History of the St . Louis Cardinals ( NFL ) The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in St Louis , Missouri from 1960 to 1987 . This article chronicles the team ' s history during their time as the St . Louis Cardinals . Before the team moved in 1960 , 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 from Chicago . 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 ( though in the early years of the NFL , numerous teams were named after local baseball teams , directly or indirectly ) . 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 - 1 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 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 Bidwills , 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 , who 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 , but 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 ) .