Five facts you didn’t know about Cardinals
With a 4-6 record and ranked third in the NFC West, the Cardinals play in Mexico against a direct divisional rival, with the mission of keeping alive their hopes of reaching the playoffs for the second consecutive season after five years without a postseason.
While it’s easy to place names like Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins among the stellar players on the current roster, or recall the exploits of Larry Fitzgerald, Kurt Warner, and Arizona’s appearance in Super Bowl XLIII not too many years ago, here are some facts you probably didn’t know about the two-time defending NFL champion Cardinals.
The color defines the name
The history of this franchise dates back more than two decades before the founding of the NFL, to the 19th century, as the Morgan Athletic Club–founded in 1898–making it the oldest professional soccer team still in existence.
The club’s founding owner, Chris O’Brien, also served as a player, along with his brother Pat, and in 1902, a move to Normal Field prompted a name change to become the Racine Street Normals. Around this time, O’Brien bought a bunch of used University of Chicago jerseys for his Normals, hoping to use the same maroon color as one of the powerhouses of the time in college soccer.
However, the jerseys had lost their original color through wear, prompting O’Brien to declare, “That’s not maroon, that’s cardinal red!” referring to the jerseys’ color tone. As a result, O’Brien decided to change the name Racine Cardinals -the name they would later enter the NFL with- from the color tone of the jerseys used, and not from the bird that still represents them today.
Over time, they would adopt the names Chicago Cardinals, St. Louis Cardinals, Phoenix Cardinals, and now Arizona Cardinals. The first appearance of the bird on the helmet occurred in the 1960 season, but red, in various shades throughout their history, has been their dominant color since their early days in the NFL.
One of two original franchises still in existence
In 1906, the Cardinals had to suspend operations due to lack of competition, but resumed play beginning in 1913, having to suspend again in 1918 due to World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic. They reformed again beginning in 1919, and have not suspended operations since.
On August 21, 1920, four Ohio teams met at the office of Ralph Hay’s Hupmobile automobile agency in Canton, Ohio, with the idea of organizing a serious professional league—American Professional Football Conference, later the American Professional Football Association and eventually the National Football League–that could address the three main concerns of the owners of the various clubs: limiting the skyrocketing salaries of players, preventing players from jumping from one team to another without regulation, and prohibiting the hiring of players with college eligibility on professional teams. The clubs present were the Canton Bulldogs–owned by Hay himself–, Akron Professionals, and Cleveland Indians, which were already well-known clubs, along with the newly formed Dayton Triangles. At this same meeting, an initiative was announced to expand operations to form a nationwide league to take advantage of the growing interest in the professional game in other cities.
A second meeting was held the following September 17 at the same Hupmobile agency, which had to be held in the showroom because they couldn’t all fit in Hay’s office. This time, there were 15 men representing 10 teams, including O’Brien representing his Racine Cardinals.
Another at the meeting was George Halas, a friend of O’Brien’s and one of two men representing the Decatur Staleys–the team we now know as the Chicago Bears–which he founded after seeing the Cardinals’ popularity in Chicago.
In addition to the Cardinals, Staleys, Bulldogs, Professionals, and Triangles, and Cleveland Tigers–formerly Indians–representatives from the Rochester Jeffersons, Muncie Flyers, Hammond Pros, and Rock Island Independents were present.
In one of the many curious anecdotes derived from that meeting, the Cardinals were listed as a Wisconsin team, not an Illinois team, in the minutes. Apparently, the confusion stemmed from Racine, which the minute taker thought referred to the town of Racine in Wisonsin–which would later have an NFL team, Legion–rather than Racine Street in Chicago, where the Cardinals played.
From then on, as they say, it was all history.
First game under the spotlight
The first night game in NFL history occurred on November 6, 1929, when the Chicago Cardinals took on the Providence Steam Roller at Rhode Island’s defunct Kinsley Park.
Among the curiosities of the game was that it wasn’t even played in Providence’s regular stadium, which actually played at the Cyclodrome, a cycling venue. However, rains had rendered that facility unusable, so Kinsley Park, with its newly installed floodlights, was hastily procured.
In one of the local advertisements of the time, the game is advertised as a “Light Game”, and in the photo appears as the main attraction, among the players, Ernie Nevers, star of the Cardinals.
For the game, a ball painted white was used, which the press at the time described as resembling “an egg”.
The Cardinals won 16-0, in front of some 6,000 fans, which was a success for the time. The following year, floodlights were installed at the Cyclodrome.
Ernie Nevers’ unforgettable day
The same ’29 season marked another historic day for the Cardinals, just 22 days after the game under the floodlights. On November 21, against the archrival Bears at legendary Comiskey Park, Nevers set the oldest record still standing in NFL history.
Thanks to his six touchdowns and four points scored, Nevers set the mark for most points scored by a player in an NFL game, with 40. It was all points for the Cardinals that day, who went on to win 40-6.
Who has come closest to surpassing that mark? Well, Alvin Kamara scored six ground touchdowns for the New Orleans Saints in a 2020 Christmas game, though he lacked the extra points–or perhaps a seventh touchdown–to surpass the mark of Nevers, one of the original Hall of Fame members.
Joe Namath, and what could have been
The common AFL-NFL draft didn’t come until the 1967 season, following an agreement in 1966 to merge the rival leagues. Before that, there was a fierce competition to sign the best talent coming out of the college ranks, and of course Alabama’s star quarterback was not going to be the exception.
It is well known that in 1964, Joe Willie Namath led Alabama to a national title, and that he was the first overall pick in the 1965 AFL Draft, which took place on November 28, 1964 via conference call.
What few know is that, on the same day, the 1965 NFL Draft was held at the Summit Hotel in New York. Although that NFL Draft is best remembered because the Bears took two Hall of Famers in the No. 3 and No. 4 picks of the first round–Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers–it was also the draft in which the St. Louis Cardinals selected Namath with the 12th pick of the first round, second quarterback selected, after Craig Morton of the Dallas Cowboys.
When Namath met with the Cardinals, he demanded a $200,000 salary and a Lincoln Continental to sign with them. St. Louis agreed, under the condition, that he sign immediately, which would have left him ineligible to play in the Orange Bowl, and with it the possibility of completing Alabama’s perfect season.
New York agreed to pay him $427,000 in salary, more than double and a record at the time for professional soccer, and Namath became an icon for the Big Apple.
