The Eagles First Home Game in South America Reflects the Future of Philadelphia.
One hundred years ago in July of 1924 — Frankford Yellow Jackets Head Coach Punk Berryman began preparing his team for the season ahead. Unlike the nearly twenty-five years before, Berryman wasn’t preparing a Yellow Jackets team for another club season. This Yellow Jackets team had been granted an NFL Franchise.
The incredible route that Frankford took to arrive as one of the then 18 NFL franchises was amazing. Born out of the Frankford Athletic Association in 1899, the Yellow Jackets attained a reputation as one of the best club teams in the nation. With Philadelphia already gaining a growing obsession with football by the 1920s with the University of Penn gathering fans at Franklin Field — Frankford absorbed many of the players from The Union Quakers who were the Philadelphia Championship Team in 1921. In 1922, the Frankford Yellow Jackets would win the same Philadelphia City Championship.
If you didn’t know Frankford Football before, you soon would. NFL franchises who played the club team from Frankford were little match for the Yellow Jackets on the gridiron. The 1924 Team finished in third place with a 11–2–1 record and including play outside the NFL for a total record of 17–3–1. Two years later in the magical season of 1926, they would go 14–0–2 — a total number of regular season wins that wouldn’t be reached again until the 1984 San Francisco 49ers.
A century later the Philadelphia Eagles — one of America’s most popular franchises prepare to open the 2024 season as the home team in a matchup at Corenthians Stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil against the Green Bay Packers. The Eagles and Packers rivalry runs deep, including a 17–13 NFL Championship win at Franklin Field when “Concrete” Chuck Bednarik tackled Packers running back Jim Taylor at the 3-yard line in 1960. And in overtime of the 2004 NFC Divisional Playoff Game when Eagles legend Brian Dawkins intercepted Brett Favre to help to send the Eagles to the NFC Championship Game.
Already with a growing international fanbase, the Eagles are joining other NFL teams as participation in the NFL Global Expansion Program. During their previous Super Bowl appearance in 2023, the Eagles also hosted a watch party in Accra, Ghana for around 350 people.
The historic Philadelphia Eagles are now the official home team of Sao Paulo, Brazil. It’s appropriate, since Philadelphia has seen a population growth of nearly 27% in the last decade of residents of Latin American descent in our city. In just two years, Philadelphia’s latino population has doubled — going from 130,000 to 252,400 between 2000 and 2022.
After record-setting success in the roaring 20s, it was the American Great Depression that ended the Yellow Jackets. Both Philadelphia organizations and the local media alike tried to save the team. Frankford Stadium was first impacted by fire in 1929. The team played its home games at Municipal Stadium and the Baker Bowl. In 1931, another fire damaged Frankford Stadium permanently. It would be demolished in July of that year.
On a late October day in 1931 — the Yellow Jackets walked onto Wrigley field in Chicago for what would be their last game. The 1–6–1 Yellow Jackets had played the entire 1931 season on the road. That day, the Yellow Jackets defeated the Chicago Bears. After a Bears rushing touchdown from Bronko Nagurski, the Yellow Jackets held on just enough to celebrate a final win for the floundering franchise. It would be the only win in Chicago for a Philadelphia football team for the next 68 years.
Ninety-two years later — with the international fame of the Eagles on the rise and Lincoln Financial Field in a frenzy as the Eagles were throttling the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game — Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts scampered into the end zone for the team’s 39th rushing touchdown of the year. With the entire city locked in jubilant celebration from South Philadelphia to the former site of Frankford Stadium at the corner of Frankford Avenue and Devereaux Ave. hardly anyone noticed the rushing record that was just broken.
It was previously held by the 1924 Frankford Yellow Jackets.
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