 , they broke even at 7 - 7 and fell to 4 - 9 in 1962 . Improving to 9 - 5 in 1963 , the Cardinals almost reached the playoffs , but a loss to the Giants prevented that . During the Cardinals ' 28 - year stay in St . Louis , they advanced to the playoffs just three times ( 1974 , 1975 & 1982 ) , never hosting or winning in any appearance . In spite of what was considered lackluster performance in St . Louis , their overall record there , of 187 wins , 202 losses , and 13 ties ( . 481 winning percentage ) is easily the highest winning percentage for any of the three locations that the Cardinals have been associated with . 1960s . The new St . Louis football Cardinals were much improved , and the team was competitive for much of the 1960s . New stars emerged in Larry Wilson , Charley Johnson , Jim Bakken , Sonny Randle , and Jim Hart . Violet Bidwill Wolfner died in 1962 , and her sons , Bill and Charles , Jr . took control . Although the Cardinals were competitive again in the ' 60s , they failed to achieve a playoff appearance during the decade , as only four teams qualified during this period . In 1964 , the Bidwells , unsatisfied with St . Louis , considered moving the team to Atlanta . They wanted a new stadium , and that city was planning the construction of one . However , St . Louis persuaded them to stay with the promise of a stadium ( a new expansion team , the Falcons , was eventually created for Atlanta ) . The Cardinals got off to a good start , and tied the Cleveland Browns 33 - 33 on the road . They finished 9 - 4 - 1 and second in the Eastern Conference , but a victory by the Browns over the New York Giants denied them a playoff berth . The team finished the year with a meaningless win over the Packers . A 4 - 1 start to the 1965 season evaporated into a 5 - 9 finish . In 1966 , the Cardinals were in first place in the Eastern Conference with an 8 - 2 - 1 record , but a loss to the Dallas Cowboys , which went on to win the conference title , started a three - game losing streak to end the season , leaving St . Louis at 8 - 5 - 1 . Another middling season followed in 1967 , with six wins , seven losses , and one tie . In 1968 , the Cardinals swept the Cleveland Browns and ended the year with a 9 - 4 - 1 mark , but a loss to a sub - par San Francisco 49ers club and a tie against the woeful Pittsburgh Steelers kept the Cardinals out of the playoffs . St . Louis fell back to 4 - 9 - 1 in 1969 , but that season saw the debut of Roger Wehrli , a star safety at the University of Missouri who played 14 seasons for the Cardinals and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007 . 1970s . In 1970 , the Cardinals were placed in the new NFC East division following the merger with the AFL . They posted three consecutive shutouts in November , blanking the Houston Oilers , Boston Patriots , and the Cowboys , the last of those victories coming 38 - 0 on " Monday Night Football " in the Cotton Bowl . But St . Louis collapsed down the stretch , losing December games to the New York Giants , Detroit Lions and Washington Redskins to finish 8 - 5 - 1 and out of the playoffs . The Cardinals then regressed to three consecutive 4 - 9 - 1 seasons from 1971 - 73 . Bill Bidwill became sole owner in 1972 and still owns the team today . Only the New York Giants and Chicago Bears have been in the hands of one family longer than the Cardinals . Larry Wilson retired following the 1972 season , and in 1973 , Don Coryell , who built a powerhouse program at San Diego State became head coach . The Cardinals registered a 7 - 0 record to open the 1974 season and won the NFC East championship on the strength of a season sweep of the Redskins . In the franchise ' s first playoff game since 1948 , St . Louis took an early 7 - 0 lead against the Minnesota Vikings in Bloomington , Minnesota , but a missed field goal just before halftime sapped the Cardinals ' momentum . The Vikings scored 16 points in the first seven minutes of the second half and cruised to a 30 - 14 victory . The Cardinals won the NFC East again in 1975 , despite a 32 - 14 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Thanksgiving . The playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams was a disaster : Lawrence McCutcheon set an NFL playoff record by rushing for 202 yards , and Jack Youngblood and Bill Simpson returned interceptions for touchdowns , staking the Rams to a 28 - 9 halftime lead en route to a 35 - 23 victory at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . During this period , the Cardinals boasted an effective offense in the wake of a record - setting offensive line which included standouts Dan Dierdorf , Conrad Dobler , and Tom Banks . This period for the franchise was characterized by exciting close games , come - from - behind nailbiters , and several frustrating