The Arizona Cardinals play in the Western Division of the National Football Conference (NFC). The Cardinals, founded in 1898 (when they were based in Chicago and known as the Morgan Athletic Club) hold the distinction of being the oldest continuously run professional football franchise in the United States of America.
In those early days the Morgan Athletic Club was acquired by the painting & decorating contractor Chris O′Brien and in due course their home became the Normal Field located off Chicago′s South Racine Avenue, which prompted a change of name and they became the Racine Normals.
During 1901, a fresh name change occured after owner O′Brien bought some secondhand football jerseys from the nearby University of Chicago to kit out the Cardinals. The color of these jerseys had been maroon when they were new but they had become faded. Chris O′Brien claimed their color to be "Cardinal Red" and with it the nickname of the team was born and they were now the Racine Cardinals.
By 1906 the Racine Cardinals had been dissolved due to lack of competition. The game was entirely amateur in the Chicago area at this time and finding other teams to play against had proved difficult.
However, in 1913 Chris O′Brien revived the Cardinals as a team and by 1917 they had become Champions of the Chicago Football League.
In 1918, World War I as well as an epidemic of Spanish Flu brought a suspension once again to the Cardinals activities but they were able to resume business later that same year and have been active ever since.
On September 17 1920 the Cardinals, along with the other Charter Members were charged a franchise fee of $100 (reportedly no team ever paid this) to join the American Professional Football Association (the forerunner of the NFL). Other teams were the Akron Pros, Decatur Staleys, Rock Island Independents, Dayton Triangles, Racine Cardinals, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Tigers, Muncie Flyers, Rochester Jeffersons and the Hammond Pros.
1922 not only brought a name change for the American Professional Football Association which became the National Football League (NFL) but also another for the Cardinals. They now were no longer known as the Racine Cardinals but called themselves the Chicago Cardinals so as to avoid any identity clashes with a new team which had joined the NFL, the Racine Legion (1922-24) from Wisconsin. This same year also saw the Cardinals move to a new home at Comiskey Park which they shared with the Chicago White Sox 1922-1925 and 1929-1959.
In 1925 the Cardinals won their first championship when they were officially recorded as the winners of the NFL Championship. Post season play didn′t start until 1933 and the Chicago Cardinals won the Championship due to having the league′s best record but only after the Pottsville Maroons from Pennsylvania, who were arguably the better team that year were controversially suspended from the league.
Chris O′Brien sold the team in 1929 to Dr. David Jones a medical practitioner from Chicago.
1932 saw the start of the Bidwill era when Dr. Jones sold the franchise to Charles W. Bidwill, Sr. - the Cardinals have been under the ownership of the Bidwill family since then.
The Cardinals went through difficult years in the 1930′s and early 40′s and in 1944, for one season, merged with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a result of a player shortage due to men entering military service in World War II. This merged team was known as Card-Pitt, they split their home games between Comiskey Park in Chicago and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and were winless throughout that season recording ten straight losses.
In the years following the Second World War the Cardinals fortunes were improved and in 1947 they won their second NFL Championship when they beat the Philadelphia Eagles 28 - 21 at Comiskey Park.
The Chicago Cardinals managed a second successive appearance in the NFL Championship Game in 1948 but this time the Philadelphia Eagles gained their revenge winning 7-0 at Shibe Park (Connie Mack Stadium), Philadelphia, PA.
However, throughout the 1950′s difficult times returned and as a consequence of poor results plus regularly coming off second best in the "popularity stakes" with local rivals the Chicago Bears the Cardinals sought a new base and in 1960 the Cardinals relocated to St Louis in Missouri and from 1960-1987 played there as the St. Louis Cardinals, although this in itself created a considerable amount of confusion as St Louis already had a highly successful baseball team called the St Louis Cardinals.
Throughout the 1960′s the St Louis Cardinals football team did manage a somewhat better record with a number of winning seasons but it wasn't until 1974 that the Cardinals brought their first division title back home to St Louis when they won the NFC East Division and advanced to the NFC Divisional Playoffs in which they lost 30-14 to the Minnesota Vikings.
1975 brought a repeat win in the NFC East Division and a return to the NFC Divisional Playoffs this time losing to Los Angeles Rams 35-23.
The "Football Cardinals" always came a distant second amongst the baseball mad St Louis sports fans and when Bill Bidwill was unable to get a new stadium in the City the Cardinals yet again hit the road. In 1988 the team moved to Phoenix in Arizona and whilst using the Arizona State University Sun Devil Stadium as their home field began playing under the name of the Phoenix Cardinals.
On March 17 1994, in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience throughout the State of Arizona the name of the team was changed from the Phoenix Cardinals to the Arizona Cardinals.
After playing at the Sun Devil Stadium for seventeen years (1988-2005) the Cardinals got their own stadium and for the start of the 2006 NFL Season moved into the brand new University of Phoenix Stadium located in Glendale, AZ.
The Cardinals, although having a very long and colorful history have not enjoyed much in the way of success over the years and only have just a handful of titles to their name.
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