I went to the Steelers and Eagles web sites to check it out. My source is an NFL book, The First Fifty Years, which includes a complete history of all franchises up until 1969. In that book, it states that the Pirates and Eagles started in 1933, and in 1940 the Pirates moved to Philadelphia and the Eagles moved to Pittsburgh, becoming the Steelers. The official Steelers media guide completely scrubs this, leading one to believe that Rooney started the Pirates and they became the Steelers. On the Eagles web site, a different story is given. This is the Eagles site history:
1940At the least, the claim on Wikipedia that ownership of the Steelers has ALWAYS been with the Rooney family is incorrect, as the Eagles (official NFL site) clearly states that Rooney sold the Steelers. The Steelers, of course, simply ignore this, as part of their claim to fame is that the Steelers have always been in the Rooney family. The Eagles site is unclear on whether the franchises moved cities or whether just the owners did, but as I said, an Official NFL history from the NFL sitting next to me right now says the franchises moved cities, not just the owners.
[EAGLES]Home playing site switches from Municipal Stadium to Shibe Park (later known as Connie Mack Stadium). Pittsburgh owner Art Rooney buys half interest in the Eagles after selling the Steelers franchise to Alexis Thompson of New York, a 30-year old heir to a six million fortune in steel stocks.
1941
Bell and Rooney swap franchises with Thompson, Rooney returning to Pittsburgh and Thompson taking over the Eagles. Bert Bell joins Rooney as a full-time partner in Pittsburgh. Thompson hires Earl (Greasy) Neale as head coach of the Eagles.
1943
Eagles merge with Pittsburgh Steelers to form the "Steagles" due to manpower shortage during World War II. Merger dissolved at end of season.
Sorry, my husband agrees with you, although he still thinks it’s confusing.
However, from your snippet, it still looks like the Pirates/Steelers never left Pitt, nor Eagles Philly. After all, he sold Steelers (newly named, which further makes me wonder if this was really to cover the “Eagle” name or truly as shown in the HOF, simply a name change that year) in ‘40, then for ‘41 swapped. No hiccup in ownership, in a way, for the playing season (if it was off-season).
So, it looks like 1 could say those teams never moved, and there was just a brief period of ownership change.
OTOH, the official histories also say the Browns never moved and Baltimore is an expansion team.
http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com/2008/7/16/572956/speaking-of-ownership-when
OK, so they actually DID “move”!!!!
I guess if 1 had access to rosters of players from 40-41, 1 would deduce that something funny had happened.
OK, so much for the continuous line - of players and city, that is. Ownership basically stayed same on the surface, and was only a blip in reality.
Boy, they sure are full of themselves, aren’t they? (At least this site admits it.)
I had a cube-mate at work - he would be around 60 - who was born in Pitt and raised there. Moved here mid-’60s for work. He never liked the Steelers; said no-one did. They were garbage and people didn’t like losers. So much for the “great fans” through thick-&-thin. They like to give the impression they’re the greatest fans ever as well as team. 40 years of obscurity without anything but a few fans (who WERE rabid despite the losers - my mother can attest that) doesn’t bode well for “fan superiority”.