near - misses . The press and league fans began to call the team the " Cardiac Cardinals " . Team stars from the 1970s included Wehrli , wide receiver Mel Gray , and running backs Terry Metcalf and Jim Otis . On Thanksgiving Day , 1976 , the Cardinals suffered a controversial loss to the Dallas Cowboys . Cardinal tight end J . V . Cain , running an apparent game - winning route , was shoved out of the end zone by Dallas defensive backs Cliff Harris and Charlie Waters in what appeared to be obvious interference , but a penalty was not called . With this loss , the Cardinals were dethroned from the divisional lead and became the first NFC team to reach 10 wins without qualifying for the playoffs , losing a tiebreaker to the Redskins due to Washington ' s sweep of the season series . In 1977 , the Cardinals started slowly but won 6 consecutive games before losing the Thanksgiving Day game to the Miami Dolphins , 55 - 14 . Bob Griese ' s record - setting day turned out to be the first of 12 straight losses for the Cardinals ( extending into 1978 ) , a streak which included being only the second team ever to lose to the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers , and the first to lose in Tampa Stadium . Coryell and several key players , including Dobler and Metcalf , departed the team at the end of the 1977 season . For the 1978 season , Bidwill hired Bud Wilkinson , famous for building a football dynasty in 17 seasons at the University of Oklahoma . But Wilkinson , who had been out of coaching since retiring from the Sooners following the 1963 season , could not turn the Cardinals around . St . Louis started 1978 with eight straight losses and finished at 6 - 10 , and Wilkinson was fired in 1979 with the Cardinals at 3 - 10 and last in the NFC East . Wilkinson was canned by Bidwill for refusing to bench quarterback Jim Hart in favor of rookie Steve Pisarkiewicz . Larry Wilson , the Pro Football Hall of Fame safety who starred for the Cardinals for 13 seasons , coached the final three games of the 1979 season , finishing with a 5 - 11 record . The Cardinals experienced several years of notoriously poor drafts and unfortunate personnel moves in the late 1970s , typified by the first - round selection of kicker Steve Little , who was paralyzed in a 1980 automobile accident , and hiring Wilkinson in 1978 . The team also suffered a tragic loss during 1979 training camp when Cain died of a heart attack . 1980s . However , the Cardinals had some success in the early 1980s , posting three consecutive winning seasons from 1982 to 1984 . The heart of this squad was the prolific trio of quarterback Neil Lomax , wide receiver Roy Green , and running back Ottis Anderson . Stellar performances by Anderson couldn ' t salvage the Cardinals ' 1980 and 1981 campaigns , which ended at 5 - 11 and 7 - 9 , respectively . In 1982 , the Cardinals qualified for the expanded 16 - team playoff field with a 5 - 4 mark in the strike - shortened year , but fell 41 - 16 to the Green Bay Packers . St . Louis finished 1983 at 8 - 7 - 1 , including victories over the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Raiders and the Seattle Seahawks , who lost to the Raiders in the AFC championship game . The Cardinals entered the final weekend of 1984 with a chance to win the NFC East by defeating the Redskins , but Neil O ' Donoghue missed a game - winning field goal at the gun , giving Washington a 29 - 27 victory and the division championship . St . Louis started 1985 3 - 1 , but finished 5 - 11 , leading to the termination of coach Jim Hanifan after six seasons . Hanifan would return triumphantly to St . Louis , serving offensive line coach during the St . Louis Rams ' Super Bowl championship season . Gene Stallings , formerly the head coach at Texas A & M and a long - time assistant to Tom Landry with the Cowboys , replaced Hanifan . The Cardinals finished 4 - 11 - 1 in 1986 , but improved to 7 - 8 in 1987 , falling just one win shy of the playoffs , losing 21 - 16 on the final Sunday of the season to the Cowboys . The 1987 season is remembered for a stunning comeback , rallying from a 28 - 3 deficit against the Buccaneers by scoring 28 points in the fourth quarter for a 31 - 28 victory . It remains the largest fourth - quarter comeback in NFL history . The overall mediocrity of the Cardinals , combined with an old stadium , caused game attendance to dwindle , and once again the Bidwills decided to move the team , this time to either Baltimore , Phoenix , or Jacksonville . Nonetheless , Cardinals fans were unhappy at losing their team , and Bill Bidwill , fearing for his safety , stayed away from several of the 1987 home games . Their last home game was on December 13 , 1987 ( a 27 - 24 victory over the New York Giants in front of 29 , 623 fans on a late Sunday afternoon ) .